THE RIVERS SCHOOL
STRATEGIC PLAN Envisioning the Future
Our Mission is Our Promise: “…to prepare [our] students for leadership in a world that needs their talents, imagination, intellect, and compassion.”
Dear Rivers Community, In September of 2015 the Board of Trustees approved a new Strategic Plan to guide The Rivers School into the future. The Plan reflects the collaborative efforts of the entire Rivers community and the aspirations of that community for our great school. With this Strategic Plan, we intend to celebrate our legacy of powerful student-teacher relationships by generating new opportunities for those relationships to take hold. We will honor the innovation and creativity of the faculty and their nimble and entrepreneurial approaches to optimizing the learning experience for our students in a diverse and multicultural environment. We will support curricular and extracurricular programming that will engage our students directly with the world while preparing them for leadership in it. In moving the Strategic Plan forward, we will plan academic, arts, and athletic spaces that properly match and support the excellence of our programs and the powerful teaching that characterizes Rivers, even as the spaces encourage forward-thinking pedagogy to help our students gain and practice new exploratory skills. We hope you will share our excitement for The Rivers School Strategic Plan and that you will join us as we begin to implement that plan. This is an exciting time in our history, and an opportunity to engage the entire Rivers community in building the future for this remarkable school. Sincerely,
Ned Parsons Head of School
When executed, this STRATEGIC PLAN will bring to life the vision for the school over the next seven years and will empower our faculty to prepare students for leadership in the 21st century world into which they will graduate.
We approached the strategic planning process with four main goals to: • establish the strength of the foundation for the Rivers experience • explore, address, and prioritize the challenges facing our current program, operations, and infrastructure • contextualize our standing within the larger world of education, and of the contemporary world for which we are preparing our graduates • set priorities for the future and establish a bold path forward that is aspirational in nature and manageable in scope
The planning process determined four areas of focus for Rivers’ future, where we will shape the school and enhance the experience for our students, faculty, parents, alumni, and trustees:
I: Ensuring Academic Excellence
II: Enriching the Student Experience
III: Expanding the Facilities
IV: Investing in the Future
Ensuring Academic Excellence We will empower our graduates with a skills-based education that is global, multicultural, experiential, and technologically enriched.
I. ENSURING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE A forward-thinking curriculum and innovative pedagogy will be a signature component of the Rivers experience for our students and faculty.
• Implement interdisciplinary approaches to learning
• Enhance our students’ skill sets in design and hands-on problem solving across disciplines and divisions • Review and revise the curriculum through the lenses of global, multicultural, and social justice perspectives
• Add courses in computer science and coding, arts, engineering, statistical literacy, and advanced science electives, including opportunities for advanced guided research projects
• Develop partnership programs with organizations outside of Rivers, including businesses, higher education, hospitals, NGOs, and arts and non-profit agencies
• Incorporate online learning into academic offerings across disciplines and divisions
• Create immersive, comprehensive summer programs in entrepreneurship, design, robotics, and science research • Continue to grow and maintain an exceptional teaching faculty and provide the highest-quality professional development opportunities for them
Enriching the Student Experience: We will enhance a core strength—relationships and community— through programming outside of the classroom.
II. ENRICHING THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE Transformational programming delivered in a culture steeped in the foundation of powerful faculty-student relationships, a diverse environment, and an inclusive atmosphere will enhance the student experience and deepen the power of a Rivers education. • Build opportunities to enhance relationships between students and faculty, coaches, advisors, and mentors • Deepen our commitment to diversity and multicultural approaches and enhance the sense of community through programming
• Build robust systems of support as we continue to diversify the student, faculty, and Board of Trustees populations
• Bring our students out into the world and the world to our students • Develop and implement a program of travel opportunities for students in Rivers-led international travel programs and domestic service learning programs • Develop internship programs in social entrepreneurship, business, the arts, science, and medicine • Expand opportunities for extracurricular involvement and exploration designed to discover a passion for learning and for life through varied after-school social, intellectual, arts, and athletic programming
Expanding the Facilities We will build spaces that reflect and support the excellence of our programs and allow for development of new curricular and extracurricular programs.
III. EXPANDING THE FACILITIES A bold redesign of the campus, to include new classroom, laboratory, athletics, and arts spaces, will reflect and support the excellence and innovation of our programs and enable 21st century approaches to teaching and learning. • Implement a campus master plan combining renovation of existing spaces and design and construction of new spaces to support the pedagogy across all disciplines and in both divisions • Design and build new spaces to support and enhance current and new programming in the sciences, innovation, humanities, and visual and performing arts • Renovate athletic fields and facilities to accommodate current and new athletic programming across divisions • Design and execute the infrastructure changes needed to enhance the functionality of the campus as a whole • Connect the campus and our students to the natural surroundings to maximize both the aesthetic and academic potential of the school’s location
Investing in the Future We will grow the endowment to support program, faculty, and financial aid in a new culture of philanthropy and connection.
IV. INVESTING IN THE FUTURE A comprehensive, data-driven financial plan will enable the development and staffing of programs of excellence across all facets of the Rivers experience and ensure the sustainability and accessibility of our programs for future generations. • Create and execute a comprehensive capital campaign in order to support existing and proposed curricular and extracurricular programming, as well as a multi-phased campus master plan that addresses the critical needs of the physical plant • Build endowment to provide resources in perpetuity for financial aid, faculty support and professional development, and curricular program development and implementation
• Engage the Rivers community in supporting the school’s mission and programs in an energized landscape of philanthropy
EXCELLENCE WITH HUMANITY FOR THE NEXT CENTURY
2015-16 Term Trustees President: Robert J. Davis Jon M. Baker, Jr. ’85 Dennis Baldwin Benjamin R. Bloomstone Robert E. Buonato ’81 James F. Carlin ’81 Louise Cummings ’98 Todd A. Dagres Howard G. Davis ’70 Ben D. Fischman Mark R. Florence Jay M. Grossman Stephen M. Jennings Daniel A. Kraft Hongmei Li Barbara V. Ligon Deborah H. McAneny Jonathan H. Paul Daniel R. Revers Alan D. Rose, Jr. ’87 Solomon B. Roth Peter Saperstone Laurie Schoen Eileen Sivolella Andrew P. Slifka Laurie Q. Slifka Richard L. Smith Steven J. Snider Michael P. Stansky Matthew Vettel Eric M. Wolf
Dear members of the Rivers community, With more than 100 years of history behind us, Rivers has grown into an exceptional place of learning as our leaders and educators overcame the challenges of the past while building a platform for the future. They believed, as we do today, that having the courage and wisdom to evolve lies at the heart of every successful institution. At the same time, they have always preserved the time-tested essence of the school, where relationships are powerful motivators for both teaching and learning. We all value being part of this strong community, with our clear mission that everyone—faculty, students, parents, and alumni— cherishes. And as members of the community, we value the strong relationships which are at the core of all we do. We value being innovative, studying the latest educational philosophy and implementing those elements of it that will help us to fulfill our mission of providing a great education for our students. Most importantly we value creating a school where our students are engaged and happy, where they learn to be their best selves, and, along the way, help each other to be the same. We call that Excellence with Humanity. You have all played a part in making Rivers what it is today. Please join me as we begin to shape Rivers’ second century. Sincerely,
Bob Davis P’06,’08,’13 President, Board of Trustees
THE RIVERS SCHOOL 333 Winter Street Weston, MA 02493-1040 781-235-9300 www.rivers.org
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