Duke School Under the Oak Magazine, Fall 2017

VISION 2022:
DUKE SCHOOL’S
STRATEGIC PLAN
By Lea Hart, Duke School Parent
When Duke School’s Board of Trustees began
to consider a new strategic plan for the school,
a number of questions ran through the minds of
board members.
What should our priorities be? What voices need
to be heard in the process? What are the keys to
staying true to Duke School’s mission? And some
even asked, do we need a new strategic plan?
“There are a bunch of people who say, ‘don’t
bother, life changes too fast,’” Head of School
Dave Michelman said of strategic planning.
But in the end, the answer to that last question
was, yes.
Duke School’s previous strategic plan had come
to an end. For two years following, the board
decided to implement strategic goals, which they
would monitor, but wouldn’t encompass a full
strategic plan.
“After two years of that, we realized we liked the
old-fashioned way,” Dave said. “A strategic plan
allows you to accomplish longer term goals.”
BEGINNING THE PROCESS
Though the board had hired a consultant to assist
with the previous strategic plan, it felt this time
around that it knew the community well enough to
take on the planning in-house. At the same time,
Dave said the board knew it wanted widespread
buy-in for the plan and for the community to take
an active role in the planning process.
Dave, usually accompanied by a board member,
met with Duke School’s various constituencies
– including parents, faculty and staff, parents of
alumni, and others – to talk about the school’s
strengths, what they saw as being critical to
Duke School staying true to itself, and what areas
of growth needed to be addressed. In those
meetings, participants were also asked a big
question: What did they think the future held.
Several themes arose out of those conversations,
and the board created four task forces to take a
deeper look. Forming the acronym “PINE” the
four taskforces included: Promoting Student
Agency, Institutional Sustainability, Neighborhood
Engagement, and Education Experts.
Each taskforce included employees, current
parents and two taskforces included students.
They began researching over the summer of 2016,
and by fall, planning was in full swing. Taskforce
members visited other schools, talked to experts,
gathered data, and engaged in conversation.
6 UNDER THE OAK