WATERFORD RISING Honoring Our Past, Inspiring Our Future
DEAR WATERFORD COMMUNITY, Since its founding in 1981 by Nancy and Dusty Heuston, Waterford School has boldly pursued the idealism of an educational experience that prepares students to lead lives of meaning and purpose. In a world more interdependent and interconnected than at any time in human history, our new strategic plan – Waterford Rising: Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future – affirms our commitment to the breadth of the liberal arts experience and its profound durability to stimulate intellect, ignite passion, shape character, and inspire a life-long love of learning. As you review the strategic plan, you will learn about our aspirations to improve key elements of the student experience both in and out of the classroom, to more comprehensively support our extraordinary teaching faculty, and to attend to stewardship and our fiscal health, ensuring the ongoing vitality of the school we love. A Waterford education trains students to adapt and thrive in a world of rapid and accelerating change. With our continued work, it is our goal that each of our graduates leaves with the deep awareness to share their learning, engage their communities with curiosity, and ultimately embrace their responsibilities as citizens in a global society. We are delighted to share our ambitions with you, and invite you to join us on a journey that will advance Waterford School in the years to come. Yours in partnership, Andrew Menke Head of School
DEAR FRIENDS OF WATERFORD, Over the past year the Waterford School community has engaged in a comprehensive strategic planning process. This effort leveraged our extraordinary existing health and puts us in position to craft the next exciting chapters here at Waterford. We began by surveying many members of our community asking for input on strengths, and opportunities for improvement. This collaborative and inclusive work continued with the oversight of a 21-member steering committee charged with developing goals and shaping initiatives from the collected survey data. Six work groups were then formed comprised of the steering committee members and 50 additional constituents which included faculty, students, board members, alumni, and parents. The work groups continued developing and refining the strategic goals and initiatives. This year-long process concluded with unanimous board approval in early June. This evolutionary strategic plan redoubles our commitment to the depth and breadth of the liberal arts experience focusing key resources to invigorate our students’ experience and support the most valuable asset in their development, our teaching faculty. The goals that follow embody our shared vision to inspire our students to pursue lives of meaning and purpose. Because of you, Waterford School continues to thrive as a dynamic learning community, boldly moving forward to increase its impact on each of our learners. We are deeply grateful for the contributions of so many in the Waterford family to this endeavor. Through this process, our collective legacy will inspire our students to become citizens who will shape the world for years to come. We humbly thank you for your profound belief in and support of this most important partnership. We look forward to the journey ahead! JB Taylor Board of Trustees
WH Y WE DO WHAT WE DO
VISION We inspire individuals to pursue lives of meaning and purpose.
W H AT W E D O
MISSION We provide students with a worldclass liberal arts education that stimulates intellect, ignites passion, and shapes character.
I D EA LS W E LI V E BY
CORE VALUES Integrity
We act with integrity in our work, in our choices, and in our relationships. We aspire to the liberal arts ideal of wholeness, where honest self-examination makes possible integrated self-understanding.
Excellence
We embrace elevated standards of knowledge, performance, and character. We strive for excellence in everything we do, starting with excellence of effort.
Curiosity
We prize curiosity. We cultivate and celebrate the desire to know, to do, to question, to re-examine, and to improve.
Responsibility
Our commitment to responsibility starts with our individual lives and actions and extends outward in service to communities, both local and global.
Caring
We learn best in a caring environment, where respect and inclusion make possible the deepest forms of intellectual, emotional, and character growth.
EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY Learning is Waterford School’s reason for being, its passion, its whole point. Our students learn how to learn, how to be self-reflective within the process of learning, how to develop a robust repertoire of learning strategies, and how to deploy those strategies flexibly across a broad range of subject matter, including the arts, the humanities, the sciences, and a variety of physical activities. In the process, students gain a self-competence that will sustain a lifetime of learning.
Learning at Waterford is enhanced by the recognition of responsibility. Our
students value strong expectations that emphasize work, self-discipline, and dependability. As they practice personal accountability within the school context, they realize that learning is inherently communal and connected: that they and their teachers are in it together. Though we as individuals can become accomplished as our own teachers, learning necessarily occurs in the context of other persons, their ideas and voices, historical and contemporary. Learning is therefore invariably indebted.
Learning at Waterford is inescapably moral, in the broadest sense of that
term. Our students come to recognize that all learning bears on living and ultimately on how best to live. They embrace the natural imperative to learn, but they also recognize a deep responsibility to share their learning with others in hope that they will be lifted thereby, their lives made richer and more fulfilled. There is no end to learning nor is it itself an end. Rather, learning is the means by which we all aspire to the nobility of the well-lived life.
LIBERAL ARTS AT WATERFORD SCHOOL A liberal arts education teaches students to adapt and thrive in a world of rapid change. It cultivates robust general intelligence by resisting premature specialization, requiring instead sustained study in classical academic disciplines along with focused work in the arts and physical education. Teachers in the liberal arts challenge students with discussion, writing, and problem solving activities to internalize their learning. Students master the essential skills of lifelong learning: they know how to acquire information, how to assess information, and how to act on their plans and insights. Ultimately, the experience of a liberal arts education compels students to embrace their responsibilities as citizens in a complex world.
Acquisition Exploration Inquiry Literacy Numeracy
Assessment
Critical Thinking Synthesis of Ideas Deductive and Inductive Reasoning Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
Action
Written and Oral Communication Problem Solving Adaptability Organization and Time Management Collaboration Ethical Decision Making Civic Engagement
GOALS & STRATEGIC PRIORITIES
•
PROMOTE TEACHING EXCELLENCE IN THE LIBERAL ARTS TO ENHANCE THE EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE FOR ALL STUDENTS • Establish Waterford as a preeminent national leader in the theory and practice of liberal arts teaching. • Define a shared understanding of the liberal arts that informs a vertically aligned curriculum and consistent teaching methodology. • Develop and implement a comprehensive system of teacher evaluation, professional development and competitive compensation. • Explore opportunities for growth and continuous renewal of the teaching faculty.
ENHANCE THE OVERALL STUDENT EXPERIENCE AND IMPROVE THE SCHOOL/FAMILY PARTNERSHIP • Pursue the liberal arts ideal of balance between challenge and joy in the experience of student learning. • Conduct a program review to enhance alignment between the liberal arts mission of the school and its current offerings and diploma requirements. • Develop a cohesive health and wellness curriculum. • Improve communication with students and parents. • Explore opportunities to strengthen the community of Waterford families.
DEVELOP EXTERNAL PARTNERS TO ENRICH THE WATERFORD EXPERIENCE • Expand opportunities for students to enhance their curricular experience through applied learning outside the walls of Waterford. • Elevate Waterford’s local and national reputation. • Utilize external networks to broaden faculty professional development. • Expand and engage our alumni network.
RAISE AWARENESS ABOUT THE WATERFORD EXPERIENCE, LOCALLY AND NATIONALLY • Promote the Waterford mission. • Define Waterford’s marketplace position. • Articulate and widely communicate Waterford’s brand and value proposition. • Enhance outreach efforts to maintain mission appropriate students and expand the prospective family pool.
ENSURE OUR LONG-TERM FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY • Enhance Waterford’s culture of philanthropy, augmenting annual fund and endowment growth. • Determine optimal student enrollment. • Complete a campus master plan to inform a targeted capital campaign. • Develop alternative revenue sources.
THANK YOU
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
STRATEGIC PLANNING STEERING COMMITTEE Faculty & Staff
Parents
Administration
Darren Beck Paula Getz Beth Hamideh James Harris Erika Munson Casey O’Malley
Brady Southwick Rosa Marshall
Alumni
Andrew Menke Brandon Bennett Todd Winters Greg Miles
Sarah Beesley Ben Peterson
Board
Students
Community
Paige Anderson River Knight
Steve Morgan
Ron Mika Jason Miller Kristin Stockham JB Taylor
A special thank you to all of the faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and more who contributed to this Strategic Plan making it comprehensive, effective and filled with energy.
WATERFORDSCHOOL .ORG/ WATERFORD - RISING
Chantal Dolan Ray Etcheverry Kim Cordova Fehoko Eric Huefner, Vice-Chair Mark Matheson Alison McSlarrow Ron Mika Jason Miller ’88, Secretary Steve Miller Kristin Stockham Tom Stockham JB Taylor, Chair Sara Wilcox
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