Strategic Plan Update

In the fall of 2022, the Stephen Gaynor School Board of Trustees approved the strategic plan for 2022-2027. The plan was the culmination of a year’s work by over 40 members of the Gaynor community, including faculty, staff, parents, trustees, grandparents, former parents, and alumni. Even in the short time since the plan was released, there has been significant progress toward addressing several of the goals laid out in the report.

The overall plan focuses on two overarching themes for future strategic initiatives: strengthening core competencies and broadening the school’s reach.

Strengthening Core Competencies

At Gaynor, the child is at the center of all curriculum development and professional learning. The school is also dedicated to creating and maintaining a community of belonging in which everyone’s identity is valued, respected and heard. Over the summer, in preparation for the 2023-2024 year, faculty and administrative leaders are targeting several of the goals in the strategic plan:

• One goal of the plan is to ensure that as students move through their tenure at Gaynor, they are provided with the information skills and executive functioning skills necessary for their future success in school and in life. This summer, the Blue Cluster information skills and executive skills project will develop a scope and sequence, along with lesson plans and practice activities to be implemented beginning in the fall. Starting with the Blue Cluster, this project will serve as a model for future projects in the Intermediate, Lower, and Early Childhood Divisions to develop the scope and implementation plan of information and executive functions skill development.

• Over the summer, Silver and Green Cluster faculty and administrators will work on social studies and history projects to analyze overarching areas of need in the Intermediate Division and expand the global studies to include non-European societies and regions. This project serves the goal of addressing the need to include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals across the curriculum. Furthering the goal of diversifying the curriculum, project leaders will collaborate with the new DEI Director on summer curriculum projects. In addition, DEI workshops to support a DEI lens in curriculum development are scheduled for the Summer Institute in August.

• Over the course of five years, the plan includes the goal for all students to gain a foundation in social emotional tools and strategies that promote a healthy self-concept, problem solving skills, and a collaborative learning community. The Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Project will build upon our existing SEL curriculum with a combination of teaching RULER tools and working on social skills, friendship, and developmental target skills.

Broadening Our Reach

As a recognized and respected leader in special education, Stephen Gaynor School will undertake several initiatives designed to broaden the school’s reach to prospective families, faculty and staff, and the wider community as part of the strategic plan. The first step was to hire two key leaders to bring these ideas to fruition. Starting in July 2023, Gaynor will welcome a new Director of Outreach and Innovation and a Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. You can read more about both staff members in the following pages.

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