Case Study
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Catholic Boys High School
STRATEGIC PLAN
A Catholic boys’ high school hired its first non-clerical president with a mandate to reposition the school amongst a growing number of competitors – elite independent schools looking to enroll high-achieving minority students, new charter and magnet schools with science- and arts-focused curriculums, and dramatically improved public school choices. Affiliated with a religious order rather than a diocese, the school had a strong “given” mission, but a high degree of flexibility in its pedagogical approach and a regional pool of alumni willing to support a promising vision.
Challenge
The school’s board and faculty were accustomed to “top down” rather than collaboratively-formed direction; planning that engaged a broad range of “stakeholders” – students, parents, teachers, administrators, alumni, donors – was new. But demographic trends and declining interest in single-sex parochial education leant a backdrop of urgency to the process even as its outcome might result in personnel changes that would affect those directly involved in planning.
Solution
A Strategic Planning process – the first in the school’s 70-year history – was designed to gather objective data (e.g. demographic research) as well as to amplify perceptions of the school that were challenging its reputation. The process highlighted compelling examples of thought-leadership in boys’ education offering prospective new directions. Plan A Advisors led a six-month process that gave the new president and board leadership a mandate for change in the interest of the school’s long-term sustainability.
Process
• Formed a Strategic Planning Committee that bridged generations and included representative administrators, faculty, board members and parents.
• Conducted extensive interviews and led roundtable conversations to glean perceptions of the school and surface areas in need of attention or redirection.
• Employed visits to leading parochial schools to gather examples of best practices that might be incorporated into the plan.
• Crafted a compelling statement of vision that reaffirmed the school’s commitment to boys’ education with an emphasis on academic innovation.
• Developed goals around academic excellence and student success that telegraphed the plan’s focus on two areas of concern.
• Provided a detailed timeline for staff and clear direction to the board to guide their respective roles in Plan implementation.