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The Leelanau School Strategic Plan 2023-2030

The Leelanau School has been a long time member of the Independent Schools of the Central States (ISACS). ISACS is a collection of hundreds of independent schools, cooperating on standards of best practice.  Each ISACS member school follows a seven-year cycle and is based on three main principles:

  • Compliance with the ISACS Standards for Membership;
  • Full disclosure of a school’s mission, program, procedures, and services; congruence between the school’s stated mission and its actual program and services; and
  • Engagement in the ongoing school improvement, including strategic planning, self-study reflection and an external review of strengths, challenges, and plans and priorities in all areas of the school.

The ISACS self study is an organized means of assessing all aspects of our program.  It is informed by constituent survey data, aligned to standards, supported by guiding questions, and affirmed by external partners.

In order for identified priority improvements to be effectively pursued, institutional goals, systems, and resources need to be strategically aligned.  In that sense, strategic planning is a natural outcome of the self study and accreditation process.

The 2023-2030 Strategic Plan facilitates enterprise-wide focus on goals that will govern our continuous improvement plans determined through our self-study. It accounts for the necessary resources to support improvement, and establishes administrative accountability to the Board of Trustees.  Our Strategic Plan is therefore the principle guiding document governing our decision making over the next 7 year period.     

We are pleased with the varied input, faithful reflection, and external support that resulted in our current Strategic Plan.  If you have any questions about the goals and strategies identified in the attached plan, please feel free to contact me.

Rob Hansen | Head of School

Strategic Plan: Focus Areas, Goals and Strategies:

  Professional Learning and Innovation:

Goal:

Continually increase the capacity of the faculty to pursue innovative programs and responsive instructional methodologies in the service of our mission.

Strategies:

  • Increase place-base, service-based, project-based, and fitness-based learning through intentional professional and program development and course offerings.
  • Build a culture where faculty and staff are stewards of the program through distributed leadership and creative freedom.

Goal:

Increase the ability of faculty and staff to meet the evolving social-emotional challenges facing today’s adolescents.

Strategies:

  • Determine a reasonable level of support that is necessary for today’s adolescents, and assign what types of supports/interventions will be inherent in the Leelanau School program.
  • Strengthen professional skills of faculty to support students and families social, emotional, and physical wellness.
  • Increase capacity to develop core value learning through applied professional development and growth in our Exploratory program and intentional co-curricular programming.

Goal:

Attract, support, and retain mission passionate faculty and staff.

Strategies:

  • Ensure a comprehensive and competitive employee benefits package, consistent with market benchmarks.
  • Establish intentional on-boarding process for new employees.
  • Provide career development with mission aligned professional development opportunities, along with regional and national leadership opportunities.
  • Participate in designing regional housing solutions for area employees.

  The Student Experience:

Goal:

Continue to improve and diversify programs and instructional methods to increase engagement, satisfaction and success of our students.

Strategies:

  • Increase opportunities to develop student leadership in stewardship of the school, and through participation in local community organizations and businesses.
  • Enhance core value learning through increased Exploratory programming.
  • Increase place-base, service-based, project-based, and fitness-based learning opportunities through curricular development and course offerings.
  • Increase educational and support processes to promote social, emotional, and physical wellness.
  • Ensure methods of assessment and feedback support growth towards mastery.
  • Pursue technology citizenship curriculum and establish policies to ensure responsible use of technology devices and platforms while students and for life beyond high school.
  • Evaluate summer season as an opportunity to offer mission aligned instructional programming to existing or prospective students.

Goal:

Continue to attend to our culture of acceptance, as outlined in our mission, for both students and staff.

Strategies:

  • Diversify housing options to increase acceptance and comfort in living situations.
  • Assess all admission, instructional, residential, facility, HR and disciplinary practices to ensure they promote a culture of acceptance.

Goal:

Provide a safe and secure environment for all students, staff and visitors.

Strategies:

  • Strengthen door and boundary security.
  • Improve signage for both wayfinding and security.
  • Maintain a safe and versatile transportation fleet.
  • Continue to improve methods of internal communications.
  • Continue to advance deployment of asset and safety monitoring systems.

  Enrollment:

Goal:

Sustain annual enrollment of 46-60.

Strategies:

  • Make visible the mission of the school through marketing and communication.
  • Evaluate Financial Assistance and Scholarship practices to ensure it supports recruiting goals, socioeconomic diversity and increasing access for “right fit” students.
  • Sustain national marketing with social media, electronic communication, fairs and site visits.
  • Establish reliable relationships with Educational Consultants.
  • Increase rates of alumni and parent referrals.

  Community Support:

Goal:

Invite sponsors, local partners and alumni to participate in the advancement of our educational programs.

Strategies:

  • Develop and implement a donor/alumni/grantor funded solution to finance capital improvements as described in the master plan(e.g. Auditorium, Art Center, Observatory, Science labs, Dormitories, staff housing, energy efficiency).
  • Increase and secure financial assistance and scholarship funds, fully secured from donor/alumni/grantor/endowed sources.
  • Eliminate any legacy debt service incurred during prior administrations via donor/alumni/grantor funded solutions.
  • Develop funding sources to sustain investments in professional development.

  Financial and Physical Sustainability:

Goal:

Strengthen our business model to serve long term sustainability of our mission and physical plant.

Strategies:

  • Maintain operational fund balance of 10% of gross revenue.
  • Determine the optimal level of tuition discounting to balance access with prudent financial management.
  • Establish Master Plan to establish campus and facility capital improvement priorities.
  • Establish cross training/redundancy in Business Operations.