Our Strategic Goals

Students

Goal 1: Provide a nationally recognized, evidence-based academic program that allows students to discover their passions while building the necessary skills to maximize their potential and live a life full of opportunity.

• Grow partnerships with the expanding Buffalo community in order to connect students with experiential learning opportunities.

• Create opportunities for collaboration among all academic departments and all grade levels 5-12.

• Maximize student opportunities after Nichols. Deepen our already robust and responsive college counseling process.

• Create opportunities for greater involvement among students, families, alumni, and the wider community.

Goal 2: Provide a program that supports the diverse community of students we serve. Ensure that all students feel a sense of true belonging in our school regardless of learning differences, socioeconomic status, race, and gender.

• Create a comprehensive wellness program.

• Ensure equity of outcomes for historically under-represented identities.

Goal 3: Provide a program where students have the opportunity to participate in multiple high-quality extracurricular activities and programs, including arts, service, and athletics.

• Create deeper community service experiences for all students.

• Encourage faculty to serve as teachercoaches in order to promote a cohesive program across academics and athletics.

Teaching

Goal 4: Attract, develop, and retain skilled and passionate faculty, staff, and coaches who reflect the diversity of the student body and the greater Buffalo Community.

• Build faculty capacity in pedagogy, social-emotional learning, and extracurriculars.

• Create a consistent philosophy of compensation that reflects our institutional values and facilitates the national hiring of best-in-class faculty, staff, and coaches.

Facilities

Goal 5: Provide superior facilities to support the needs of Nichols students, faculty, and staff – today and tomorrow.

• Renovate campus buildings (specifically Albright, Mitchell, and the Flickenger Performing Arts Center) so that they are state-of-the-art academic environments while meeting or exceeding standards for safety, accessibility, and security.

• Create a state-of-the-art wellness and athletic center to support student mental and physical well-being.

• Embark upon a comprehensive plan for environmental sustainability.

Finance and Advancement

Goal 6: Capitalize on our current financial stability to secure the future sustainability of Nichols School.

• Create a 5-year strategic financial plan.

Goal 7: Create community-wide engagement in building the financial support necessary to realize the current strategic plan.

• Develop, communicate, and implement a long-term advancement plan that emphasizes overall financial viability, fundraising, expansion of non-tuition revenue, endowment growth, and cost management.

Christopher Burner Head of School ___

Mission

Our aim is to train minds, bodies, and hearts for the work of life and carry into all we do the highest ideals of character and service.

Nichols commits to being a courageous community, grounded in equity of process and outcomes, where we can all safely and authentically be ourselves and therefore accept the challenges of our collective growth.

Vision

Nichols School is a diverse, independent school community, nationally recognized for developing motivated, adaptive, and empathetic scholars who are prepared to thrive as contributing members of our increasingly global world.