In September of 2018, the Board of Trustees at Doane Academy unanimously endorsed Right Onward 2023: A Strategic Plan for Doane Academy. In each of the last three years, I wrote to you to share the metrics we established to measure our success in addressing the Plan’s priorities and to update you on our progress with its implementation. Today I am happy to provide you with another update on how we have executed the Plan’s priorities.
As you will note from reading the following and reflecting on previous updates that I have shared, we are nearing the conclusion of this Plan’s life-cycle. We have focused on our priorities since the Plan’s inception, and we are proud of what we have accomplished – especially given the unique challenges posed by the pandemic. The following document thus serves three purposes. First, it provides readers with an update on what we accomplished over the past 12 months. Second, it discusses in more general terms how we addressed the Plan’s priorities since 2018. And, third, it provides some thoughts about what types of strategic questions might be asked as Doane Academy begins to consider its next strategic plan.
Priority One: Supporting Transformative Learning
Throughout the strategic planning process, our constituents consistently expressed the importance of a demonstrably strong academic curriculum, one in which excellence and student-centered outcomes are clearly defined at all levels. As we noted in writing the Plan, it is clear that such excellence is facilitated not only by innovation and academic rigor, but also by learning outcomes that can only be reached in a diverse, healthy community. The following is a list of the action steps associated with this Priority and the work done to implement these steps over the past year.
Review the scope and sequence of the curriculum of our 3-year-old through 12th grade program and set benchmarks and goals that clearly articulate what it means for each child to meet his or her full potential. This exploration of our curriculum will include: a review of how we incorporate diversity, in all of its forms, into our program.
- The creation of a new section of our school website that highlights our DEIJB goals and programming.
- The continued inclusion of a diverse group of voices and experiences in presentations to our middle and upper school students. In 2022 these visitors to Doane have included Adreinne Waheed, author and photographer of Black Joy & Resistance; Wesley Wofford, a critically acclaimed artist who sculpted the Journey to Freedom statue of Harriet Tubman; Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger and Khalil Sayegh of the Roots Organization in Israel and Palestine; acclaimed Native American author Sterling HolyWhiteMountain; historian Dr. Kimberly Hamlin; and National Geographic Explorer and poet, Alyea Pierce.
- Continued attendance by faculty members at the NAIS People of Color Conference. For the first time, this year Doane’s participants were chosen to lead a workshop, entitled From Anecdotes to Anthologies: Using Storytelling to Promote Belonging, Create Agency, and Highlight Excellence.
- Middle School students’ attendance, for the first time in person, at the middle school DEI Summit at Gill-St. Bernards School, which brought together over 100 students from independent middle schools throughout the state.
- The creation of a lower school DEI parent group to assist with the development of events that help to meet the following two goals: to engage LS families in programming that affirms and celebrates our diverse identities and experiences and to provide LS families with welcoming spaces to learn about and discuss topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This group’s work culminated in the creation of a Cultural Block Party in June, celebrating the many cultures represented in Doane’s families.
- Honoring Willie Huggs, who served St. Mary’s Hall for several decades as the school’s steward, by erecting a tombstone by his grave and displaying his portrait in Rowan Hall.
- Recognition of Pride Month in June with a field day for middle and upper school students and an age-appropriate discussion at a lower school assembly.
During 2022, because of the easing of pandemic restrictions, we were able to meet all prospective families in person. This improved our assessment efforts and helped us better identify students who will thrive at Doane.
The programs described below are central components to our mission and values. Because of their importance, and the rapid changes being experienced by our students in the world they inhabit outside of school, we regularly review and refine our curriculum, activities, and programs that serve to support this aspect of our mission. The following describes the major refinements we made this year.
- In 2022, we appointed Rev. Michael Giansiracusa to be our new School Chaplain and teacher of upper school religious studies. He has modified the Chapel services to include the participation of more students and to provide balance between our Episcopal heritage and our increasingly diverse student body.
- In the fall of 2022, we brought back the overnight component of our Rocks, Roots, & Wings trips, allowing those excursions to reach their full potential as vehicles to promote leadership.
- The lower school has refined its work this year to encourage self-reflection and goal setting through the process of building portfolios. As much as possible, each academic unit is structured around a culminating project that is assessed with a rubric. Students practice self-assessment, using that same rubric to reflect on areas of strength and areas where they can continue to grow.
- The middle school Lead Onward classes have been refined to give greater emphasis to character development and conflict resolution/management. In addition students now learn more about community advocacy – how they can be an advocate in the Doane community.
- We have redesigned our Junior Seminar curriculum to add an emphasis on college life management skills and financial planning.
- We surveyed our middle and upper school students twice, in May and November of 2022, to better measure their health, wellness, and sense of community belonging. The data gathered from these surveys allowed us to refine our programming to better serve our students’ needs.
- Also in the fall of 2022, we resumed maskless in-person meetings for Chapel and All-School meetings on a weekly basis, again helping those gatherings to promote leadership and community.
- A group of upper school students was selected to begin a program in the fall of 2022 to serve the lower school aftercare program and, in doing so, develop their leadership skills.
- We recommitted ourselves to the School Family program. One example of this commitment was the revival of the annual all-school Thanksgiving lunch, which we brought back in November of 2022. We've also created more structured activities to make sure that each School Family session is engaging, active, and meaningful.
- In the spring of 2022, we continued our community storytelling project as a way to build community -- first within our faculty and then among our broader community of teachers and students
- The lower school added a focus on restorative discipline and responsive classroom practices.
Emphasizing the academic rigor of our program continues to be a high priority for the school. Over the past year, we made several changes that support this priority, including the following:
- We continued our partnership with One Schoolhouse, a leading provider of on-line class programs for independent schools, and in doing so offered access to a broader array of challenging courses, including Multivariable Calculus, AP Spanish Literature, and AP Computer Science “A”.
- We implemented a new Academic Intervention Program (AIP) to reinforce accountability and good study habits in our students. This change has increased the academic completion rate of our students.
- We have modified the lower school schedule to add a support and enrichment period to increase our ability to differentiate our instruction and support and challenge all students.
- We have added a Sustained Silent Reading period to our middle school in order to encourage students to read independently for pleasure.
Create and implement a Health and Wellness Program to provide all of our students with the tools needed to be their best selves in the ever-changing world. This program’s curriculum (modified so as to be appropriate for different student ages) will address core topics in the areas of mental, social, emotional, and physical health.
In the wake of the pandemic, our Health and Wellness Program has taken on added importance. That said, the emotional health needs of our students were increasing even before the pandemic. We now have two full time mental health professionals on staff: a school psychologist and a school counselor. Much of this year has been devoted to consolidating the curricular changes we made in 2021. In addition, there are some specific changes that we made this year, as highlighted below:
- We have refined our curriculum, adding programs on (for example) test-taking anxiety, self-harm and other important topics.
- We are introducing a faculty yoga program which will be available one afternoon per week.
- We have updated the student handbook and the process we follow with students who are in crisis
- We have refined our process on collaborating with outside mental health providers
- We have introduced lower school after school programs, including ballroom dancing, running club, arts and crafts, and Soccer Shots.
Create a learning environment for faculty in which we support, expect, and recognize ongoing professional development. We will empower and invest in our faculty by providing them with the resources they need to help each child meet their unique potential. Through these efforts, we will prioritize attracting and retaining talented, passionate, innovative educators.
We continue to invest in the growth of our faculty. The resources that we have devoted to this priority have been supplemented by funds provided to us by the state so that our spending on professional development continues to grow. Our latest initiatives include the following:
- We have changed the timeline for our use of Folio (our faculty professional growth platform) to make it a more meaningful process for teachers. The time shift places transformational summer professional development opportunities at the center of the process.
- We instituted a support structure for faculty members who are new to Doane and provided new teachers with a Handbook of resources. We also have a “new faculty point person” who meets with new teachers twice per month.
- We have identified a teacher who is responsible for all lower school professional development so that programs that are targeted to this audience are better communicated and supported.
Over the past three years, we have implemented our technology plan throughout all divisions of the school. Important aspects of this integration include the following:
- In 2022, we acquired 8 robots from Wonder Workshop and are incorporating their use in lower school STEAM classrooms as well in an after school program for lower school students.
- Opened the campus to “bring your own device” students in order to facilitate students who desire that flexibility
- We relocated the LS STEAM classroom to its original location, which was designed to support a technology-rich curriculum, and upgraded the classroom with additional 3D printers
Maintain Infrastructure, including a repair and replacement schedule, and the addition of devices as needed. We will also regularly evaluate the relative merits and appropriateness to Doane of various strategies for providing devices to our students. In addition, we will assess and implement the technology needed to best support our administrative functions and communication with our community.
Over the past six years, the upgrading and maintenance of our infrastructure has been a major priority for the school. Over the past year, we have accomplished the following:
- Fully replaced all wifi access points in summer of 2022 to enhance our infrastructure
- We procured Emergency Aid to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) funds to invest in replacements for our STEAM Lab laptops and will be using additional funds to pay for new smart-screen technology in strategic areas on campus.
- Ongoing upgrade and replacement of student Chromebooks. The majority of upper school students now possess Chromebooks with touch-screens and styluses.
Over the past three years, the technology skills of our faculty have grown exponentially. While this is an ongoing process, it is accurate to say that the goals of this priority were met in full in 2021. As a result, our work with faculty this past year has been to consolidate the progress we have made in recent years and share technology skills between faculty members.
Priority Three: Enhancing Our Campus
As noted in the original Strategic Plan, we still have some programs that are underserved by our facilities. Moreover, we want our campus to inspire the entire community to develop new and innovative programs for our students. In other words, as we described in the Plan, our current facilities and footprint should not limit the innovative work and enhancements that will come from elsewhere in the Strategic Plan. Since our acquisition of the Boudinot property (described in last October’s implementation update), we have devoted significant time and resources to (a) planning for the use of the Boudinot property this year and for potentially longer and (b) planning for the property’s use long-term.
The enhancement of our campus has become a major priority as we consider the future of the Boudinot property. We continue to evaluate how our current facilities support our programs and how enhancements could improve the delivery of our programs to our students.
- We have received a grant from the New Jersey Historic Trust to repair and upgrade the gutters and roof of Odenheimer Hall. This work will be undertaken in the spring of 2023.
- We continue to devote time and resources to managing water, in order to minimize flood damage to the basement of our historic buildings and Rowan Hall.
- We coordinated with Burlington City in the summer of 2022 to complete major storm sewer and sewer repair on Ellis Street. This work included repaving the street to support student safety.
- We continue to monitor and update our long term asset repair and replacement budget, with the assistance of the Board’s Finance and Buildings and Grounds committees.
We have applied to the Land Use Board of Burlington City to gain approval for the construction project that we are planning for the Boudinot School property. We expect to receive such approval in early 2023.
We continue to be in the early stages of capital fundraising to secure the funds necessary to complete the projects described above. We expect this effort to continue for the coming two years, at a minimum.
Priority Four: Telling Our Story
As noted in our Strategic Plan, Doane’s community, traditions, and student outcomes deserve to be shared with a broader community. Telling Our Story effectively will support both our enrollment and teacher recruitment. This priority supports the financial sustainability of Doane and reinforces the continued growth of programs and innovative teaching we provide our students.
- We completed an updated College Counseling Profile
- We have continued to increase our digital marketing presence through the enhanced use of social media, digital advertising, and SEO optimization in partnership with Finalsite, our website provider.
- We again updated and upgraded our photography, with the assistance of professional photographer, Michael Branscom, who visited campus this fall.
- In the summer of 2022, we completed a major review and upgrade of the website’s text and photography.
- We converted an underutilized space in the Rowan Hall attic into a “green screen room” to allow us to record more dynamic video content going forward.
- We completed the transition of our early education program to a more traditional PK-K model.
- We have recorded an 19% increase in lower school enrollment over the last four years, with particularly robust increases in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.
- We returned the location of the PK and kindergarten classes to Rowan Hall, into space that was originally designed for them. (We were forced to move these classes to Odenheimer Hall in 2020, as a result of the pandemic.)
We have increased our visibility this year by attending in-person events that were not available last year because of the pandemic. These include Yardley Harvest Day, Chesterfield Harvest Festival, the Wood Street Fair, the South Jersey Mom Expo at the Cherry Hill Mall, and admission fairs at area schools such as St. Paul, Pen Ryn, and Chapin.
Conclusion
One of the challenges associated with crafting a strategic plan is to make it simultaneously specific and flexible. The former characteristic ensures that the plan has clear and meaningful goals whose achievement can be objectively measured. The latter attribute is intended to allow the plan to adapt to unforeseen circumstances during its lifespan.
Our Strategic Plan’s flexibility was put to the test by the Covid-19 pandemic, which impacted about half of the Plan’s implementation lifetime. Serendipitously, the Plan’s original priorities served the Doane Academy well during the pandemic, which accelerated our integration of technology and provided momentum to our creation of transformative learning experiences for our students.
The ultimate success of a strategic plan is a function of the work that goes into its creation and the recognition by all constituents that the implementation of the plan is as important as its construction. Thus, as we complete our work in addressing the priorities of the Strategic Plan, it is important to reflect on what we were able to achieve over the last 4+ years. Based on the work done by all members of our community, we can conclude that:
Teaching and learning at Doane has never been as transformative and engaging. Since 2018, we have evaluated and improved our curriculum in all grades; devoted significant resources to professional development; refined our teaching methods in all grades; and modified our approach to assessing our students.
We have fundamentally changed the way we use technology throughout the school. We now have a robust and reliable infrastructure, Chromebooks for every student, and the innovative use of technology in every class. Each one of these changes was informed by the Strategic Plan.
Since 2018 we have enhanced our campus in many ways, and we have put in place a longer term campus plan that will provide improved facilities for generations of Doane students to come. The acquisition of the Boudinot property in 2019 is our most visible achievement, but countless other improvements have been made that are less obvious, including the major changes that we made to support a safe and healthy learning environment during the pandemic.
We now tell the story of Doane Academy in fundamentally different ways than we did in 2018, with increased use of video and technology and more sophisticated metrics to measure the impact of our marketing. As a result, we are reaching more families and spreading the word more widely about what makes Doane such an outstanding school.
As we begin 2023 and look forward to welcoming a new Head of School to Doane, it is appropriate to make initial preparations for our next Strategic Plan, which will acknowledge our strengths while recognizing the need for Doane to continue to build on our success. We look forward to this next important step in Doane Academy’s long and storied history.
The Doane Academy Strategic Planning Committee
Erick Del Aguila ‘90, committee chair; Adam Paglione ‘91, Board president; George Sanderson, head of school; Christina Cecchi ‘85, trustee; Heather Buzick ‘97, trustee; Ted deVillafranca, trustee; Kelly Dun, trustee; Dr. Kennedy Ganti, trustee; Fr. David Snyder, trustee; Ran Holeman, assistant head of school and head of upper school; John Stevens, director of admission and financial aid; Richelle Sherwood, president of Parents’ Association