Westminster’s Next Strategic Plan

Over the last 15 years, Westminster has thoughtfully and intentionally transformed its physical spaces with new facilities — including Armstrong Dining Hall, Brockelman Student Center, Kelter House, Squibb House, Gund House and the faculty carriage houses — all of which support the school’s core value of community and provide inspiring spaces for living and learning. Westminster’s growth, however, has extended well beyond its buildings to financial aid, faculty development and record operational support for The Westminster Fund. Great schools challenge themselves to continually assess the relevance and effectiveness of their mission and program in meeting the needs of their current and future students. So against this backdrop of tremendous growth, Westminster embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process in the spring of 2022 to identify the key priorities that will drive the school’s continued growth and ensure that a Westminster education remains a vibrant, valued and viable legacy for future generations.

WESTMINSTER’S LAST STRATEGIC PLAN

was developed over a decade ago at the beginning of Bill Philip’s tenure as head of school. After the successful completion of the Soar Together campaign and the appointment of Elaine White as the ninth head of school, it was time to evaluate the school’s next strategic priorities. Additionally, the school was emerging from two years of pandemic uncertainty and upheaval, an experience that reinforced the immense value of an independent school education and highlighted the incredible importance of Westminster’s holistic, relationship-based education.

The Strategic Planning Committee was co-chaired by Renée Lynch Carrel ’84, P’19, ’21, chair of Westminster’s Board of Trustees, and Charlie Griffith P’11, ’14, ’17, associate dean of faculty. In addition to the chairs and Elaine White, the committee comprised 21 members, including four trustees, two current parents, and faculty and staff from all key departments (academics, athletics, arts, student life, college counseling, communications, advancement, diversity equity and inclusion, technology, business and facilities).

Over the course of a year, the committee solicited feedback from the broader Westminster community — alumni, parents, students, faculty and staff — on the school’s strengths and opportunities for growth. “The process was designed to be broad, inclusive and transparent,” said co-chair Griffith. “We intentionally included a wide range of voices.” Community members expressed their enthusiasm and affection for Westminster, citing its reputation for academic excellence; its nurturing community; its balanced approach to educating the whole student; its motto of Grit and Grace; and, especially, its transformational faculty-student relationships.

With this feedback as the foundation, the committee conducted an in-depth assessment of the school’s unique strengths and opportunities — as well as the surrounding educational landscape — to identify the most important and impactful priorities for the coming decade. “The process affirmed that we are incredibly fortunate to approach the future from a position of considerable strength,” said Carrel. “But it also challenged us to explore new ways to evolve and advance our program to ensure that we stay competitive in the marketplace and continue to meet our mission in a world that’s being driven by unprecedented change.”

Five Key Strategic Initiatives

With much of the master facilities plan complete, the strategic plan focuses primarily on expanding and deepening the school’s investment in people and programs. “We know — and hear consistently from our alumni — that it is the people and programs that most profoundly shape students’ experience and growth at Westminster and impact their lives most beyond Williams Hill,” said Griffith. “So student education, experience and impact are at the heart of this plan.”

Five key strategic initiatives, which were approved by the board of trustees in September 2023, will guide Westminster’s work over the next decade. This plan is intended to be dynamic so that the school can adjust and respond to the evolving needs and experiences of students. The broad nature of the five strategic initiatives allow the board, in partnership with Elaine White and her leadership team, to ensure that the plan stays focused on fulfilling the school’s mission.

1 Invest in Faculty and Staff:

Invest in the growth and well-being of faculty and staff to attract and retain the most talented educators and ensure excellence in teaching and learning

Speak to any Westminster School alumni — young or old — about their time at the school and you will quickly learn the names of their favorite teachers and coaches and the valuable lessons those people taught them. The school’s dedicated and talented faculty and staff impact students well beyond the classroom — on the playing fields, in advisory, at family-style lunch, on stage and in the studio, in the dorm and throughout the community. Through these authentic, multifaceted connections, Westminster students form deep, long-lasting and profoundly impactful relationships with faculty and staff. With the rapidly evolving needs of students and the growing demands of teaching, particularly in boarding schools, Westminster “needs to be realistic about what a given employee can actually do while they are ensuring excellence in a given area,” Griffith said. Westminster is focused on providing sufficient resources to enable faculty and staff to hone their craft, to explore and adopt new ways of teaching and collaborating with students and to balance their professional responsibilities and their personal lives.

2 Advance Academics:

Enhance the strength of Westminster’s curriculum to ensure a dynamic academic program that prepares students for a rapidly evolving world

Westminster’s academic program has long been distinguished by its rigor, engagement and balance. In today’s complex world of unprecedented technological, environmental and social change, the school must be intentional about ensuring students have the knowledge, skills and experiences they will need to thrive at Westminster and beyond. By advancing the school’s curriculum and building a dynamic academic program, Westminster students will be prepared and inspired to be the next generation of changemakers.

To that end, Westminster is committed to strengthening skill development; writing and research; cultivating independent and critical thinking; fostering collaboration and teamwork and retaining traditional teaching methods while capturing the best of what’s new in technology, interdisciplinary advances and real-world applications.

3 Cultivate Community & Culture:

Deepen Westminster’s distinctive culture and commitment to Grit and Grace in a vibrant, diverse, engaged and inclusive community

Westminster’s motto of “Grit and Grace” defines and distinguishes the school’s culture, the community and its members’ commitment to themselves and to others. Grit characterizes the effort students make to meet high expectations for academics, athletics, and community involvement. Grace speaks to the way they negotiate those responsibilities with generosity of spirit, good manners and respect for all. Never has the school’s motto felt more relevant or important than it does in today’s world.

For students, Grit and Grace has meant cultivating confidence –– the kind of confidence they need to embrace new opportunities and challenges, to feel comfortable with themselves and to successfully interact in the increasingly complex world beyond Williams Hill. This third initiative will focus on embedding opportunities to imbue and amplify Grit and Grace — as well as the school’s core values of Community, Character, Involvement and Balance — to build an even stronger, healthier Westminster community.

4 Elevate the Co-Curricular Experience:

Infuse the co-curricular program with enhanced opportunities for learning, growth, skill building and connection

Learning is a fully integrated endeavor at Westminster that extends well beyond the classroom to the athletic fields and the theater, to Chapel and the dorms, and to volunteering through service programs like Loaves and Fishes and Horizons at Westminster. Co-curricular programs offer important opportunities for students to grow personally, to engage in physical activity and team sports, to be creative, to collaborate and work independently, and to make meaningful connections with their classmates, their coursework and their community. More opportunities for learning, growth, skill-building and connection will further challenge and inspire students to broaden their horizons, pursue their passions and contribute to the life of the school and the broader community.

5 Secure the Future:

Ensure the long-term sustainability and vibrancy of Westminster School

Over the past few decades, the school has transformed its physical campus, strengthened its financial resources and enhanced its competitive position in the marketplace. Ensuring the longterm sustainability and vibrancy of Westminster School builds on that tremendous momentum and is essential to the school’s continued growth and relevance in the 21st century. This requires that the school not only evaluate its existing programs and operational efficiencies, but also make substantial investments in the school’s people, programs and campus to ensure Westminster will continue to flourish in the years ahead.

The Start of Implementation

After the strategic plan’s approval last September, Elaine White and her leadership team began to develop a comprehensive implementation plan with specific action items to fulfill these five strategic priorities.

Some of that work has been immediate. The first action step of the Invest in Faculty and Staff initiative calls for building the optimal faculty and staff — in quantity, quality, and qualification — to strengthen academic offerings, create a sustainable balance of faculty and staff responsibilities, and preserve and enrich Westminster’s signature relationshipbased model of education in all aspects of school life.

In the past two years, through a thoughtful use of operating budget and two significant endowed gifts, several key investments have driven action. The school has added three new positions — a director of mental health services, a second learning specialist and a dean of students — to support the immediate needs of the greatest number of students. In addition, the teaching load for academic department heads has been reduced by one course so that they can focus on curriculum development and faculty training and evaluation. A similar reduction in the coaching requirements for form deans has allowed for more time to implement supportive, student-focused programming. The college counseling office has been able to increase support and resources for students and families and implement a comprehensive four-year college curriculum by adding a fourth, full-time counselor and eliminating counselors’ classroom teaching responsibilities. These strategic investments have profoundly strengthened Westminster’s commitment to fostering a supportive, holistic educational environment, ensuring that every student has the resources and guidance needed to grow and thrive.

Several new programs and pilot opportunities are already in place that address more than one priority, according to Carrel and Griffith. Westminster’s newly proposed Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, for example, is designed to support the first two initiatives by investing in faculty and advancing academics. Once it is fully built out, the Center will house four learning specialists, an academic technologist and a director of pedagogy and teaching excellence. While it will take time and resources to fully staff the Center and achieve its teaching and learning goals, the strategic plan outlines its two-fold purpose:

• Learning Excellence: A dedicated space and program — that is staffed by trained faculty and accessible to all students — to provide academic coaching, subject-specific academic support, and dedicated writing and math resources.

• Teaching Excellence: A center focused on offering more robust professional development and mentorship; encouraging diverse and innovative teaching methods and learning experiences; and enriching the culture of collaboration, accountability, and evaluation. It will also purposely and strategically support faculty in integrating technology, including generative AI applications, into the curriculum to augment learning and advance research, problem-solving, and critical-thinking skills.

In his capacity as associate dean of faculty, Griffith is steering the Center’s teaching-related efforts, which include a new faculty mentoring program spearheaded by Bill Sistare, director of studies. The student-learning initiatives are under the direction of Kelly Curtis P’24, ’28, who holds the Simpson Family Chair for Teaching and Learning Excellence and serves as Westminster’s director of academic support. This fall, for the first time, the school is offering support four nights each week for all Westminster students through its new evening study hall program.

“What we are trying to do is create academic support that can work with any student at Westminster School regardless of whether they have a learning difference or not,” Curtis explained. “Every student can benefit from sitting down with somebody and having them help manage their week, organize a paper or write an outline.”

The Journey Forward: Aspirational, Inspirational and Achievable

Westminster has embarked upon an important and critical journey, one which will require support in many ways from across constituencies. Each initiative and its supportive action steps will take time, resources, creativity, development and, in some instances, significant funding in order to come to fruition.

“The strategic plan is aspirational and inspirational. It is practical and realistic. It is comprehensive, and it focuses on people and programs, which are the heart of the Westminster experience,” comments White. “It will require increasing the endowment substantially to ensure more fiscal stability and flexibility for the future. We have begun the work, we are excited to share our progress as it unfolds, and we welcome the partnership among faculty, alumni and families to realize the plan.”