LREI Strategic Plan 1

STRATEGIC PLAN Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School

DEAR LREI COMMUNITY,

In the fall of 2012, the Little Red School House and Elisabeth Irwin High School Board of Trustees embarked on a strategic planning process to guide the school towards its centennial in 2021. Building upon the successes of our last plan—doubling the size of the Charlton Street campus, enlarging the student body, and completing significant building renovations—the trustees decided that LREI was well positioned to bring the thoughts and voices of the community together again to imagine the future.

We are proud of our planning process, led by a steering committee comprised of trustees, administrators, alumni, faculty, and students. All of the LREI community was engaged through surveys, focus groups, a board retreat, and a two-day planning workshop. This document is the result of that vital process. Thank you for your honest and thoughtful contributions.

As always, we take our inspiration from LREI’s students. We will aspire, work hard, collaborate, and be energized by the challenge.

PHILIP KASSENDirector

ROBERT ROSENTHAL ’80Chair, Strategic Planning Committee

AMY ZIMMERMANChair, LREI Board of Trustees

Only through a process of continual growth, change, and renewal do we remain truly progressive.

The school will not always be what it is now, but we hope it will always be a place where ideas can grow, where heresy will be looked upon as possible truth, and where prejudice will dwindle from lack of room to grow.

Progressive education is always coming of age.

Quotations by LREI Founder, Elisabeth Irwin

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INTRODUCTIONOur plan addresses LREI’s current priorities and will help us to take advantage of future opportunities for the school. Some of our goals are well defined and readily measurable. Others are less so, and will require more time and exploration to achieve. In the months and years to come, the board, administration, and faculty will meet the goals set out in the four sections of this plan, listed below. We will report our progress towards these goals on a regular basis.

STUDENTS & LEARNING

FACULTY & INNOVATION

SCHOOL & COMMUNITY

FINANCIAL FOUNDATION

STUDENTS & LEARNING

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LREI students are prepared with the skills and content knowledge needed to succeed in school and beyond. Our progressive curriculum integrates habits of mind that equip students to participate meaningfully in an increasingly diverse and complex society. As part of the ongoing examination and improvement of our program, we will:

Guide our students as they master the principles that are the basis of our academic program—critical thinking, creativity, courage, and citizenship.

Ensure the excellence of our science and math programs by rooting them more firmly in our progressive mission.

Provide opportunities for our students to employ their skills and knowledge outside the classroom, including additional domestic and international travel opportunities for our high school students and partnerships with educational, cultural, and business institutions.

Enrich our physical education and athletics programs to ensure that they are exemplars of the school’s progressive mission.

Enhance the Senior Project to ensure that each student’s culminating experience is mission driven, an outgrowth of our 14-year academic program, and a bridge to success in life beyond LREI.

FACULTY & INNOVATION

The LREI faculty is at the core of our success. At every level of our 14-year program, teachers are invested in their students’ development, committed to our progressive vision, insightful about current practice, and innovative when looking to the future. We will challenge our faculty and administrators to pursue the spirit of innovation that was the basis of our founding as we:

Strengthen connections between the divisions, ensuring that the core LREI experience is consistent and supportive as students move through our 14-year program.

Create a series of progressive innovation grants, supporting faculty as they generate new experiential and interdisciplinary programs that enhance learning.

Embrace the thoughtful use of technology to innovate and collaborate.

Establish our leadership in the community of progressive educators by sharing effective practices and curricula with other public and private educational institutions.

Triple the level of financial resources that we allocate to professional development of our faculty and administrative staff.

Inform parents about institutional and grade-level expectations and assessments in clear and accessible ways.

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SCHOOL & COMMUNITY

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An essential characteristic of LREI’s strength as an educational community comes from respect for our similarities and our differences in thought, expression, temperament, talent, interests, and abilities, as well as our personal and innate characteristics. As we guard and enhance this asset, we will:

Foster within the community a deep understanding of LREI’s progressive mission and the manner in which it informs our educational program, diversity efforts, and community.

Increase the diversity of the constituencies of the LREI community—students, families, faculty, and staff—in order to reflect that of our city.

Engage in the National Association of Independent Schools’ Assessment of Inclusion and Multiculturalism to benchmark our diversity and social justice efforts.

Strengthen the school’s presence as a community center providing a forum for meeting, discussion, and learning, in which all ideas are treated with respect and to which all LREI families have equal access.

Rejuvenate our historic commitment to a public purpose by increasing service opportunities for LREI’s families and alumni and enriching our service learning program across all three divisions.

FINANCIAL FOUNDATION

To support and implement our strategic goals, we must ensure the financial stability of our school. Our mission demands that we address the competing needs of affordable tuition, competitive salaries, and maintaining a level of financial aid that will support our diverse community. We will:

Build a permanently restricted endowment of at least 20 million dollars.

Increase our Annual Fund by at least 50 percent.

Cultivate major gifts to fund aspects of the Strategic Plan and significantly improve LREI’s stewardship of our many supporters.

Ensure that faculty and staff compensation levels attain or exceed the median for our peer schools in the New York City area.

Maintain financial aid as a percentage of gross tuition that places LREI securely in the top 10 percent of our peer schools in the New York City area.

Investigate tuition models that balance affordability and access.

Establish a more even distribution of financial aid across all three divisions.

Plan for a long-term solution to the school’s need for a permanent athletic facility.

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Board of Trustees 2012-2013Denise Adler

Shannon Barden

Carrie Borows

Jeffrey Brooks

Irene Cabrera

Willard Cook

Stephen Cornick ’85

Roger Ehrenberg

Emma Fine

James Gadsden ’66

Pippa Gerard

Elizabeth Gonzalez

Francis Greenburger

James Harris

Rhonda Hartley

Kaiko Hayes

Celine Kagan

Sarah Lutz

Dave Olsen

Tim Merjos ’80

Sean Paroff

Kasey Picayo

Matthew Rosen

Robert Rosenthal ’80

Susie Scher

Kent G. Smith ’59

Diana Son

Eve Stuart

Cary Tamarkin

Regina Trumbull

Karen Wagner

Alexis Wright

Amy Zimmerman, Chair

Strategic Plan Steering Committee

Will Balsam ’14, Student

Willard Cook, Trustee

Carina Cruz ’13, Student

Michel de Konkoly Thege, Associate Director

Julia Heaton, Director of Admissions

Deborah Hodge, Faculty

Phil Kassen, Director

Sarah Lutz, Trustee

Manjula Nair, Faculty

Dave Olsen, Trustee

Robert Rosenthal ’80, Trustee

Mark Silberberg, Middle School Principal

Regina Trumbull, Trustee

Alexis Wright, Trustee

Amy Zimmerman, Chair, Board of Trustees

A leader in progressive education since 1921, LREI teaches children to be independent thinkers who work together to solve complex problems. Students graduate from our diverse community as active participants in our democratic society, with the creativity, integrity, and courage to bring meaningful change to the world.

Approved by LREI’s Board of Trustees, October 6, 2014

MISSION STATEMENT

lrei.org

Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School 272 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY 10014