FORWARD: Our Strategic Vision for Saint David’s Future
FORWARD MISSION
Saint David’s School has steadfastly pursued our mission “to educate boys to fulfill their potential through rigorous academic pursuit, deliberate moral introspection, and critical analysis of ideas and issues.”
We’ve launched more than five decades of boys on that path forward to “being good men” through a balanced, classical approach built on four pillars: academics, athletics, arts, and spirituality. As we look forward to celebrating our 75th year, this strategic initiative is helping to push our mission forward.
FORWARD VISION
To remain true to that legacy and continually advance our mission, we must confidently reach toward future opportunities that will strengthen our teachers, our boys, and our home. To do this, we have identified three key priorities to inspire our teachers, deepen our community, and prepare our boys.
OUR THREE STRATEGIC PRIORITIES:
- INSPIRE: Further heighten the inspiration of our faculty – along with the quality of our educational offerings – through continued innovation in best practices in the teaching of boys along with competitive compensation and enhanced opportunities for professional growth and development.
- DEEPEN: Deepen our commitment to socioeconomic diversity by broadening access to a Saint David's education.
- PREPARE: Optimize our newly extended contiguous campus into a purpose-built, world-class learning environment designed to equip boys for the challenges and opportunities of our rapidly changing world.
FORWARD Priority 1: INSPIRE
Faculty Compensation, Growth, and Professional Development
Attract, develop, and retain exceptional, top-tier faculty who are committed to Saint David’s mission and ethos, and inspired by the opportunity to be leaders in the field of understanding and teaching boys.
At Saint David’s, our teachers inspire our boys to learn and to be good men, both inside and outside of the classroom. As part of ongoing efforts to attract, develop, and retain the most talented faculty possible, we must provide even more robust mission-driven professional development that allows our teachers to continue to learn, grow, and lead within their roles at Saint David’s and in their chosen profession. Amidst an exceedingly tight faculty labor market and given the high cost of tri-state area living, we must also ensure that our faculty compensation package remains highly competitive.
Actions:
- Deepen professional development opportunities through a customized, research-based framework created by our own master faculty and driven by Saint David’s mission and values, to permanently embed best practices in the teaching and learning of boys into our professional development program. Grounded by the Saint David’s Teaching Boys Initiative that focuses on the art, craft, and science of teaching for the way boys think and learn, this program has a particular emphasis on relational teaching so that the wisdom of our master teachers can guide the current and next generation of Saint David’s teachers.
- Ensure we keep faculty salaries and benefits highly competitive by building our endowment to generate the resources necessary to attract and retain the best teaching talent.
Outcome:
We inspire our teachers through stimulating, research-based professional development opportunities that keep our school at the forefront of boys’ education while sustaining and promoting Saint David’s mission and values. In so doing, we can best continue cultivating the intellectual, artistic, athletic, and moral growth of our boys.
Action Research Spotlight
Teachers are conducting original research using our new mission-centric framework for professional development. Here’s an example. Click on the image to learn about one of our pilot action-research projects.
FORWARD Priority 2: DEEPEN
Deepen Community
Ensure that Saint David's reflects the socioeconomic diversity of our city.
Saint David’s is known for its sense of family, compassion, and kindness. Our boys develop cultural competency as they are taught what it means to be a global citizen and to respect and embrace the ways that difference manifests. Consistent with this mission, it is imperative that our community reflects the socioeconomic diversity of our city. Having made significant strides towards achieving this goal through targeted outreach, programming, and scholarship efforts, we will meaningfully strengthen our commitment to financial aid.
Actions:
- Increase financial aid commitment to allow for greater socioeconomic diversity.
- Continue to build community in related programs schoolwide, including Sophrosyne (our health, well-being, and character course), religion, and advisory.
- Continue our commitment to our Horizons program, which provides high-quality academic and enrichment programming to under-resourced boys from our partner schools in East Harlem.
Outcome:
We deepen our community, helping to bring our boys and teachers forward, allowing them to thrive in an environment with diverse perspectives.
FORWARD Priority 3: PREPARE
Optimize the Campus
Building on our foundations, create optimal learning spaces designed for the current and future needs of our boys and their teachers.
Through the May 2022 purchase of the fourth and final Cutting Townhouse at 15 East 88th Street, we welcomed the completion of our Saint David’s home into a contiguous campus centered around an active play space that can rival any Pre-K - 8 academic institution in our city. These past few years reinforced the importance of having ample, customized spaces in which our boys and faculty can learn, teach, and play, and we have a historic opportunity to maximize this campus extension to support specialized instruction and even smaller teacher-to-student ratios.
Actions:
- Repurpose and renovate 15 East 88th Street for the benefit of our teachers, our program and our boys, while supporting the school’s institutional growth.
- Create dedicated math, STEAM, foreign language, innovation, and media spaces at 12 East 89th Street that support and advance programmatic goals.
- Maintain three homerooms per grade and small group learning in reading and math, ensuring individualized attention and strong student achievement.
- Increase instructional space by 10 percent.
- Increase contiguous outdoor play space by 33 percent for our pre-primary boys through our expanded backyard.
Outcome:
We prepare our teachers and boys for the needs of a rapidly changing world, enabling them to teach and learn in optimally-designed spaces that accommodate current and future opportunities.
Optimize the Campus Spotlight
Click on the photo to see an enlarged aerial view of our campus.
Saint David’s upcoming 75th Anniversary is a time to celebrate, reflect, and intentionally advance the school. Our strategic priorities vision builds upon a long-held tradition of advancing purposeful change while maintaining our commitment to a classical, balance-oriented, values-driven education. This plan grew from a community-wide survey conducted in 2019 and the work of subsequent strategic planning committees and focus groups. We appreciate and value all of Saint David’s community members.
Realizing this vision will require the support of our entire community. Together, as always, all that we do serves our mission’s ultimate aspiration … “that they be good men.”