About MA
Strategic Plan
Marin Academy 2008: Meeting the Challenges is a strategic plan offering a dynamic framework for the furthering of our mission. It is a plan that takes into full measure the school’s current position of great strength and asks us to meet the challenges posed by five areas of needed institutional growth. It is a plan that builds upon our distinctive values of excellence in teaching and student life, while extending these ideals even further. And finally, it is a plan that speaks to the whole while realistically naming specific priorities. These priorities, albeit judicious, are ambitious and will need the support of the entire school community. We ask that you join us in genuine partnership to bring Marin Academy to an even higher standard of excellence and to insure its permanence for future generations.
Endowment
An endowment provides insurance for the future and can become a significant source of revenue beyond tuition. Unlike all other benchmarks for institutional strength, Marin Academy’s endowment is grossly insufficient. Building an endowment calls for a certain fiscal stewardship in both recognizing financial realities and managing resources for strategic growth. The time has come for Marin Academy to begin such building.
Goal:
Build and secure an appropriate endowment for Marin Academy.
Implementation steps:
- Launch a campaign to raise $12 million over five years in support of compensation, economic diversity and community outreach
- Require that all fundraising activities contribute a percentage of monies raised to endowment
- Direct planned giving initiatives to endowment
Diversity
Marin Academy believes in the amazing richness of diversity: racial, ethnic, cultural, geographic, sexual and socio-economic, as well as the diversity of differing perspectives and beliefs, to name but a few. Our strength as a school is dependent upon a full and open discourse among diverse people. We seek to find in our fellow humans that which makes us stronger, and in that exchange we find our capacity for change and our potential as a community. And while, in the future, our growth and commitment will continue to be broad reaching and inclusive of all differences, our next strategic priority will be to increase the presence of people of color in our fold, acknowledging as we do so a specific institutional need.
Goal:
Increase the presence of people of color at Marin Academy.
Implementation steps:
- Increase the population of students of color to at least one in four
- Expand efforts to increase the population of adults of color at Marin Academy, including faculty, staff, administrators, Board of Trustees and Board Committees
- Increase the Admissions Office budget in support of expanded outreach, marketing and scholarship efforts
- Foster the institutional change necessary to achieve a more inclusive community
Teaching and Learning
Teaching and learning lie at the very heart of our mission. Our commitment to a school size of 400 students, to small classes, to both experiential and service learning, and to a rich academic curriculum integrating the arts remains central to our institutional landscape. And, as we recognize the promises of education in the 21st century, we also accept the challenges for Marin Academy therein: a global understanding, a deeper acknowledgement of the rich diversity inherent in students with learning differences, and an appreciation of the role of technology in educational design and thinking.
A. Global Education:
Goal:
Promote and develop a deeper
understanding of global issues and concerns while emphasizing the similarities
and connections among people of different cultures.
Implementation steps:
- Create and enhance curricular and school-wide opportunities designed to provide Marin Academy graduates with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in an increasingly inter-dependent world
- Recognize the needs and opportunities of the local community surrounding Marin Academy
- Strengthen the connection between global education and service opportunities
- Provide professional development opportunities for faculty
B. Learning Services:
Goal:
Continue to develop learning services to
enable all Marin Academy students to succeed and realize their potential,
recognizing that a diversity of learning styles enhances the educational
environment.
Implementation steps:
- Expand our ongoing, comprehensive professional development program for faculty, staff, board and parents
- Continue to develop a program of services to support students with documented learning disabilities
C. Technology:
Goal:
Continue to develop technology as an
institutional tool to:
a. Prepare students for technological competence in
the world
b. Support faculty efforts in effective teaching
c. Enhance
the reach and cost effectiveness of the educational program
d. Expand and
deepen the use of technology within the extended Marin Academy community.
Implementation steps:
- Assess curricula/programs to ensure that students achieve competency
- Research new technologies to keep the institution forward-looking
- Assure that every Marin Academy family has online access
- Use technology to connect students, teachers and classrooms with institutes of higher education and with the wider world
- Provide needed professional development for faculty
- Continue mentoring/professional sharing among faculty re: technology
- Use student expertise to strengthen the technology program
- Address intellectual property issues
- Ensure technology funding that keeps pace with general renewal and replacement of existing systems
Compensation
Recognizing the high cost of living in the Bay Area and the long-term need to value the educational profession in today’s society, our focus on faculty and staff compensation is both timely and timeless. Our excellent faculty is critical to everything that we do, and there is no single initiative of greater importance than attracting and retaining the best teachers. Recognizing the strength of our existing professional development budget and understanding our limited fiscal resources beyond tuition, our strategic thinking centers itself on the most essential of aspect of compensation: salaries.
Goal:
Increase compensation levels to reflect
more accurately the cost of living in the San Francisco Bay area and to
acknowledge the value of educators as professionals.
Implementation steps:
- Provide annual increases in faculty compensation to be highly competitive by ISBOA (Independent School Business Officer’s Association) standards
- Evaluate administrative/staff salaries and adjust as necessary in order to remain highly competitive by ISBOA standards
Physical Plant
The last decade has provided our beautiful but aging campus with significant advancement in renewal and permanence, but work still remains. And, of course, safety and on-going maintenance will forever be part of our strategic thinking. With great appreciation for the successful work behind us, we accept the challenge of what lies ahead.
Goal:
Complete the campus renewal and ensure permanence of the quality and safety of the physical plant.
Implementation steps:
- Complete the renovation of the Administration building
- Move the admissions office to a location that meets the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act
- Devise a traffic safety plan for the campus
- Create a financial reserve for repair, maintenance and renewal of campus buildings
