School Strategy In The Pursuit of Excellence

Strategic planning is a process that independent schools, non-profit organizations, and for-profit businesses and industries typically undertake on a regular basis to ensure they are meeting their mission, acting upon their core values, and appropriately setting goals around those strategic initiatives. As such, over the course of the 2019-2020 school year, MPCS is engaging in the strategic-planning process. This process is meant to be comprehensive and allow every stakeholder (students, alumni, parents, grandparents, board, faculty, and staff) to provide input into the direction of the school over the next five years. By engaging our people, our goal is to inspire and unite our community through the process, allowing us all to be a part of something bigger, so that our students may flourish.

 

MISSION-DRIVEN CORE VALUES

Over the past several months, the Board of Trustees has renewed their support of the mission of the school:

Providing academic excellence in a Christ-centered environment, Mount Paran Christian School unites with home and church to prepare servant-leaders to honor God, love others, and walk in Truth.

Likewise, along with the school’s Executive Council, we have established the Core Values that will help us determine if all we are doing is meeting our mission. These include being Christ-Centered, Learning Focused, Pursuers of Excellence, and Community Oriented. I am excited about the continued focus on our mission and core values, as they will ensure we are the school tomorrow that we sought to be at our founding in 1976.  

Now, as we begin to plan for the next five years, we understand full-well that the world is changing at a pace that is unprecedented in human history.  We understand that while we are looking to the future, we will face issues and unforeseen challenges we have not yet experienced. Yet, to not plan for an uncertain future would be unwise and would guarantee we would not succeed to our utmost potential. We covet your prayers and seek God's ultimate plan for the future of our school.

COMMUNITY INPUT

You, the MPCS community, will be asked to join us in planning for the future of MPCS. The process will ultimately produce a plan of action, initiatives, goals, responsibilities, benchmarks, and indicators of success.

The strategic plan will therefore require several foundational elements that include

1. An understanding of our mission and values as a school community

2. A blueprint for action

3. Broad milestones to monitor progress

4. Information that enables us to improve programming, as well as structures and enables us to better market and promote the school

(Allison & Kaye, Strategic Planning for Non-profit Organizations, John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, NJ.)

Soon, we will be asking you to complete a SWOT Analysis, commenting on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that you see both inside and outside the School. We will ask you to participate in a school-wide Strategic Planning Forum (similar to a town hall) to be held in the Kristi Lynn Theatre. And, we will ask you to participate in focus groups for each division (lower school, middle school, high school) and each key area (arts, Christian life, and athletics). Your input will be invaluable as we seek to ensure the highest quality education is provided to your children over the next five years.

Developing a STRATEGIC plan

Finally, we will bring together a committee of committed individuals who will help us design the strategic plan and five-year outlook. These committee members will be made up of various members of the Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents, and grandparents. Between January and August, we will work to complete this plan and present it to the school community in September of 2020. 

I am excited about the process. We have much to celebrate about the past, but even more to look forward to in the future. With the help of the entire MPCS family, we will create and implement and execute a plan that will enable us to meet our mission and make an impact in the world around us. Thank you for the guidance you will provide in the upcoming months! As such, we constantly seek God's plan for our school and for our students in all that we do, always. 

Click here to learn more about the newly implemented, mission-based Core Values at Mount Paran Christian School.