Engaging, Inspiring, Enriching
Mission and Core Purposes
Saklan Valley School is an inclusive and caring community which fosters engaging and rigorous, creative and analytical intellectual development,
and embodies respect, responsibility, and integrity in preparation for a complex, diverse, interdependent world.
June, 2007
Our School:
Overview and Background
In 2000-2001 Saklan, using a consultant, a multi-constituency committee, and a series of community meetings, prepared a comprehensive Strategic Plan (2001-2006: Engaging, Inspiring, Enriching). During that period, the school had many successes: enrollment growth by 50%; dramatic financial improvement; the purchase of the school’s long-rented campus; and re-accreditation by CAIS and WASC with a maximum length term.
Now, in 2007, the Board of Trustees, together with the school community, has prepared the School’s Plan for the coming five years. A strategic planning committee, composed of teachers from all three divisions, the Parent Association President, the Student Council Co-Presidents, and co-chaired by two trustees (and parents) and the Head of School has prepared this plan, and it has been approved by the Board of Trustees. All parents and students were surveyed about what they think is most important about the school, and Parent Board members, Trustees, and Faculty members were interviewed in small groups or individually by the committee co-chairs and the Head of School.
The results of this survey present a very clear picture of what makes our school special, which we are determined to honor, preserve and perpetuate. small classes, strong academics, outstanding teachers, and a strong school community that is safe and caring; this Saklan is, and this Saklan is committed to continuing to be.
This plan commits to making the present school, in its present configuration, fully successful: to be defined by educational excellence, the continued fulfillment of its mission, full enrollment, an always improving school campus, and a strong financial position.
On May 24, 2007, this plan was unanimously recommended to the Board of Trustees for approval by vote of the strategic planning committee; on
June 2, 2007, this plan was unanimously adopted by the Board of Trustees.
Living Our Mission
Our 2012 Vision
In 2012, Saklan Valley School will educate children from Pre-School through 8th grade, in one section per grade throughout the school, (two at PreK). Each class will be full or just about full, 40-50 in the Early Childhood program, and about 150 in the K-8 program. Saklan will still feature all the positive qualities a smaller school, with smaller classes, can provide: strong teacher-student rapport, greater individual attention, superb school-family collaboration, and more opportunities for student leadership and participation in the classroom and outside the classroom.
Saklan will continue to live on its School Street campus, which will have been significantly enhanced. A thorough campus architectural master plan will have been conducted to identify all opportunities to improve the campus for educational functions and for visual aesthetics, and after a capital campaign and other capital raising ventures, many campus improvements will have been completed.
Much of the educational program will look the same, with a continued emphasis on core skills mastery, critical thinking, and outstanding intellectual development. A further evolved emphasis on foreign languages, technology integration, scientific learning, and global studies will be apparent throughout the campus, and our students will be becoming “global communicators”—curious about, skilled at, and practiced in learning about our world and its citizens and having many tools and media to communicate to them. Our school community will continue to be inclusive, and will have become more diverse, more reflective, and more purposeful in the way we include and respect others.
Our Educational Program
Background:
Saklan Valley School is justifiably proud of its educational excellence. The 2004 CAIS Visiting Team stated a major commendation to the Saklan Faculty for implementing a program that truly fulfills the school’s mission to provide excellent academics in a supportive and encouraging environment. Our ERB scores have improved considerably in the past five years, as has our high school placement track record; our independent consultant comprehensive parent survey found 90+ parent satisfaction for our curriculum.
In the past five years, Saklan has fulfilled the previous strategic plan’s curricular initiatives by expanding art, music, foreign language and science; by improving the school’s Library, by enhancing the computer technology educational program; by strengthening our ability to support our students’ learning by on-site tutoring and classroom assisting; and by developing a more structured curricular review process.
Goals:
Now, this plan calls for the school to further develop and emphasize a distinctive curriculum which commits to prepare students for “speaking to the world.” This includes an integrated approach to providing students global communications skills, enabling them to interpret and understand the world, and to communicate to others in multiple languages and media. We will continue to build on our strengths—small classes, individual attention, learning support systems, and foreign languages—and develop further our educational programs in science, technology, and digital arts for these purposes.
Initiatives 2007-12
1. Review annually our curriculum’s effectiveness in a multi-faceted way: considering a wide variety of standards, goals, and external and internal benchmarks, and seeking to develop stronger interdisciplinary and coherent learning experiences for students.
2. Continue to develop a global studies curriculum, including International Day, foreign languages, travel and experiential education, and exploring opportunities for international student exchanges.
3. Convene a faculty-administration-board task force to determine the best course of foreign language study by which our students can experience strong brain development, forge sharp intellectual discipline, learn better mastery of our own English language structure and vocabulary, prepare for living in the United States, and best compete in a global economy in the 21st century.
4. Broaden the use of laptops for classroom learning, and conduct pilot programs in laptop 1:1 curriculum programs, applying thereafter the lessons learned.
5. Develop further curriculum and instruction in digital arts and media, including website development, film, animation, blogging, and podcasting.
6. Review regularly and implement as necessary and appropriate learning support systems for students, including options such as internships, student teachers, learning specialists, and teaching assistants.
7. Continue development of science studies, with an emphasis therein and elsewhere on developing environmental studies and environmental stewardship in our students, recognizing our and their responsibilities as global citizens.
8. Continue development of service learning curriculum, including partnering with other schools, developing long-term projects and relationships within our region for service, and exploring options for international/global long-term projects.
9. Continue development of the advisory curriculum in the middle school, and character education across the school, with ongoing attention to our students’ development of respect, responsibility, and integrity.
10. Review ECE program regularly with the intent to ensure it continues to be a mission appropriate balance of academic and developmentally appropriate educational programming, and that it is properly aligned with our K-8 program in its Kindergarten preparation.
Our School Community
Background:
Saklan has long prided itself on our outstanding school community, uniting teachers, students, and parents into a tight-knit, welcoming, and supportive unit. Our small size enhances this. We count being a caring and inclusive community as the first of our core purposes.
Goal:
Now, we plan to continue that tradition by continuing our emphasis on welcoming and caring for all the members of our school community, and finding new and renewed methods for maintaining the strengths of our school community.
Initiatives 2007-12
1. Continue commitment to producing multiple annual family-friendly and inclusive community building events.
2. Continue Parent Education Lectures and Programs.
3. Continue our outreach and communication to alumni, and planning activities to include them.
4. Continue and expand the website and Friday Note as tools for ongoing, vibrant, clear, communications between and among all members of our community.
5. Continue programs which foster and strengthen school-wide student community, including family groups and reading buddies, and consider expanding these opportunities.
Our Enrollment and Marketing
Background:
Saklan Valley School has long sought full enrollment, and the financial stability it provides. A strong re-accreditation report, a greatly stabilized faculty, and a vastly improved branding/marketing overhaul brought dramatic enrollment growth in 2003-04 to return to the mid-150s. At present, full capacity would render an enrollment of 185; small adjustments to class maximums in the middle and/or early childhood program could adjust that upward to 190-200 students. Full enrollment allows us to best fund our school in a cost-effective, affordable manner; it allows us to provide students the best classroom environment for learning; and it allows us to plan more effectively.
Goals:
Now, Saklan continues to have an unwavering commitment to being a small school, small class environment and all that that entails: stronger teacher- student relationships, more leadership and participation opportunities, a greater sense of safety and trust, and much more. We seek over the next five years to bring the school to full enrollment at the present configuration, and to continue to develop effective branding and marketing to this end. Saklan’s marketing and student recruitment efforts will continue a strategic emphasis on a two pronged approach: the technological, via website, search engine optimization, internet advertising; and the personal/relational, promoting strong word-of-mouth and community outreach. We also intend to enhance, through the campus master planning process and resulting facility renovations, our campus visually and aesthetically, in part to better advance school marketing.
Initiatives, 2007-12
1. Support the continued development of strong brand and marketing identity throughout our region, both east and west of the Tunnel and Hills, periodically reviewing and improving our initiatives and drawing upon resources in our community.
2. As part of the brand identity initiative, to establish clear definitions of Saklan’s distinctive education program, and publish, promote, and disseminate more broadly the Saklan Difference and its Superior Education.
3. Develop a stronger role and relationships with other area schools, particularly developing more awareness of Saklan, and more relationships to Saklan, among potential “feeder” schools and among those schools we feed to, across the breadth of our region.
4. Strengthen our public and media relations efforts, to build Saklan’s name recognition and reputation, and conduct ongoing improvement and innovation of our advertising srategies.
5. Continue surveying our parents on parent satisfaction, and use exit interviews for families choosing to depart the school to learn more about how to develop the program for full enrollment.
6. Seek and develop more opportunities whereby our students are more involved and exhibit more leadership in our community.
7. Explore adding a Junior or Transitional Kindergarten program in the school year, or in the Summer Camp, in addition to 2 PreK sections, if space can be provided to make this possible.
8. Expand Camp Saklan to include a greater breadth of academic and mission-fulfilling programs, exploring options of Kindergarten preparation, academic enrichment, foreign languages, arts, and technology education.
Our Finance and Development
Background:
In the past three years, the school has improved now to a much stronger financial position. Despite having the lowest tuition among the 13 CAIS accredited East Bay independent schools, Saklan has the smallest average class size, the lowest teacher-student ratio, and median teacher salaries. Nevertheless, like all other regional CAIS schools, tuition has risen significantly over the past six years, an average of 7% annually, and it is incumbent upon us to ensure our future course is economically sustainable.
In 2002-03, Saklan successfully executed its first ever capital campaign to purchase the campus and renovate the playgrounds. Annual fundraising, in the form of Annual Giving and Auction, has also continued to improve, and together accounts for about 12% of annual revenue. The school also benefits from Camp Saklan’s revenue. Despite our tuition being relatively low compared to the other independent schools regionally, concerns about continued affordability and financial sustainability need to be addressed.
Goals:
Now, we committ to a healthy and sustainable financial future, including careful tuition setting to fund school operations with a balanced budget including an annual reserve, an ongoing development of our annual fundraising programs essential to both balancing our budget and enhancing our program annually, a continued emphasis on financial assistance as a tool for enrollment growth and student diversity, and the planning and execution of a broad initiative to generate the capital resources necessary to implement the campus master plan.
Initiatives, 2007-12
1. Plan and implement tuition setting which thoughtfully ensures the fulfillment of our mission, establishes a balanced budget (with a reserve of approximately 2%) and the advances our school upon its strategic goals to the greatest extent possible.
2. Build upon the strengths of our school’s philanthropic culture, including supporting a continued evolution of our board’s philanthropic leadership, our outstandingly successful Annual Giving Campaign, and our tremendously successful Annual Auction.
3. Continue to emphasize and develop the role financial aid plays, and explore development of additional scholarship options, to support full enrollment of highly qualified students and to broaden socio-economic and racial-ethnic diversity.
4. Prepare and execute a plan to generate the capital funds necessary for the agreed upon campus improvements from multiple sources, including conventional and alternative financing, and from a broad-based capital fundraising campaign.
Our Campus and Facilities
Background:
In 2003, Saklan purchased its long-rented campus, and has embarked on a vigorous effort of small but significant campus improvements. As lovely as our campus is, nestled hillside and creekside on a quiet street in a gorgeous “hidden valley,” it currently does not have enough classroom space, and can benefit from an aesthetic review and design plan.
Goals:
Now, we have engaged a campus master planner to identify our options for enhancing the campus, with twin purposes: first, to determine the ways to best serve the educational program needs of the school in its present configuration, and second, how to enhance the campus’ appeal to best improve marketing the school for full enrollment. Upon the master plan’s completion, we will plan and execute the financial strategies necessary for funding the improvements, and then we will begin to implement these planned improvements.
We also commit to enhance our school’s environmental stewardship, honoring the environmental stewardship legacy of our namesake the Saklan Indians, and to continue to provide a setting and facility that is outstanding in its forging a strong community of teachers, students, and parents.
Initiatives, 2007-12
1. Complete comprehensive campus Master Plan.
2. Begin to implement the campus improvements called for in Master Plan.
3. Develop and implement, both through the masterplanning process, and through the
development and support of a new standing “Green Saklan" committee, environmental
stewardship initiatives.
4. Expand and strengthen our outreach to and collaboration with other community resources
for the better accomplishment of our school
programs, including options such as greater
collaboration with and utility of neighborhood
churches, fields, pools, and tennis courts.
Our Diversity
and Inclusivity
Background:
Saklan prides itself on its strong and welcoming school community, and provides a strong sense of connection and belonging for all its members. Located in a somewhat out-of-the way and homogeneous suburb, ethnic and racial diversity has regrettably never been large in our school community. The school has gained ground in its faculty, administration, and staff diversity; whereas in 2000 the school employed not a single professional “person of color,” today it employs persons of color representing nearly 25% of our professional faculty and adminisration, including among the senior administrators. The student body, however, has lagged in becoming more fully representative of our region’s ethnic/racial diversity, particularly when considering the K-8 student population.
Goals:
Now, we commit to a more deliberate and active approach to developing in our school community a strong sense of inclusivity for all students, employees, and families and a greater support for the growth of racial, ethnic, and socio-economic diversity among our staff and families.
Initiatives, 2007-12
1. Conduct and sustain more reflection among our entire community about the significance, meaning, and responsibilities of diversity and inclusion.
2. Continue efforts to develop and strengthen the racial and ethnic diversity of our faculty and administration.
3. Support a standing diversity committee of teachers, parents, and trustees, and offer school support for the committee’s annual initiatives.
4. Support and develop student learning experiences, such as social studies curriculum and field trips, which strengthen students’ development of
qualities of appreciation and respect for ethnic, racial, and
socio-economic diversity.
5. Expand outreach for enrollment recruitment and for community involvement beyond our immediate three town area to embrace the
full breadth of the East Bay.
6. Continue to emphasize and develop the role financial aid plays, and explore development of additional scholarship options, to support full
enrollment of highly qualified students and to broaden socio-economic
and racial-ethnic diversity.
Our Faculty and Administration
Background:
The school has experienced improved stability of its faculty, administration and staff since 2001; specialist instruction has grown and hence the faculty has enlarged with new and/or enlarged positions in the teaching of music, art, physical education, library, computers, science, French, and Mandarin. The administration has similarly strengthened, despite the strategic decision not to employ an admissions director; new positions include a Director of Technology, Marketing and Development; an Operations Manager, and a Director of Student Services. The faculty has more average years of experience than in the past decade, and compensation has become significantly more competitive. Saklan teachers are professional, dedicated, and outstanding educators; increasingly they are becoming recognized as such in the larger region.
Goals:
Now, we plan to continue our investment in and development of our most precious asset, our outstanding faculty and administration. It is essential both to provide our professional staff the compensation they deserve, and also to expect of them the highest expectations of professionalism and professional accountability.
Initiatives, 2007-12
1. Sustain recent progress in faculty compensation, at or above the median of all East Bay independent school faculty compensation, and near the top of smaller East Bay independent schools.
2. Continue implementation of, and periodically review and enhance, an effective faculty professional evaluation in a system that promotes, appreciates, and honors teaching excellence and stimulates faculty professional development.
3. Support the further development of a faculty culture which embraces and appreciates reflective practice, regularly finding ways to share, reflect, and grow in our craft in deliberate collaboration with colleagues.
4. Support the growth of our faculty’s technological skills, and provide them tools for this development.
5. Review regularly faculty staffing and teacher-student ratios in order to maintain educational quality while ensuring financial sustainability.
6. Continue faculty professional development, via improved funding and higher standards of expectation thereof, focusing on developing skills and generating curriculum innovation aligned with our school mission and strategic plan.
7. Draw upon the skills, knowledge, and talents of faculty members in school planning and program development, including membership on committees, input via surveys, and other means.
Evaluating
our Effectiveness
Background and Rationale:
The school has long used some externally generated feedback and/or measured data to evaluate its effectiveness; examples include CAIS accreditation, a survey of non-enrolling inquirers or applicants, and ERB test scores. In recent years we have added to this a comprehensive parent survey process. The Board and administration are committed to a course of more regularly seeking and employing feedback for planning purposes.
Evaluating our Effectiveness Goals:
While recognizing the personal, anecdotal, and unique experiences and events of our small community, we intend to use commonly agreed upon school statistics, annually, to evaluate our educational and institutional effectiveness and to better employ a dynamic, strategic posture for identifying and confronting future challenges.
Initiatives 2007-12
1. Continue school mission evaluation via non-statistical means, such as review of reports from accrediting visiting committees; presentations by administrators, teachers and students at board meetings; Trustee Visiting Day; and Trustee attendance at Graduation and Graduation Dinner.
2. Regularly survey current and past faculty, parents, alumni, and others for satisfaction with our program and educational environment, including use of exit interviews.
3. Employ on an annual basis a comprehensive dashboard of key school statistical indicators, and develop additional statistical indicators measuring fulfillment of the school’s core purposes.
Strategic Planning Committee:
Annie Barendregt, Co-Chair, Trustee (Vice Chair) and Parent
Betsy Hill, Co-Chair, Trustee and Parent
Jonathan Martin, Head of School and Parent
Diane Wilcox, Board Chair and Parent
Amy Sullivan, French Teacher
Deborah Ellis, Math Teacher
Marianne Haesloop, 4th Grade Teacher
Karen Catanzarite, PK Teacher
Lisa Rokas, Parent Association President, Board Member, Parent
Jared Madden ‘07, Student Council Co-President, 8th grade student
Emily Thimesch ’07, Student Council Co-President, 8th grade student
Board of Trustees, 2007:
Diane Wilcox, Chair
Annie Barendregt, Vice Chair
Kate Dey, Secretary
Ruth Bailey, Treasurer
Marty Beard
Stephanie Brandt
Paul Felton
Marc Gordon
Jennifer Griessel
Betsy Hill
Eliza Kirkpatrick
Joanie Jump
John Macauley
Lisa Rokas, Parent Association President
Marcela Salem
Bill Vaughn
Jonathan Martin, Head of School
