CMDS Hires Strategic Planning Firm
Dr. Bryan Williams, Head of School
At Christ Methodist Day School, we strive to consistently learn, improve, and evolve. The best independent schools, every several years, take time to reflect on their mission, vision, and values, and subsequently develop a strategic plan for their school’s future. This year, CMDS and schools across the globe experienced an unprecedented pandemic, which forced us to separate and learn remotely. We spent much necessary time and effort focused on the health and safety of our own intimate community. We feel now is the time to reflect upon our school, look toward the future and develop a three to five-year Strategic Plan that will guide us over the next period of growth and change.
Every five years independent schools go through a comprehensive evaluative process, which ultimately leads to re-accreditation. The year prior to re-accreditation is spent looking deeply at our school and developing a self study. This year, we want to begin that evaluative process; solidify our mission, vision, and values; and move forward with a comprehensive strategic planning process. To that end, we have hired a national school consulting firm, The Gowan Group, to guide us through this process. This will be a year-long comprehensive process where we will review each and every area of school life. We will hear from our entire community: parents, faculty & staff, alumni, and some of our oldest students. We will host several focus groups and deploy three separate and confidential surveys so we can hear from our families directly.
The Gowan Group’s study will surely highlight the value of CMDS and underscore our strengths and weaknesses. Once the research is completed, we will convene a small strategic planning committee to work closely with Gowan Group to craft our strategic plan based on what our community reported, and our board of trustees advised.
We are excited to hear what will come from these surveys and what will eventually make up our Strategic Plan moving forward. There are some things we know we need to address. We need a campus master plan to make sure we have the space needed to accommodate our school in the future. We also know that we want CMDS to be a more racially, ethnic and culturally diverse community. We are looking into various opportunities to promote diversity – in a Biblically sound and age-appropriate way – in many aspects of our school. But we also are well aware of the fact that we don’t know it all! We look forward to hearing from our community of families, both current and alumni, to help guide us.
Christ Methodist Day School is fortunate to be looking toward the future from an area of great strength. After more than 60 years, we hold onto many deep traditions that continue to remain at the forefront of what we do. We are blessed to have that foundation to build from and create a plan of growth from it. Our school and our financial framework are sound. We hold no debt. Our faculty and staff have never been stronger nor more dedicated to our student’s success. Our community of students, parents, and faculty and staff are well positioned to look forward and determine the critical path for the next five years of CMDS.
As we implement these reflective and evaluative steps, our community will hear more about our work and plans in each of these areas. We will share our progress, and always welcome your thoughts and feedback as well. We are moving forward together … continuing the excellence that has always been the trademark of Christ Methodist Day School!
