By K. George Mooney, ChairBoard of Trustees Strategic Planning Subcommittee

While firmly rooted in a tradition of excellence, The Williams School keeps its eye on the future. The Board of Trustees has updated the 2003–08 Strategic Plan to re-focus on four Strategic Imperatives which the Board views as the highest priority in the coming years:
• Increasing selectivity and diversity
• Continuing excellence in education and teaching
• Launching and conducting a comprehensive campaign for Williams
• Providing effective communication to parents and other stakeholders, apprising these key audiences on Strategic Plan progress

Decade of Groundwork
In 2003 the Williams School Board of Trustees established a comprehensive Strategic Plan for the school, which built upon the success of the 1997–2002 Capital Campaign, Building for the Future. The 2003–08 Strategic Plan was designed to prepare for key strategic challenges facing the school in the future. As with all attempts to assess the more distant future, a plan needs constant refinement and updating to remain consistent and relevant to contemporary issues. The Board, therefore, asked the Strategic Planning Subcommittee in June 2006 to update and re-focus the current plan around its key priorities. Taking It to the Next Level, The Strategic Plan 2007–10, outlines the resulting strategic imperatives on which the Board will focus, including goals, responsibilities and measures of success of the plan for the coming years.

Healthy Discipline
Every organization, whether for-profit or non-profit, must continuously assess its future, where it wants to go and how it intends to get there against the Vision and Mission it has set for itself. This thinking is usually summarized in what is termed a Strategic Plan. Typically these plans attempt to look 3, 5 or 10 years ahead in order to assess the probable future environment and the decisions and actions the organization must take in order to remain true to its Vision or “Reason for Being.” Hence, a Strategic Plan is a living document containing coordinated sets of actions or tactics designed to achieve the organization’s overall priorities and provide the resources it needs to support it. The plan should also lay out measures of success to enable evaluation of progress and any corrective action by the Board. From such a plan, the Board builds a budget and an annual operating plan to enable the school to meet its long-term, strategic goals.

Preparing for the Future
The real value of a strategic plan is that it forces the school to ask “what if” questions, both negative and positive (e.g. What if enrollment in the school drops or increases significantly or what if the school is left a significant, unanticipated legacy?). If the school does not have a plan in place to answer these questions, then the Board will lack direction and the cohesion necessary to face these future challenges or benefit from arising opportunities.

Staying Ahead of the Curve
During the periods described earlier, Williams concentrated its strategic plan activities on the following priorities:
a. Capital Investment to grow and maintain the school facilities
b. Review of the Curriculum
c. Encouraging Diversity of the student body and staff in order to broaden the culture of the school
d. Ensuring Educational Excellence through attracting and retaining top talent.

Having made substantial progress toward the first two goals, Head of School Charlotte L. Rea and the Board of Trustees seek to redouble efforts on the latter two goals.
The new Strategic Imperatives are divided into two primary “whats” and two primary “hows,” in planning parlance. It is important to note that this does not detract from the excellent progress on the goals and action plans from the 2003–08 plan, which are largely implemented and being monitored by the Board.

Strategic Imperative One
Increasing the selectivity and diversity of the student body and maintaining a strong enrollment balanced with sound fiscal policy.

The demographics of our area are changing in terms of potential students joining Williams in the future. The number of students and families needing financial support to attend Williams has risen in recent years, but endowment funding is limited. Broad diversity, high academic standards, and a selective student body are paramount to the Williams mission and culture.

To accomplish this goal, the School will:
• Survey parents to gain input and suggestions.
• Increase the Outreach Committee’s already considerable efforts to attract additional interest in Williams.
• Highlight students’ success in working with community and civic organizations.
• Review financial aid policies in line with growth of endowment funds.
• Use programs such as international exchanges and sports to expand potential applicant pool.

Strategic Imperative Two
Continuing enhancement of excellence in education and teaching by attracting and retaining top talent, facilitated by fair remuneration and broad, professional development opportunities for teachers and staff.

The success of the school in providing excellent education to its students is driven primarily by the quality, dedication, professionalism and experience of the teachers. Many of the outstanding teachers have and will be retiring over the next several years and the next generation of leaders from within the school must be identified, nurtured, and developed according to their career wishes and educational passions. Remuneration of teachers and staff needs to be constantly reviewed and increased in order to compete with the local public schools and peer independent schools. Professional development opportunities for teachers and staff have dramatically improved over the last three years because the School aggressively sought grants and funding opportunities.

To accomplish this goal the School will:
• Evaluate all teachers and staff annually against goals set prior to the beginning of the academic year.
• Adopt a succession plan for the next generation of senior faculty and administration and update it regularly.
• Continue to increase faculty salaries equivalent to 90% of local public school salary scales.
• Contine to increase professional development opportunities for faculty and staff.

Strategic Imperative Three
Launching a comprehensive campaign for Williams, involving Capital, Annual and Endowment fund growth to enable Strategic Imperatives One and Two.

Past campaigns, focused on building and upgrading facilities, have proved highly successful (e.g., $2.5 million for the new wing in 2000–02). The current comprehensive campaign for Williams coordinates all fundraising efforts in order to cultivate major donors from alumni, the community, and parents in order to boost capital, annual and endowment funds. Capital improvements such as a Student Center, Fitness Center and renovated Art Wing will increase Williams’ competitiveness with peer facilities. Endowment growth is crucial as the majority of the School’s operating expenses are met from tuition income.

To accomplish this goal the School will:
• Build upon the comprehensive campaign’s “Leadership Phase” with a public launch to reach the target of $2.5 million by December 31, 2008. Setting the example, the Board has committed to contributing 35% of the goal.
• Increase focus on programs that build the endowment.
• Increase annual giving to meet the demands of the operating budget in the years ahead. The Fund for Williams was highly successful in 2006–07 in garnering support from alumni, the majority of families, and all faculty to exceed its annual goal.

Strategic Imperative Four
Providing effective communication with the Williams community on the progress of the School’s Mission and Strategic Plan.

The Strategic Plan and the Campaign for Williams represent the future direction for sustaining the high standards of the School and the Williams community. More parent involvement and participation is essential to gain support and make this Strategic Plan work but it also involves bringing the impact of the largely untapped alumni body and its potential to bear in the plan.

To accomplish this goal the School will:
• Continue to work closely with both the Parent and Alumni Associations.
• Host events to cultivate community and encourage contributions to the Campaign for Williams.
• Discuss the Strategic Plan and its progress in School communications to ensure parents, alumni and stakeholders are well-informed.
• Use internal and external media to reaffirm and exemplify Williams’ values and their translation into school accomplishments academically, athletically and throughout the community.

The Future
These new plans are all based on enduring ideas. The School’s Mission describes the ethos of the school—its raison d’etre—and provides a touchstone to a culture traceable back to the grand vision established by Harriet Peck Williams in 1891. To succeed, we must vigilantly examine our plans, implementation and performance against the Mission.