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INVESTING IN FACULTY GROWTH & RECOGNITION
Investing in our Faculty Teachers thrive when they feel valued. Like students, teachers crave the opportunity to explore and grow. By providing faculty with resources, opportunities, and encouragement to develop, they will be empowered to bring their best to each moment of teaching on the Hilltop.
RECOGNIZING AND RETAINING TOP FACULTY: THE FACULTY DEVELOPMENT FUND The Faculty Development Fund at St. Luke’s was established as part of the Momentum Campaign to support our efforts to retain and develop excellent teaching faculty at St. Luke’s. Driving the creation of this new, $1million endowed fund was this fundamental question: How do we invest in and develop our teachers to enhance their craft in a way that most benefits students, while simultaneously equipping them to have fulfilling careers as educators? And, more specifically, how do we help ensure that they do so here on the Hilltop? These sorts of questions around talent recruitment and retention are on the minds of heads of school all across the country. To help meet this need, Liz Perry and Amber Berry, Heads of the Upper and Middle Schools, respectively, have led the Growth and Renewal team to conceive of ways we can meaningfully invest in ongoing excellent teaching and learning through the Faculty Development Fund. This endowment, once fully funded, will generate roughly $30,000 each year. This revenue will be used to help create opportunities for faculty to take part in professional development experiences tailored to their individual interests that also benefit the larger school. More specifically, this fund is geared toward supporting high-level, longer-term projects that are more ambitious in scope for well-established faculty members looking for new professional challenges. This will benefit students and help to retain excellent talent.
Sample Scenarios: I:
Teacher takes a course reduction to spend time formally as a mentor to teachers across both divisions. Provides additional, content-area specific feedback to peer teachers and performs a comprehensive curriculum review.
II:
Teacher is exempted from after school activity administrative duties in order to revise the 7th grade scope and sequence while taking part in a research project on differentiated teaching.
III: Teacher with commitment to Project-Based Learning is given reduced teaching duties to be able to devote a year to visiting schools around the country where PBL is the teaching and learning model. Teacher creates professional development workshops for SLS.
Thanks to a generous seed grant from the Forese family (Jamie, Jennifer, Jack ’11, Tommy ’12, Bobby ’14, and Mark ’17) we have the privilege of selecting our first recipient before the endowment is fully funded. Stay tuned for more information on the first grantee, to come later this school year.