STRATEGIC PLAN Strategic Plan
OUR MISSION A Catholic independent school, St. Sebastian’s seeks to engage young men in the pursuit of truth through faith and reason. By embracing Gospel values in an inclusive, nurturing community and by inspiring intellectual excellence in a structured liberal arts curriculum, St. Sebastian’s strives to empower students for success in college and in life. The ideal St. Sebastian’s graduate will be a moral and just person, a gentleman of courage, honor, and wisdom, a life-long learner who continues to grow in his capacity to know, to love, and to serve God and neighbor.
Dear Friends, We are thrilled to share this mission-driven, living document, which has been born of earnest prayer, probing inquiry, thoughtful debate, broadbased discussions, and very hard work. Having achieved consensus on our School’s objectives and priorities, our outstanding Board of Trustees is now fully engaged in the process of overseeing implementation. Please know that we invite and encourage your ongoing input every step of the way. Clearly, new and renovated facilities will enable us to call our young men to ever-rising peaks of excellence in mind, body, and spirit, and a greater endowment to control tuition, increase financial aid, and boost compensation will enable us to attract, retain, and take very good care of our students, parents, faculty, and staff. We firmly believe that by achieving the lofty goals of our Strategic Plan, we will advance our most important mission in more powerfully positive ways than can be imagined. As has always been true, to succeed, we will need the full support of our St. Sebastian’s family. Please know that we appreciate your devotion and commitment so much more than we can say. We thank you for all that you do to strengthen your beloved School. May God continue to bless you all every sacred step of the way. Sincerely,
James L. Elcock ’77, P’08 President, Board of Trustees
William L. Burke III, P’95,’97,’00,’04 Headmaster
PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE St. Sebastian’s School, since our founding in 1941 as a Catholic independent school, has educated young men through a commitment to the pursuit of truth through faith and reason. Our School enjoys tremendous success, generating a large pool of talented applicants, attracting and retaining highly skilled faculty and staff members, upgrading our plant and facilities, consistently placing graduates in top colleges and universities, and strengthening our standing as a spiritually deep and academically rigorous school of excellence. Our School’s greatest competitive strengths are: l A unique position as the only Catholic school in the Independent School League (ISL) l A culture of academic rigor l Distinctive, truly excellent writing and public speaking programs l A commitment to personal attention in a loving, supportive community of Faith and Honor l Exceptional leadership
We compete for the area’s best students and most talented, devoted teachers. The challenge in this fiercely competitive landscape is to continue to live our mission and provide an excellent academic program, while balancing the need to grow the endowment and improve our facilities. To continue to meet and surpass our high academic standards while maintaining and strengthening a Catholic independent school for boys in grades 7 through 12, we must address all challenges with commitment, discipline and determination. Continuing to enroll and educate talented and promising young men who can contribute to and benefit from our mission, and to attract and support the best teachers will demand a tremendous dedication of resources. We will continue to prioritize our needs and capitalize on the energy of our community.
“If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.” —St. Catherine of Siena
STRATEGIC GOALS SPIRITUAL LIFE & CATHOLIC IDENTITY
Engage young men in the pursuit of truth through faith and reason. The integration of faith and reason will define a student’s experience at the School and inspire his desire to become the ideal St. Sebastian’s graduate: “a gentleman of courage, honor and wisdom, a lifelong learner who continues to grow in his capacity to know, to love, and to serve God and neighbor.”
ADMISSIONS
Attract, admit and graduate young men open and committed to loving God, working hard and taking good care of one another.
ACADEMICS
Provide an excellent academic experience. Our intentional small class size allows for tremendous individual attention and dynamic student engagement.
FACULTY & STAFF
Attract, retain, and support exceptional faculty and staff committed to the School’s mission.
ARTS
Provide a wide range of arts opportunities with an emphasis on promoting creativity, performance excellence, and devotion.
ATHLETICS
Provide a wide range of athletic opportunities with an emphasis on promoting, dedication, fitness, teamwork, and sportsmanship.
FINANCE
Maintain financial equilibrium while advancing the School’s mission in perpetuity.
“Both the light of reason and the light of faith come from God. Therefore, there can be no contradiction between them.” —St. Thomas Aquinas
SPIRITUAL LIFE & CATHOLIC IDENTITY A St Sebastian’s student will be inspired to embrace the richness of our Catholic heritage and to participate in building and nourishing our inclusive, spiritually deep community of academic, athletic, and artistic excellence, and of devoted service to others. Neither apologetic nor arrogant about our faith, we are wonderfully enriched by students and faculty from other faith traditions and from no faith tradition. Every young man will be welcomed, honored, and inspired to graduate a moral and just person, a gentleman of courage, honor, and wisdom, a life-long learner who continues to grow in his capacity to know, to love, and to serve God and neighbor. u
Integrate and strengthen Catholic faith and thought both inside and outside of the classroom. Challenge students with the task of translating their faith into action every day, and model and demand lives that affirm the truth that “to whom much is given, much is expected.”
u As the only Catholic School in the ISL, St Sebastian’s is uniquely positioned to integrate faith and moral development with a high quality intellectually demanding academic experience. Therefore, we will strive to: Review and deepen the religious studies curriculum. Promote the Sacramental Life and Chapel experience. l Expand ministry opportunities to include more students as altar servers, lectors, and Eucharistic ministers. l Construct an outdoor worship area. l Increase the retreat program. l Expand social service opportunities. l Provide family communion suppers. l Advance our “cheer for, not against” ethos at sporting events.
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u Continue to publish and live the order of the day: “Love God, work hard, and take good care of one another.”
“We seek to inspire the integrated, happy, healthy, holy life that God wants us to live.” —Headmaster Bill Burke
ADMISSIONS We draw families through our spiritual depth, our feeling of community, our academic rigor, the quality of our faculty, our excellent college placement results and our School’s leadership. Our School benefits from the enthusiasm and commitment of every participant in the admissions process. u Continue to expand efforts to identify and attract a student body of diverse ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic backgrounds Students who will benefit from and contribute to our mission. Students who will take good care of themselves and others. l Students willing to collaborate in the classroom, in the Chapel, on the fields, and on the stage.
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u Broaden and deepen the applicant pool Strengthen relationships with sending schools. Continue to leverage our online admissions and financial aid processes, updates to our website, and other technological advances that enable our Admissions team to attract and serve prospective families in the best possible fashion. l Enlist the larger St. Sebastian’s community to promote the School.
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“Every young man wants to be as wise, as just, as balanced, and as brave as he can be, and he wants to fall ever more deeply in love with Coaches and athletes work in harmony to advance our most important mission learning. Bill Burke in all that they � do.—Headmaster (Headmaster Burke)
ACADEMICS Achieving academic excellence through Catholic faith and thought is the fundamental objective of the School’s experience, which strongly motivates young men and their families to enroll, and which prepares our students for balanced, fulfilling, successful lives. The School provides a nurturing, caring and supportive environment in which boys are known and loved and called to greatness in body, mind, and spirit by their mentors and by their peers and where joy abounds. u Faith and Reason l Faith informs reason and reason informs faith. Christian ethics, moral courage, and intellectual excellence conspire in every academic discipline.
u Depth and Mastery Commit to small class sizes – currently averaging 11 young men. Advance our traditional, focused, classical academic program. l Advance our distinctive, truly excellent writing program. l Advance our skill developing, community building speaking program. l Advance knowledge of the natural world in our cutting edge science facilities. l Advance analytical and reasoning skills in science and math. l Commit to extra-help in Math Lab and in all disciplines. l Continue to recruit and hire life-long learners to teach our students and to model and demand the pursuit of ethical, moral, and intellectual excellence.
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u Technology
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Increase technology training for teachers and students. Stay up to date with the best technology available.
u Quality Measures Use surveys of students, faculty, parents and alumni to elicit feedback. College Placement l We promise that each young man will be known and loved and called to greatness by great people. Ensure that parents continue to report that we over deliver on this pledge and that their sons have never worked harder, that they have never done better, and that they have never been happier in a school.
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“I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me, and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.” —Abraham Lincoln
FACULTY & STAFF Any great community is a community of spirit and people. In order to advance our mission, we need to support fully the dedicated teachers and staff who serve and inspire our students. u Competitive Compensation
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Maintain a compensation plan that is highly competitive in the ISL. Continue our tuition remission program. Endow faculty chair positions.
u Professional Development l Support our faculty and staff in the pursuit of advanced degrees and participation in continuing education. l Support and endow our faculty and staff in summer sabbaticals.
u Excellence in Teaching
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Encourage faculty to participate in peer review programs. Refine metrics to assess quality of teaching. Expand in-house departmental training. Examine best practices of internal review and peer review.
“Coaches and athletes work in harmony to advance our most important mission in all that they do.” —Headmaster Bill Burke
ATHLETICS In advancing the goal of educating young men in body, mind and spirit, athletics play a vital role. We are committed to providing an opportunity for every student to be a member of an athletic team. The ultimate goal is for students to become “Athletes for Life.� u Upgrade the existing athletic facilities with: A second full-size basketball court. A wrestling room. l Squash courts. l Athletic department offices, storage spaces, visiting team rooms, and training facilities.
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u Emphasize the development of student-athletes Maintain and strengthen our commitment to the teacher/coach model. Develop program/system philosophy by sport to be coached from 7th grade teams through varsity. l Create formal dialogue among coaches to ensure the development of each student athlete. l Guide student athletes and parents through college recruitment.
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u Engage boys who choose not to participate in interscholastic athletics Advance strength, conditioning and off-season programs. Ensure that boys who have specialized in a sport and play for teams outside of the community remain engaged with the School. l Strengthen communication with coaches of programs outside the School for the purposes of development and injury prevention
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u Support our commitment to the ISL u Support the development of all coaches
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Expand faculty evaluations to include coaching duties Formalize mentoring of coaches by coaches
“All great art is man’s delight in God’s work, not his own.” —John Ruskin
ARTS By attending and performing in plays and concerts and by producing and studying art, our students grow in knowledge of the creative process and in appreciation of the beauty, truth, and goodness of God’s wonders. Our goal is to inspire great passion for and life-long commitment to the arts as supporters if not practitioners. u Build a dedicated performing arts center. l Ideally, the facility will accommodate the entire School community for plays, concerts, lectures, and meetings.
u Continue to seek and find ways to engage every student in the arts.
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Utilize more fully the later afternoon hours for classes in the arts.
u Convert a classroom in the art center into an arts/technology room for music, photography, and other media. u Honor and deepen relationships with sister schools. u Advance art service projects on and off campus.
“God loves a cheerful giver.” —2 Corinthians 9:7
FINANCE Maintain financial stability while strengthening the School’s Mission. The School will raise and invest capital in a conservative and disciplined fashion in order to achieve and maintain financial equilibrium. u Exercise financial discipline by: Maintain a five year rolling financial plan. Manage operating surpluses to build a plant reserve. l Spending from endowment will not exceed the limit necessary to preserve endowment purchasing power over the long term.
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u Keep tuition as low as is reasonable, and fund financial aid to enable and promote socio-economic diversity. u Raise capital through a unified and focused approach for both facility and endowment needs. Engage the entire School community. Communicate a clear and consistent message. l Offer clear and identifiable giving opportunities. l Support and enable endowed: u Financial aid u Faculty chairs u Professional development
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u Sustain the Annual Fund with reasonable annual increases.
KEEPING THE FAITH The initiatives set forth in this Strategic Plan are as important to the future of St. Sebastian’s as they are ambitious and costly. No one will doubt the commitment, dedication, and hard work that will be demanded for us to raise the significant capital to execute our strategy. Our patron St. Sebastian was never faint of heart, dedicating not just sweat and toil but his very life to the great work he undertook. Like St. Sebastian, we will succeed only through determination, faith, hope and love. If we rise to the task – and we believe we will – we will have made a giant leap forward in advancing our mission of inspiring each young St. Sebastian’s man to become all that God wants him to be in body, mind, and soul. This Strategic Plan was endorsed by the School’s Board of Trustees on March 2016. The Strategic Plan will be reviewed on a regular basis by the Board of Trustees, with specific oversight responsibilities falling to the Long Range Planning Committee.
2015-2016 Long Range Planning Committee Patrick J. Hegarty ’89, Chair Robert J. Mulroy ’82, Vice-Chair John P. DiGiovanni ’84 P’14 Dana G. Doe P’17 John W. Hueber ’71 Mark L. O’Friel ’79 Robert M. Wadsworth P’10 ’15 Andrew Wasynczuk P’14 ’17 John D. Birmingham ’84 P’14 ’17
2015-2016 Board of Trustees Seán Cardinal O’Malley, OFM. Cap. Chairman James L. Elcock ’77, P’08 President William L. Burke III P’95,’97,’00,’04 Executive Officer, Headmaster Douglas A. Kingsley, P’10,’10,’12,’13 Secretary Robert M. Wadsworth, P’10,’15 Treasurer David M. Calabro ’78, P’16 Devin C. Condron ’92 William T. Connolly, Jr. P’10,’12,’17 John DeMatteo II P’11,’13,’16,’18,’22 John P. DiGiovanni ’84, P’14 Dana G. Doe P’17 Rev. Michael E. Drea Kevin F. Driscoll ’72 P’05,’09 Patrick J. Hegarty ’89 Jane M. Hoch P’07 John W. Hueber ’71 Ross M. Jones P’16,’17 Susanne C. Joyce P’20 Wesley D. Mateo ’03
John E. McNamara ’81 P’14,’18 James F. Mooney III P’18 Robert J. Mulroy ’82 Mark L. O’Friel ’79 William A. O’Malley P’09,’10,’13 Kristin E. Reed P’15,’17 John A. Sebastian P’18 Kurt R. Steinkrauss ’91, P’19 Mary L. Supple P’09,’10,’15 Stephen P. Ward ’96 Andrew Wasynczuk P’14,’17 Celeste E. Wolfe P’09,’12 Alyson M. Karpowicz P’16 President, Guild of St. Irene Michael P. Muldowney P’12,’16,’22 President, Men’s Association Timothy P. Doherty ’87 P’17 President, Alumni Association James A. Cotter, Jr. ’57 David F. Gately ’73 J. Brad Griffith ’58 Trustee Emeriti