The Madison Waldorf School Strategic Plan, 2015-2020

OUR MISSIONEducation that honors every child’s enthusiasm for

initiative, creativity, and social responsibility.

OUR VISIONProvide early childhood through 8th grade Waldorf education while

building community to support whole education.

OUR VALUESMadison Waldorf School, based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner,

views the educational process as an artistic endeavor.

We embrace the following:

Developmentally-appropriate teaching & learning methods grounded in current research

Curriculum that is dynamic, experiential, multi-sensory, creative, and relevant that strikes a balance between academic, artistic, and practical skills with emphasis on developing capacities

Environment that promotes the aesthetics of goodness, beauty, and truth and develops empathy and respect for others, reverence for nature, and an emerging sense of responsibility for the larger community

Self-development of adults, parent and family involvement, and parent-teacher collaboration for student success

Collaborative structure of governance and leadership based on kinship? Or brotherhood?, equal rights, and freedom of individual initiative and creativity

Table of Contents

1. Background

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2. Plan Development

3. Goals and Actionsa. Focus Area 1: Governanceb. Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainabilityc. Focus Area 3: Expansion

Appendix A: Strategic Planning Task Force Members

Appendix B: Strategic Planning Workgroup Process

Appendix C: Strategic Planning All-School Vision Conversation Data Summary

Appendix D: Strategic Planning Idea Box Data Summary

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BACKGROUND

Madison Waldorf School (MWS) was established in 2007 founded by Kathy MacAleese, Elizabeth Arth, Rudy Martinka and Jacqueline Beecher. It is the only Waldorf school in Dane County. MWS offers Grades 1-8, with early childhood classrooms and playgroups. MWS graduated its first 8th grade class in June 2014, a celebrated event for this developing Waldorf school.

As a developing Waldorf school, MWS, like other schools, is working to establish itself by:

Realizing the full potential of the Waldorf curriculum; Defining a viable and nimble Governance structure

that allows for effective oversight by MWS’s 12-member Board, keen pedagogical direction by MWS’s faculty, strong parent engagement as supported by the Parent Circle, and robust Administrative support;

Securing financial sustainability through: strong enrollment of students as well as retention of our students, faculty and staff, cultivating a culture of giving within our community and external donor support, strategic fundraising, and effective branding, marketing and outreach.

Developing a campus that retains the current look and feel so valued by our community and that also meets the organizational, pedagogical and community needs of our community.

Recognizing our developing status, one of our goals is to achieve accreditation from The Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) a process that can often take a decade or more.

In January 2014, MWS embarked on a process to update their Strategic Plan in an effort to realize this aim. A previous plan exists (“Strategic Plans,” 2009-10) however it was not, as a whole, implemented.  Since that time, MWS has changed substantially including its membership across the constituencies, its successes and challenges, and, to a degree, its goals. The intent of this Strategic Plan is to outline a path forward that will allow MWS to realize the vision of the school we aspire to be. It identifies and prioritizes shared goals and specific actions that allow our school to move in a cohesive and unified manner toward this picture. The specific activities of our strategic plan will constantly evolve over time as our community grows and our needs change. As MWS leadership implement the goals and actions outlined in the plan they will continuously check-in around the progress of their work, assess its impact, and make changes to the goals and actions in order to maintain effectiveness. MWS Leadership will oversee this “plan-do-check-act” cycle of improvement in the coming years.

PLAN DEVELOPMENT

“Our highest endeavor must be to develop free

human beings who are able of themselves to impart purpose and direction to their lives. The need for imagination, a sense of truth, and a feeling of

responsibility – these three forces are they very nerve

of education.”-Rudolf Steiner

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In January 2014, a Strategic Planning Workgroup was charged by the MWS Board both to establish a process for developing a plan and to seek input from the MWS community (see Appendix A). This Workgroup sought to better understand what parents, faculty, staff and the Board like about our school today and where they think we can and should grow. During spring 2014, the Workgroup hosted an all-school conversation using the Art of Hosting model, conducted a parent survey, and offered an idea drop-box in the lobby. The process as well as a summary of the data collected are described in Appendices B, C and D. Parent survey responses are available upon request.

This Strategic Plan is the culmination of that process with the goals and actions within derived from input by the MWS community and the experience and knowledge of our faculty, staff and Board.

Eight broad topics emerged from the data-collection efforts of the Strategic Planning Workgroup: Governance, Compensation, Sustainability, Early Childhood, Accessibility, Facilities, Expansion,and Wholism. Each of these is described below:

Accessibility: All-inclusive accessibility is the philosophical commitment to make MWS education available to all children who want it irrespective of financial capacity, and eventually geography.

Compensation: The critical next step for retaining and recruiting excellent faculty and staff at MWS is to ensure just salaries and benefits.

Governance: Identifying decision-making roles, processes and structures; accountability metrics and mechanisms; succession-planning; and policies and procedures is the seminal next step in MWS’ development.

Sustainability: Over and again, one of our top goals is to ensure the survival and stability of MWS in terms of finances, resources, students and personnel.

Early Childhood (EC): The view that our Early Childhood program is foundation to the future health and growth of our grades emerged from this work. The previous stage of growth and development of MWS emphasized the Grades as the goal to achieve, namely graduation of MWS’ first 8th grade class. Many stakeholders now see that growing and developing our Early Childhood program is a requisite next step to securing the future of the MWS. It was also noted that while Early Childhood programming is a priority, EC as a theme will be replaced by a balance of EC-Grades-Middle/High School over time.

Facilities: How strong a positive impression and how limiting our current building and surrounding structures are appeared again and again from all of our data sources. Our facilities could be better designed to support the pedagogical needs of the children and Faculty, the administrative needs of staff as well as the larger needs of our community. Further, MWS’s lease expires in 2018 with the option to renew and we want to be in a position to take advantage of this opportunity when it arrives.

Expansion: Many vigorous voices have highlighted our need to aim for expansion of programming to realize a full Waldorf curriculum, student numbers, geographic location and sociocultural penetration into the Madison and surrounding areas.

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Wholism: Repeatedly, stakeholder feedback in all of the data production emphasized how much they value the curricular balance of MWS, stressing Nature, the Arts, Languages and core traditional content. That rounded, balanced wholism is a key feature of MWS’ identity and ‘branding.’ It is also a central value in leading successive stages of growth, not the least is the prominence of Nature education and experience for our children at school.

These themes have been grouped further into three Focus Areas that provide the framework for this plan. Specific goals, actions and outcomes/metrics are identified for each Focus Area. In sum, the next section of this document is organized as follows:

Focus Area 1: Governance Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainability that includes Early Childhood, Accessibility and

Compensation. Compensation is viewed as an outcome/metric (measure of success). Focus Area 3: Expansion includes Facilities development and Wholism.

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GOALS AND ACTIONS

This section of the plan outlines the Goals, Actions, and Metrics/Outcomes in each of three focus areas:

Governance Financial Sustainability Expansion

MWS identified short, mid and long-term actions in each of these focus areas. Short-term actions are to be accomplished in the next year and mid-term actions are to be completed in the next 2-3 years. The long-term actions are more visionary with a horizon of 3+ years. These are goals that MWS will need to cultivate resources and community support to accomplish. Outcomes/Measures of Success are also identified for each focus area at the end of each section.

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Focus Area 1: Governance

This area focuses on MWS’s commitment to developing effective Governance – or the rules, practices, and policies by which we make decisions and carry out work within MWS. The focus includes decision-making, accountability, succession planning, and policies and procedures. As a developing school, these systems have evolved informally over time and we are now at a juncture where formalizing how we conduct our business is essential.

MWS envisions the School five years from now with a Governance structure that is strong, transparent, nimble, and understood by all. The goals and actions identified in this plan are steps to realizing that vision.

The 3 goals of this Focus Area are: 1. Define roles and responsibilities of committees, staff, faculty, and Parent Circle2. Implement a quality improvement cycle 3. Shift from founding board to mature board

A description of each of these goals along with related short-term priority actions are outlined below.

Goal 1: Define roles and responsibilities of Committees, staff, faculty and Parent CircleTo date, MWS has developed an oversight structure without clearly documenting how this structure actually works. The actions listed below will clarify roles and responsibilities as well as how decision-making processes work. Documentation will also ensure that all members of the MWS community understand who is accountable for what decisions.

Short-term Priority Actions: Develop position descriptions for all employees of the school Update Committee mandates Develop and publish an organizational chart that includes the roles of

committees Develop process maps for decision-making Develop policies and procedures and process maps for communication with a

Plan-Do-Check-Act focus for enhancing communication Update MWS By-Laws

Goal 2: Implement quality improvement cycleAs a developing school, MWS has yet to formalize a system that allows us to set long-term goals, truly measure progress against those goals and continually assess our future directions. The actions below allow MWS do just this fostering a shared understanding of critical issues, identifying strategic directions and actions based in quantitative as well as qualitative data, measuring progress towards those directions, and reassessing and adjusting this work as needed.

Short-term Priority Actions: Institutionalize the strategic planning process

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Establish faculty, staff and board evaluation and mentoring cycle Evaluate faculty and staff salary structure Institutionalize data-driven decision-making

o Identify data to be collected annually or more frequently Exit Interviews of all those who leave the school before 8th grade

o Develop systems for collecting that datao Identify which staff and/or committee is responsible for conducting

analyses and developing recommendations

Goal 3: Shift from founding board to mature boardSince the beginning of MWS the Board has been involved in active administration to compensate for lower staffing levels. It is important that the Board shift away from this practice and embrace fully the actual responsibility of providing legal and financial oversight as well as strategic direction for the school in addition to stewarding healthy and active membership on the Board

Short-term Priority Actions: Institute a strong Board Recruitment Committee to ensure succession planning Institute a strong Board Strategic Planning Committee to ensure the Board is

providing the long-term guidance they are responsible for Establish practice of annual board self-evaluation Establish practice of annual board evaluation of Administrator

Mid-term Priority Actions: Shift financial planning, analysis and budget development activities from

volunteer Board Treasurer to staff position

Outcomes/Measures of Success*: Achieve AWSNA accreditation as a Waldorf school Improved communication as measured by efficiency of decision-making and parent

satisfaction via annual survey

*Under development

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Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainability

A strong financial foundation lends stability and strength to organizations. It permits appropriate staffing levels and variety in programming and frees up energy for experimentation and growth. Careful planning will enable us to create a complete Waldorf offering from early childhood through middle school and to manage growth over time.

MWS envisions the School five years from now in a more resilient financial position. Such a position is one that becomes stronger and more stable by the year, with wages and benefits commensurate with faculty and staff positions; it also incorporates an active approach to continuing to strengthen our financial position relative to changing external conditions.

The seven goals and actions identified below are steps to realizing that vision.

1. Institutionalize a rigorous budgeting and financial planning process2. Develop a more robust sequence of programs from early childhood to middle school

beginning with Early Childhood 3. Provide continuity of childcare throughout the school day and year 4. Define our educational (market) niche and identify target market(s)5. Improve outreach and marketing 6. Expand development strategies7. Support the social health of our school (increase parent engagement)

Goal 1: Institutionalize a rigorous budgeting and financial planning processMWS has strong systems in place for managing year-to-year cashflow and accounting. This has allowed our school to develop an annual budget that is solvent. Our next step is to improve and stabilize our budgeting process to allow for more timely decision-making and long-term planning.

Short-term Priority Actions: Clarify parameters driving budgeting decisions i.e. whole school enrollment

perspective versus individual classrooms Develop a financial model that articulates the operating and capital requirements

for the next five years including staffing, professional development, materials, faculty salary and benefits, and growth of administrative functions

Develop a rationale for tuition setting decisions Improve economy of Tuition recovery rate Consider multi-year contracts or discounts for multi-year commitments

Mid-term Priority Actions: Develop a business plan

Goal 2: Develop a more robust Early Childhood programThe MWS Early Childhood Program, currently comprised of playgroup and two early childhood classrooms, is seen as the foundation of our school. Most of the children entering our Waldorf grades program enter from our early childhood programs. An

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examination of our enrollment data shows strong promise that increasing the number of students in our early childhood program will lead to more robust enrollment in the grades in future years. Further, playgroup serves the same purpose with regard to our Early Childhood classes.

Short-term Priority Actions: Add a third Early Childhood classroom Expand playgroup presence such as weekend or summer playgroup

Mid-term Priority Actions: Consider satellite Early Childhood and/or playgroup programs (possibly on East

Side) Establish a 4K Exploration Team to evaluate opportunities for 4K at MWS

Goal 3: Provide continuity of childcare throughout the school day and yearWorking parents need care for their children before and after the school day, during days when the school is closed and throughout the summer. By providing continuity of care throughout the day and year MWS strengthens our ability to recruit and retain families

Short-term Priority Actions: Programming during the months of June and August Better understand how this programming fits into the Waldorf financial picture

Goal 4: Articulate our educational niche and target market(s)Waldorf education clearly fills a unique educational niche in this region. There are no other Waldorf schools in Dane County. It is possible to build upon this unique position by leveraging the Waldorf curriculum against the values of our larger community.

Waldorf education aligns well with certain values of the larger Madison community including outdoor learning, learning through doing (Makerspaces), sustainability, active living (biking), community service, and alternative medicine. It is possible to deepen our programming in certain areas and thus appeal to a broader segment of the Madison community by building up those aspects of our pedagogy that reflect those values. We need to determine as a school, if this is a direction we want to pursue.

Short-term Priority Actions: Faculty identify existing programs/pedagogical areas MWS could build upon that

align with community values and create a picture of how these could become a theme for our whole school, one that is carried through each grade.

Follow a collaborative process that allows whole school input on this possibility Develop an implementation plan

Mid-term Priority Actions10

Seek resources to support implementation plan (including support for professional development)

Implement programming across grades

Goal 5: Improve outreach and marketing There is a sense that MWS is not well-known in the Madison region or, if known, not well-understood. We also know that word of mouth is the number one way private schools improve enrollment. The actions outlined below address this concern:

Short-term Priority Actions Shape marketing materials to address misperceptions of Waldorf education and

MWS Emphasize healthy development of the child including spiritual development

of a non-religious nature Market our tuition adjustment program

Engage with area preschools to market our grade school to their parents Involve MWS community to increase word of mouth

Establish a team of parent ambassadors who can attend events in our community and speak about Waldorf (increase work of mouth)

Parent generated talking points Gather and post parent and alumni testimonials Exit interviews with graduating students

Expand tours to include outdoor curriculum Develop a larger Waldorf community by identifying other groups with

overlapping values Understand our target market

Offer parent information sessions at i.e. Happy Bambino, Co-op, etc. Outreach to other play-based early childhood/preschool programs

Make existing events more accessible Provide childcare at events Offer variety of times and types of events

Mid-term Priority Actions: Create a network of childcare providers with similar values

Offer shared Professional Development Officially declare partners Crossbrand

Increase MWS presence at community events Promote more Lifeways programs in our area Link hot lunch program with local farmers and restaurants Create Book Prize for children

Goal 6: Create a strategy for fund development All private schools are facing the reality that they can rely less and less on growing enrollment and traditional fundraising to support their budget. Many schools are looking at other ways to develop revenue streams to diversify and thus stabilize their income sources.

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Short-term Priority Actions: 100% participation in our Annual Appeal Evaluate efficacy of current fundraising efforts: strengths, weaknesses,

opportunities, threats Adjust activities accordingly Develop grant seeking strategy Develop on going relationships with our graduates and their families

Mid-term Priority Actions: Develop alternative revenue streams

Goal 7: Support the social health of our school (increase parent engagement)A strong and engaged parent body is foundational to our Mission and Vision, is necessary to create sustainability which is core to Rudolph Steiner’s philosophy and thus central to the whole health of our school. Understanding parents concerns and desires, increasing parent understanding of how Waldorf pedagogy works, as well as creating inviting and accessible ways to participate in our school are key.

Short-term Priority Actions:

Develop buddy/mentor system for new parents and/or EC students with older grades

Establish annual rising first grade social with first and second graders Provide childcare at events Evaluate and adjust current in-reach activities – how well do they engage parents?

Are they increasing parents understand of Waldorf education Parent resources/educational materials available in lobby

Mid-term Priority Actions: Create informal parent gathering space Hold at least 1 fun social event for parents to gather without children. It could be

a fundraiser or not.

Outcomes/Measures of Success:* Annual climate survey measures of satisfaction are high Volunteerism is high Faculty compensation increases from $38,000 per year to $45,000 and all full-time

faculty receive tuition remission Current base salary is not 38k. Our floor is $35k and the extra $3k is a “bonus” for

those faculty members who were hired when base salary was higher. New faculty have been hired and will be hired with a flat $35k salary without the 3k bonus. This has created a two-tier salary structure at the school by default.

Compensation for full-time classroom assistants increases from x to x, they receive a benefits package that includes and tuition remission (I believe hourly rate is $12/hr)

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Faculty benefits package include $x per teacher per year for professional development, health insurance and retirement (Professional development should be $1300 per FT teacher per year. At this time, most summer PD seminars cost $600 and are held on either coast. Along with airfare and accommodation, you are looking at that figure. Kindergarten PD seminars are equivalent in price. We should also be offering PD for our specialist teachers, maybe not on an annual basis at first, but on a semi-annual one. Seminars in Sacramento, CA for Spanish are $500.

After-/before-care coordinator and staff? Summer camp staff? Number of administrative staff meets standards set by AWSNA (i.e. x staff per 100

students) Administrative staff compensation increases from x to x Administrative staff benefits package includes $X per year for professional

development, health insurance and retirement Enrollment increases to 100 Employee retention rate increases from x to x (we could define this by grade) Enrollment rates increase Student retention rates increase Full-time faculty chair is established and oversees evaluation and mentoring X number of new students enter our Early Childhood program per year X% of students enroll from Early Childhood into Grades X% of students enroll from Playgroup into Grades Madison community more aware of MWS and knows who we are and what we do (how

do we measure this?) Endowment established

*Under developmentFocus Area 3: Expansion

Many vigorous voices have highlighted our need to aim for expansion of student numbers, program offerings, accessibility to a broader geographic area and sociocultural penetration into the Madison and surrounding areas. Steady growth is critical to sustain our school and to provide a rich, diverse, learning environment for children in each developmental stage. MWS envisions a future where is enrollment is strong, a full Waldorf curriculum exists and our location(s) is strategic offering accessibility to the broadest geographic region possible.

We envision MWS five years from now meeting our desired student numbers, offering a full complement of Waldorf curriculum, in a location that maximizes enrollment, and in a space (building and lands) that meet the desires of the staff, faculty, parents and Board.

The goals and actions listed below will help us achieve that vision.

Goal 1: Define our facilities/space wants and needs and develop a plan for attaining that new facility/spaceGoal 2: Offer full complement of specialtiesGoal 3: Continue to build partnerships

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Goal: 1 Improve our facilities MWS started a space planning process in Spring of 2014. To date the larger MWS community has given input on their wants/desires for our future space and faculty and administrative staff have completed two levels of questionnaires assessing their wants/desires. Due to staffing constraints this process is on hold.

Mid-term Priority Actions: Complete formal space planning process

o Field verify existing school square footage and develop space allocation summary for current facility

o Conduct round 3 questionnaire with faculty and staffo Complete space allocation summary (1 month)o Develop adjacency diagramso Develop ideal fit plano Package summary of findings, final space allocation summary and ideal

facility plano Evaluate options for geographic location

Examine buying neighboring conservancy or other property

Goal 2: Offer full complement of specialtiesA fully realized Waldorf curriculum includes a music program and Eurythmy, which MWS currently lacks. Further, we have been unable to fully support our existing specialty teachers with professional development and market-based wages and benefits.

Long-term Priority Action: Add music, Eurythmy, Spatial Dynamics/Games Mentoring opportunities and intensive professional development seminars for

specialty teachers Hire learning support teacher.

Goal 3: Continue to build partnershipsThe diverse nature of strategies in this plan provides an opportunity for collaboration with community partners. There are many possible partners in the Madison region and beyond whose values align with those of MWS. Identifying and creating strategic relationships with those individuals and organizations will allow MWS to capitalize on the knowledge, expertise, and capital and financial resources of this community and beyond. It will also achieve the outreach and marketing goals of becoming more well-known and well-understood in the Madison region.

MWS envisions a future 5 years from now where partnerships with a variety of strategic organizations and individuals are helping MWS to realize the goals outlined in this plan

On-going Priority Action: Continue to build on existing partnerships to realize the goals, strategies and

actions outlined in this plan

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Intentionally seek partners in the region who share our values; create generative relationships for mutual benefit.

Outcomes/Measures of Success:*

Partnerships contribute to increased outreach and enrollment Revenue from external sources increase

* Under development

Appendix A: List of Strategic Planning Workgroup Members

Alon Andrews, ParentCherity Foat, Parent and Grades Faculty ChairNancy Gutknecht, ParentMarcela Lopez-Lara, Grades FacultyRachel Martin, Parent and Board PresidentKathy McAleese, Parent and Faculty Chair Laurie Nagus, Parent and AdministratorWalt Schalick, Parent and Board Secretary

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Appendix B: Strategic Planning Work Group Process

Process for Creating a Short-, Medium- and Long-term Plans for MWS (January 2014)Remit: This ad hoc subgroup has been tasked to propose to the Board a process by which short-, medium- and long-range plans may be created for the Madison Waldorf School (MWS).  Expressly, the remit of this group is not to propose the plans, nor even to finalize the process, but merely to make a proposal to the Board from which a process can be generated and implemented.Background: Organizations of the complexity of the MWS do best with short, medium and long-term goals; equally important are plans by which to achieve those goals. A previous plan exists (“Strategic Plans,” 2009-10).  It was not, as a whole, implemented.  In the interim, MWS has changed substantially including its membership across the constituencies, its successes and challenges, and, to a degree, its goals. A larger ad hoc group assembled in late 2013 with representation from the Board, the Faculty, the Staff and Families to explore next steps for MWS.  That group empaneled two ad hoc subgroups with comparably diverse membership (one to explore next steps for enhancing the Early Childhood Programs, the other is this subgroup). In no way were these groups necessarily representative of the full constituency of MWS.  The intention of the members was simply to help MWS take a next step.Constituencies: There are four core constituencies within the MWS: a) Students, b) Faculty, c) Staff, and d) Parents/Guardians/Families.  There are two ancillary constituencies: e) the Wider (inter)national Waldorf Community and f) the Local Madison Metropolitan Community.  There are sub-constituencies within each constituency. MWS as a school of the Whole includes all current members of a)-d).Current MWS Structures: MWS is broadly organized via a Board, which has elected members from a)-d).  It has a Faculty composed of the Faculty of the Whole and supported by a Faculty Chair in a rotating electoral position.  It has a Staff, currently composed of individuals in the following roles: 1) Bookkeeping/ Payroll, 2) Website/Newsletter/ Marketing, 3) Administrator, and 4) Playgroup Coordination. The Parents/Guardians/Families have representation on the Board as well as on the PTCC. The Families generate volunteer work singly and in groups.  Several ? standing committees also exist, largely staffed by volunteers from the Parents/Guardians/Families including the Grounds Committee.  This volunteer work focuses on several large activities, including but not limited to: 1) Winter Festival, 2) May Festival, 3) Halloween Festival, 4) Open Houses, 5) Back-to-School and End-of-School Picnics and 6) Waldorf Wednesdays.  Volunteer work also includes the two current ad hoc groups as well as smaller projects generated out of typical work patterns. Finally, MWS Policies & Procedures (P&P) are largely defined by interplay of the By-laws and informal, traditional practices.  There are opportunities to further refine P&P on an ongoing basis.Facilities are leased from a private owner.  Currently the space is almost too small for current needs and would challenge growth.  In addition, the internal design, while not incompatible with needs is not conducive to full flexibility.

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The approximate number of families in the MWS community is ~60 with ~80 children ranging from Early Childhood to 8th grade; the first 8th grade class is due to graduate in 2013-14.Revenue streams include: tuition, Annual Campaign, sales from Winter Fest, and *. Annual Campaign donation percentage is *.Broad governance of MWS is framed by By-laws generated in 20* and revised in 20*. Day-to-day governance exists through a composite of Staff decisions, Faculty decisions, Board decisions and aggregate decisions of the Whole.Themes: Over the course of the last four years, a variety of themes relating to future-visioning of the MWS have included (but are not limited to): 1) Creation of a High School, 2) Creation of an Endowment, 3) Creation of a building designed for MWS, 4) Enhancement of Early Childhood Program, and 5) *.Scope/Characteristics: Any short-, medium- and long-term plans (hereinafter called “Plans”) must: 1) be practicable, 2) be inspirational, 3) have broad/deep buy-in, 4) be linked to concrete deliverables of a sequential nature to maintain momentum for change toward end-goal(s), 5) be linked to MWS structures and policies that can fulfill the deliverables in 4), and 6) be able to be adapted as MWS continues to evolve.  Thus the plans may include suggested changes to the governance, structure and P&P of MWS.

Proposal: Given the above scope, a process to achieve those Plans must gather broad input from the constituencies of MWS, gather an accurate sense of the collective actual and potential capabilities of MWS, and synthesize these elements into structured priorities with identified actors and resources in a timeline to achieve the goals.

1. Board meets to discuss the creation of a formal proposal to a long-term vision for our school as well as associated short/medium/long-term goals and actions to move us towards our vision. If Board is in agreement, board will give go ahead to ad hoc committee to create and, eventually, implement a plan.

2. To gather data, encourage buy-in, build community, and potentially recruit others for plan implementation, a school-wide visioning session will be arranged in March. Additional data will be collected from those who cannot attend using focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one contact, and any other prudent means. Student input will be collected by teachers, where appropriate, and given to point person below to integrate into database.

3. A member of the Board or ad hoc committee will collect, organize, and synthesize input gathered at the visioning session and by other means into school values and goals (see The Madison Waldorf School Strategic Objectives 2010-2013). This document will be submitted to Faculty, Administration, Board and PTCC.

4. Faculty, Administration, Board and PTCC will prioritize and consolidate goals individually and generate a final prioritized list of goals that will move the school towards their long-term vision. At this time, an audit of current skills and assets (human and material) will be completed to identify capacity for implementation.

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5. Once this prioritized list is created it will be synthesized into a final draft and shared with each constituency – Faculty, Administration, Board and PTCC for final input and revised accordingly.

6. Faculty, Board, Administration and PTCC will then develop specific actions for achieving short (and mid?) term goals in the form of an annual work plan. These workplans will identify a timeline, person responsible, and outcomes against which we can measure progress.

7. Workplans will be submitted to the School Administrator to ensure their coherency as well as alignment with the overall Strategic Plan.

8. The Board will put in place a process to ensure that progress on workplans is taking

place and that these actions are aligned with the overall strategic plan. This process will include formal check-ins every 3 months.

9. The Board will ensure there is an Annual Review of the overall Strategic Plan each May. Should substantial mismatch appear between constituency needs and the Strategic Plan, the Strategic Plan will need to be revised.

Drafted by the Strategic Planning Task Force and submitted to the Board, Faculty and Administration for review and approval.

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Appendix C: Strategic Planning All-School Vision Conversation Data Summary

This is a summary of the input collected from MWS faculty, staff and parents at an in-person event held on March 15, 2014 using Art-of-Hosting methods.

Marketing/BrandingWe asked participants “What is uniquely Madison about the Madison Waldorf School?” in order to identify overlapping values between our school and the larger community. These are important to consider as we develop our brand. The top themes that emerged are:

Environmental Consciousness Progressive thinking Food (Slow Food, Healthy Food, Organic Local food) Creative Problem-solving (thinking ouside the box) Healthy/Active Lifestyle Interest in and value of outdoors Buying Local Concern with quality of education/Rigorous Education/High Academic Standards

We also asked “What is the message we want our school to convey to the public?” Top themes that emerged are:

Our unique curriculum i.e. integrating math learning with movement, building from observational science to empirical science, focusing on developing core/human skills.

Rigorous disciplined and relevant academics Sense of community and emphasis on community building “Slow, patient” schooling, based on the natural developmental pace of the child,

that teaches the whole child A happy learning environment Financially accessible

Space PlanningFor the last few years our school has been interested in evaluating our space needs as we add grades and continue to grow. The placement of our school on the market created the energy we needed to launch a formal space planning process supported by two of our parents, John Seamon and Bridget LaGro, who are experienced in this field. Please note, that we are not in a position of losing our space as our lease will go along with the building sale.

One of the first steps in this process is to work with our community to identify what they like about our current space, what they don’t like and what the hope for. Participants provided some answers to these questions and voted on those that are of highest priority to them. The summary below shows those answers that received the most votes and it is still important to consider all of the feedback we received.

What doesn’t work well with our current facility? We need more:

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Outdoor space Bathrooms Indoor play space i.e. bigger movement room/gym Gathering space Light Storage space

Also some classrooms are too small (1st, 2-3 esp.) and the EC classrooms should have kitchen and bathrooms. And, we need human energy to maintain our grounds (they aren’t showing up).

What works well with our current facility? Kindergarten rooms and K playgrounds esp. back playground Architectural style (windows) and intimacy of space (cozy) Near natural areas, walks, nature

Program elements (wish list) for a new facility: Biodynamic garden Wooded area Playground with grass Industrial arts space Gym space Creative architecture in harmony with deep rhythms Stage/performance space/auditorium Auditorium Connected with biking and hiking trails Building that we at least partially make with mud/clay/brick Office located near building entrance School store more accessible and available to whole Madison community

Misc.Many more children, Decreased cost to families, Mindfulness brought into kids/curriculum, No need to combine classes each yearMore opportunities for artists to share work

APPENDIX D: Strategic Planning Idea Box Data Summary

The information below was collected via an Idea Box placed in the school lobby during the months of April and May 2014.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OUR SCHOOL IS DOING WELL? Fantastic teachers Compassionate and driven Hardworking volunteers Finding and creating balance.

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Creating an environment for our children to be engaged – to grow and to thrive. Thank you

Rhythm Emails Updates on social calendar Sense of community Teachers are great, grounding and calming Providing a Waldorf education for a growing number of children Creating a community of parents and children who invest (both financially and w/their

gifts) in the whole well being of our children, our planet, and our shared future. Feeling of home, comfort, stability for children, loving teachers, pedagogy, community of

positivity Decorating/painting the classrooms The stories and art that the children are exposed to. The Waldorf Wednesday A Day in the Grades (great for new, prospective families) Putting on plays I think Cherity Foat is a great teacher so having her as a teacher is something the school is

doing well. Teaching Holistically educating our children Teaching our children Offering high quality education. Offering high quality education. Age and developmentally appropriate curriculum Providing parent enrichment evenings and gatheirngs that build community

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BRING TO OUR SCHOOL THAT DOESN'T CURRENTLY EXIST? Biodynamic education in grades 6-8 Multiple streams of income that also offer outreach/education Growing school store and defining it’s goals and how it can help the school Eurythmy for early grades, regional folk dancing or capoeira (martial arts dance) for grades

7-8 (don’t laugh!) Perhaps a (part-time?) music staff to work with the teachers and offer more music

opportunities for all of the children. With the building for sale, exploring other locations/buildings that feature more outdoor

space for gardens & playful exploration of nature and seasons Support system for children who have learning challenges Larger, more diverse and beautiful outdoor play, work and farm space Early childhood tuition on par with outer EC (including Montesorri) programs Spanish foreign language More outside space Farm experiences Care for unusual days of i.e. Feb break and extra days after breaks Eurythmy for kids Conflict resolution process for kids to use or “Peace Maker” activities Stricter policy on letting kids watch media More talk about media’s effects in Early Childhood I hope the school can become a safe haven from media so the stories offered can take root

more rather than be moderate on media in fear of scaring families away Bigger space outside More presence in the community Hold winter festival in larger space so wider community can come Eurythmy

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More children A space that provides adequate outdoor space, centrally located, and large enough to

provide more parent space with room to grow. 9-12 grades A larger, more interactive library 9-12 grades

ARE THERE THINGS YOU THINK WE CAN DO BETTER? The school needs a unified vision of what makes Madison Waldorf special to other schools

in the area and different than other Waldorf Schools More informal gatherings/potlucks for whole school, not just per grade We are grateful for all that MWS has to offer! Thank you. We are happy the way things are. Hiring structure to be more transparent Fostering a sense of care and reverence for our current outdoor space/toys. Providing diverse opportunities for parent involvement i.e. different times for working

parents versus stay at home More school-wide activities Enforce the no hit policy or have kids have a consequence for it Help teach the children that respect of teacher’s is important I think you have a tough job – explore ways tuition could be cheaper (that said I know

attracting great teachers and Eurythmy come at a cost) it’s just that making ends meet on a very tight budget and having children come to school at MWS is a hard choice. A choice we want for our children but it compromises other things like taking care of our house, saving money (college, retirement, general rainy day savings) and travel (visiting family abroad). I think the money thing (huge no?) is why children end up not coming. The community is doing its best but needs help – fresh ideas, money, more energy (human).

Nothing

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