Duke School's 2017-2022 Strategic Plan

Future orientation
I nnovative approaches and students
Results that are impactful
Equity
and justice

DUKE SCHOOL CORE VALUES
WHAT WE DO
Inspire learners to boldly and creatively shape their future.
IDEAS WE LIVE BY
Learner-Centered: Learners are the center of a dynamic and
collaborative learning, inquiry and discovery process.
Active Inquiry: Intellectual curiosity through project-based
learning propels learners to explore multiple paths to creative
solutions.
Bold Thinkers: A deep love of learning and respect for our
community forms bold, critical thinkers for life.
WHY WE DO IT
To prepare the next generation of problem solvers for our
complex world.
EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION SINCE 1947

OPENING LETTER
Dear Duke School Community Members,
The Board of Trustees is proud to share our strategic vision for the next five years.
The strategic plan is truly a blueprint for a bold future. The plan is the result of countless
hours of work by volunteers and staff alike. The board wants to thank them all for both their
work and commitment to the school. It is their input that has shaped our future.
A few features of the plan are worth highlighting. First, it begins with a vision statement,
our aspirational hopes for the future. Duke School will continue preparing our students
for the next steps in their education while inculcating the self-awareness, competence
and confidence to make positive contributions. Our students and the institution will be
upstanders, committed to doing the right things. We will also increase our influence on
education by expanding our work with other teachers. Finally, we will become a model of
equity and justice.
The strategic plan, known as FIRE, revolves around four key themes: Future sustainability,
Innovation, Results that are impactful, and Equity and justice. FIRE has 14 strategies
allowing both the board and staff to keep a keen focus on each step. Indeed, overseeing
the implementation of the strategic plan will be a top priority of the board and the school’s
leadership.
We would also like to highlight one of our strategies. The strategic plan calls for us to
explore avenues to provide excellent project-based education to students in grades 9-12.
While this means the school will be exploring the potential of opening a high school or
partnering with another institution to open a high school, it does not mean a Duke School
high school is imminent. An in-depth exploration will determine our future course.
As always, thank you for your support and love of Duke School.
M.C. Ragsdale | Board of Trustees Chair
Dave Michelman | Head of School

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Since its inception, Duke School has been a leader in progressive education and has excelled
in preparing the next generation of problem solvers while inspiring learners to boldly and
creatively shape their future. As the world around us changes at increasingly faster rates,
our strategies to prepare students to thrive in this environment must evolve just as quickly.
While the future our students will inherit is impossible to predict, we do know:
• The complexity of challenges facing the world are outpacing current knowledge and
strategies thus the world needs innovative people and solutions to address them.
• In order to be inspired problem solvers, students need the skills and habits of mind to be
engaged and make an impact in the knowledge economy.
• Students are most likely to succeed in an increasingly global cultural and economic
landscape if they enjoy an equitable and just environment.
• In order for Duke School to continue to be successful it needs a future orientation.
• The world needs engaged active citizens who are upstanders.
As a result, Duke School’s strategic plan (“FIRE”) has four pillars. The plan:
1) Boldly looks to students’, teachers’ and the institution’s future, rather than being tethered
to the past.
2) Fosters innovative students equipped to thrive in a volatile, uncertain, complex and
ambiguous (VUCA) world.
3) Challenges and prepares students and the institution to strive for impactful results.
4) Strives to create and maintain an equitable and just culture.
The four pillars of the plan create synergies that will lead to both Duke School and
its students to be upstanders.

VISION STATEMENT 2022
Duke School graduates are leaders who are prepared to excel in the next steps of their
education and contribute productively to a global, knowledge economy. They exhibit the
self-awareness, competence, and confidence to be upstanders by putting innovative ideas
into action for the greater good.
Duke School is recognized as a national leader in project-based education and design
thinking and is impacting education by influencing non-Duke School educators.
Duke School is a diverse community and a model for equity and justice for all students,
families and employees.
KEYWORDS
DESIGN THINKING
Design thinking is a methodology that was initially conceived by designers before they
began creating a project. The process is now being used to address all types of problems,
particularly ones that call for creative solutions. The process consists of solvers being
empathetic, defining the problem, brainstorming a wide range of possible solutions,
prototyping a number of them and testing them in the world.
SERVICE LEARNING
Service Learning allows students the opportunity to engage and partner with the community
organizations and members. Service learning is a collaborative and reciprocal partnership
between Duke School and the community organization which identifies with and has equal
voice in the design and implementation of the service activity.
UPSTANDER
Upstanders are individuals who use their knowledge to affect positive social change.
Upstanders stand in contrast to bystanders.

FUTURE ORIENTATION
Duke School will ensure that it has the institutional capacity to fund future programmatic and
physical expansions and will explore the feasibility of providing students the opportunity to
continue a project-based education at the high school level.
STRATEGY 1: Duke School needs to become more entrepreneurial. Hence, Duke School
will aggressively pursue creating and expanding revenue-generating businesses that
leverage its current personnel and physical assets.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Determine which current assets lend themselves to revenue generating enterprises
»»
Understand market and current Duke School strengths
• Create business plans to generate new revenue producing businesses
• Rework current administrative structure to ensure a person with entrepreneurial
experience and mindset is leading this charge
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
No immediate needs. As businesses thrive, more personnel may be needed.
STRATEGY 2: Duke School realizes that there are a limited number of local high school
options and none of them are project-based. Thus, Duke School will explore providing
excellent project-based instruction for grades 9-12 by investigating the practicality and
advantages of starting a high school, either independently or in collaboration with an
innovative partner.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Determine needs for a high school and develop the relevant specifics
»»
Understand market
»»
Determine needs for the school
»»
Determine potential for a partner
• Once plan is conceived, study the practicality of creating a high school
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Hiring of a consultant.

STRATEGY 3: Duke School should be able to expand its program and physical footprint
to meet future strategic initiatives. Hence, Duke School will develop a comprehensive land
use strategy and explore the need for securing a large tract of contiguous or nearby land.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Develop land use and facilities master plan to determine land needs
• Grant explicit authority for the Head of School to negotiate a land deal on
behalf of Duke School with support from the Board Finance Committee
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Create reserve to buy land.
STRATEGY 4: To secure its future, Duke School must ensure it has enough income
to meet its strategic goals. Hence, Duke School needs to determine a long-term
affordability plan.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Board of Trustees to determine tuition-setting objectives
• Hire a consultant to advise on affordability price points in our market
• Board Finance Committee recommends affordability strategy
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Hire a consultant to study demographics of Duke School’s market area.

INNOVATION
Recognizing that students will require additional skills and habits of the mind to ensure they
can confront the complexity of challenges of the ever evolving global knowledge economy,
Duke School will appropriately grow and augment its project-based learning approach to
prepare our students to become inspired problem solvers of the future.
STRATEGY 1: Students need to understand the best processes for being innovative.
Hence, Duke School will enhance its project-based curriculum so that students explicitly
understand and employ design thinking.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Dedicate programmatic/curricular staffing resources for internal innovation
• Work with teachers to integrate design thinking into project work
• Hire outside design thinking professional development consultants to work with faculty
STRATEGY 2: To be innovative, particularly in the long run, Duke School students and
employees need to be self-aware and be able to take care of themselves. Because students
and adults are bombarded with electronic distractions and temptations, they need a strong
set of self-regulation and technology management skills. Hence, Duke School will implement
a self-care curriculum and employee initiative.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Create a schoolwide self-care curriculum which integrates self-care into the social
curriculum
• Hire a Lower School counselor who, along with the Middle School counselor, will oversee
the self-care curriculum
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Funds to hire a Lower School counselor.
STRATEGY 3: Middle School students need to be able to explore their passions in low
risk environments. Hence, Duke School will extend the Middle School day to 6 PM (with the
3:30-6 PM time being optional) to allow students to explore a variety of activities.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Securing additional program offerings to enhance after school experience
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Hire program experts by fall 2018. Increase tuition or fees to cover additional costs.

STRATEGY 4: Students need a place to create, innovate and perform. In addition, Duke
School needs a flexible space to house entrepreneurial endeavors, host community events
and teacher institutes. Hence, Duke School will explore building an innovation lab featuring
flexible space.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Determine needs for an innovation lab and develop the relevant specifics
• Hire an architect to help design building
• Hire consultant to do a feasibility fundraising study
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Hire architect and a fundraising consultant.

RESULTS THAT ARE IMPACTFUL
In addition to understanding how to be problem solvers, Duke School will also prepare
students to be upstanders - to use their knowledge to affect positive social change.
Additionally, Duke School will strive to continue to be a national leader in project-based
education and will expand the current teacher training institutes so as to affect and support
the next generation of educators.
STRATEGY 1: To be impactful, a student needs to see that their actions and work can
drive positive change in their world. Hence, each year students will experience being an
upstander either through project work, service learning, or both.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Dedicated programmatic/curricular professional development focused on how to
transform a number of projects into being more community oriented
• Work to integrate design thinking into project-based learning
STRATEGY 2: To be impactful, a student needs to understand the needs of the greater
community and that their work can make the world better through reciprocal collaborations
with community agencies and members. Hence, the school will improve and standardize its
service learning for grades K-8.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Rededication of staff to identify community partners who are willing to work in
partnership with the school
STRATEGY 3: To be impactful to the broader education landscape, Duke School needs
to teach other teachers how to become excellent project teachers. Hence, Duke School
will grow enrollment in its teacher institutes, particularly for teachers working with a wide
range of socioeconomic students, consult at other schools, and publish multimedia materials
describing its teaching approach.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Train additional Duke School Project Trainers
• Determine timeline for publishing multimedia material
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Staffing support for marketing.

EQUITY AND JUSTICE
The Duke School community is committed to being a model for equity and justice for all
students, families, educators and employees. We strongly believe that students are most likely
to succeed in an increasingly global cultural and economic landscape if they experience an
equitable and just environment. For Duke School to become equitable and just, all constituencies
must understand and appreciate the tapestry of humankind, understand that diversity leads to
better decisions, and that equity and justice for all racial, ethnic, religious groups, and LGBT
community members is a moral imperative.
STRATEGY 1: Duke School recognizes that some barriers to becoming more diverse,
equitable and just may be systemic, unconscious, or cultural and thus difficult for members of the
Duke School community to recognize and change. Duke School will work to identify and change
those systemic barriers.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Hire a consulting firm to begin in the 2017-18 school year, to advise us on and make
recommendations about Duke School practices that would break down systemic barriers and
make us more equitable and just
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Consulting contract, and additional personnel if required.
STRATEGY 2: For Duke School to create an equitable and just culture, employees, board
members and parents should have a deep understanding of systemic racism. Hence, Duke School
will require that all members of the board and all employees attend racial and equity training and
will offer training to all parents who wish to participate.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Hire training consultants
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Cost of employee training and scholarships for board and parents.
STRATEGY 3: For Duke School to be truly just and equitable, it must meet the needs of a
wider socioeconomic spectrum. Hence, Duke School will commit to extending its socioeconomic
reach through expanded summer programing and working with teachers who teach a wide
socioeconomic range of students. The school will determine how or if it can meet the needs of a
wide range of socioeconomically diverse students in its core academic year program.
RESOURCES REQUIRED/INPUTS:
• Revisiting Indexed Tuition philosophy
• Scholarships to Teacher Institutes for teachers working with a broad range of
socioeconomic children
ADDITIONAL FINANCIAL RESOURCES REQUIRED:
Increased Indexed Tuition dollars and monies dedicated to summer programs.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR TASKFORCE MEMBERS
STEERING
COMMITTEE
Kathy Bartelmay
Kisha Daniels
Christopher Gergen
Dave Michelman
M.C. Ragsdale
Mark Scullion
Connie Semans
Julie Shermak
Tina Valdecanas
PREPARING STUDENT
AGENCY
Jenny Murray (Chair)
Meytal Barak
Kristin Bradley Bull
Katie Christo
Heather Clarkson
Stephen Cole
Maureen Dwyer
Matthew Etherington
Gabe Hart
Sheronda Jeffries
Romina Khandani
Beth Murgitroyd
Willie Nicholson
Connie Semans
Cassandra Taylor
Rachel Wertheimer
INSTITUTIONAL
SUSTAINABILITY
Jeff Welty (Chair)
Kenneth Chandler
Annie Gentithes
Richard Griffin
Lisa Andrews-Lanier
Shahar Link
Frances Mock
Gary Monroe
Kendra Maultsby-Mudd
Dana Pearsall
Russell Rabinowitz
Rachel Wertheimer
NEIGHBORHOOD
ENGAGEMENT
Elizabeth Hays (Chair)
Grace Beason
Elaine Cameron
Elise Dunzo
Louise Flynn
Victoria Goatly
Lisa Kahan
Sarah Lamb
Joel Lipsitch
Lake Lloyd
Julie Marshall
Whitney Sandor
Bob Robinson
Emeline Van Deman
Tina Valdecanas
Les Webster
EDUCATION EXPERTS
Nicole Thompson (Chair)
Natalie Aho
Kathy Bartelmay
Katie Christo
Kisha Daniels
Leah Houde
Carolynn Klein
Amy Lau
Ann Lawrence
Mark Scullion
Connie Semans
Les Webster
Alison Windram
ADMINISTRATIVE
SUPPORT
Kristi Martin