PART IV. CURRENT STATUS
A. Description of the use of the Long Range Plan as the Basis of the
Description of Current Status
Beginning in 1996, the basic elements for opening Cary Academy with a strong
goal and mission were put in place. A Board of Directors was appointed, staff
was secured, land and funding for buildings and equipment were provided by the
founders, curriculum was developed. During this period much effort was given by
the founders and principal staff (particularly the Head of School and Upper and
Middle School Heads) to the mission, goals, and role of the school. This report
speaks to that process in narrative provided in Parts I and II.
An integral part of the process of beginning and building the new school was
the continuation of discussions about the mission and goals of the school and
what guiding motifs or beliefs led to curricular, staffing, program, and
physical plant decisions and just whom the school would serve. For this reason,
a Long Range Planning program was undertaken in the school’s second year of
classes, 1998-99. This was done with two objectives in mind:
· To involve the school’s stakeholders
(Board of Directors, administration, faculty, parents,
students and staff) in a reexamination of the Mission and Goals of the
school
· To develop a five-year Long Range Plan to
assure that the school reaches its goals.
B. Organizational & Faculty Effectiveness
Prior to beginning work on the Long Range Plan, the school undertook a series
of questionnaires sent to faculty and parents as key stakeholders. These
questionnaires enabled the administration, Board of Directors, and Faculty (all
of whom had access to the results via general e-mail correspondence sent to
faculty and parents) to begin to understand the current status of the school as
it was developing. The results of those questionnaires appear as Appendix
E:
Questionnaire Results for 1998.
To assure consistency in data collection and to provide continuously updated
data for the Long Range Planning process, the process of sending questionnaires
to stakeholders was continued at the end of the 1998-1999 school year. The
results of those questionnaires appear as Appendix
F, Questionnaire Results
for 1999.
The results of the Questionnaires demonstrate parent satisfaction with
faculty interaction with students. For both years, questions dealing with
teacher effectiveness and teacher support for students received majority ratings
in the 3-4-5 sections of a 5-point scale. Please refer to Appendix E and
Appendix F for detailed discussion of these items.
C. Distribution of the Long Range Plan
The Long Range Planning Committee began its formal work in January, 1999 with
the assistance of an outside Long Range Planning Consultant to help the group
understand its objectives, develop procedures and structures (primarily
committees) to reach those objectives, and to facilitate the process.
In April 1999, draft of the Long Range Plan was vetted to all stakeholders.
In April, a series of "Listening Meetings" was begun to allow
stakeholders to discuss the plan, understand its contents and to suggest
changes, and to suggest methods to implement the Plan. Appendix G lists
the "Listening Meeting" schedule. This process provided a way to
assess the work of the Long Range Planning Committee as well as provided a
method to assure stakeholders’ understanding of the Plan’s contents and
commitment to the implementation of the Plan. In June, 1999, the Plan was
approved formally by the school’s Board of Directors. The approved Plan was
printed and vetted to all stakeholders subsequent to that action. It appears on
the school’s internal web-site as do the minutes of the various sub-committees
charged with implementing the Long Range Plan.
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