In 2019, St. Luke’s School kicked off a Strategic Planning Process with one clear goal:
Ensure a St. Luke’s Education remains exceptional into the future.
To accomplish this goal, a Strategic Planning Team of volunteer trustees, parents, faculty, administrators, and alumni began an exploration that included: examining macroeconomic and regional trends, conducting current and prospective parents surveys and phone interviews, looking at what peer schools were saying and doing, analyzing admission data and engaging the St. Luke’s community in interviews, focus groups and a day of community brainstorming.
One question became the North Star of the Strategic Planning Process:
What will students need to thrive—now and into the future?
Prepared to Thrive draws on the wisdom and experience of the St. Luke’s Community. It is grounded in research and inspired by an understanding that the best schools prepare students—not for the world we’ve known—but the worlds they will enter.
Download the full plan by clicking the image or following the link above.
Or scroll down for plan highlights, communications, Strategic Planning Team, and Working Groups.
Four Interconnected, Strategic Priorities
The strategic plan is built on four strategic priorities, each of which offers stand-alone importance but also intersects with and reinforces the others, uniting behind a single goal: An education that produces graduates Prepared to Thrive.
List of 2 items.
Well-Being Photo Area
Well-Being Text Area
Well-Being
Using evidence-based practices, St. Luke's will become a leader in addressing Whole-School Well-Being, blending exemplary programming with rigorous verification of its impact on the social, emotional, cognitive, and physical well-being of students, faculty, staff, and families.
A Well-Being Working Group will lead the development, execution, and tracking of goals over the next 1-5 years.
St. Luke’s shifts students from “doing school” to learning for a purpose, ensuring that every graduate will know how to direct their learning, spot opportunities, build and work with a team, and reflect on their growth.
A Student-Led Learning Working Group will lead the development, execution, and tracking of goals over the next 1-5 years.
St. Luke’s leadershipLab will empower students to find and use their voices, practice hands-on leadership, explore moral questions and responsibilities, and discover the art and impact of Civil Discourse.
A leadershipLab Working Group will lead the development, execution, and tracking of goals over the next 1-5 years.
While each of the four Strategic Priorities connects and reinforces the others, Faculty Excellence is the foundation of the entire Strategic Plan. Exceptional teachers will bring the skills, the heart and know-how that inspire students to thrive.
St. Luke’s will recruit, develop, inspire and retain the next generation of exceptional, mission-driven faculty & staff. A Faculty Excellence Working Group will lead the development, execution, and tracking of goals over the next 1-5 years.
David Pakman, Trustee, Strategic Planning Co-Chair
St. Luke’s is not a product. It’s a living organism, made up of people with brains and ideas and changing needs. And like all organisms, we need to adapt to a changing world by evolving."
Strategic Plan Video Presentation
The strategic plan was formally unveiled at St. Luke's State of the School in November 2021. In the video below, former Head of School Mark Davis gives background on the plan while working group leaders provide details about the four strategic priorities.
Hear from former Head of School Mark Davis as he's joined by Strategic Planning Team Co-Chairs, Associate Head of School and Chief Financial Officer, Julia Gabriele, and Trustee David Pakman, for a discussion of the Strategic Planning Process—how it began, where we are now, and where we are headed next.
Video 2
Videos
Learn more about the phases of the strategic planning process and what students will need "to thrive, to navigate, to bounce back, to forge a path for themselves regardless of the changing environment." From a presentation delivered by former Head of School Mark Davis during State of the School in November 2020.
St. Luke's Mission
An exceptional education that inspires a deep love of learning, a strong moral compass, the commitment to serve, and the confidence to lead."
Strategic Planning Team
The goal of the Strategic Planning Committee, and ultimately the Strategic Plan itself, is to ensure that a St. Luke’s education remains exceptional. All strategic choices must serve the school's mission.
Execution is the responsibility of “Working Groups” of educators and trustees who have established one-, three-, and five-year, measurable goals. Outcomes will be tracked and reported every year. Working Groups will have both the freedom to innovate and experiment, but also accountability to real metrics and progress.
Jim Foley, Assistant Head of School for Leadership & Innovation (Chair)
Julia Gabriele, Associate Head of School & Chief Financial Officer
Rich Riley, Parent, Trustee
Jill Stute, Parent, Trustee
Dj Wolff, Alumnus '03, Trustee
Strategic Plan 2021: Rooted in St. Luke’s Values
This Strategic Plan was created to ensure a St. Luke’s Education remains exceptional into the future. Families can trust that this planned evolution remains firmly rooted in the mission, values and beliefs that have and will always define St. Luke’s School:
Mission
An exceptional education that inspires a deep love of learning, a strong moral compass, the commitment to serve, and the confidence to lead.
Motto
Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve.
Core Values
The principles that guide our culture - Love of Learning, Good Character, Pursuit of Excellence, and Community.
Vision
In 2017, the Board of Trustees approved the Vision that states: “Every individual in our community belongs, is valued, and has a stake in the life and purpose of St. Luke’s.”
St. Luke’s School is a secular (non-religious), private school in New Canaan, CT for grades 5 through 12 serving over 30 towns in Connecticut and New York. Our exceptional academics and diverse co-educational community foster students’ intellectual and ethical development and prepare them for top colleges. St. Luke’s Center for Leadership builds the commitment to serve and the confidence to lead.