More than 120 members of the EMS community—trustees, parents, students, faculty, administrators and staff—turned out for Visioning Day on Saturday, March 11. Participants provided valuable ideas, insights and feedback that will inform the development of our strategic plan.

What core values does EMS stand for? What is our central purpose?

During this portion of the strategic planning process teams review and refine our school's mission and core values. Ultimately, this work informs our goals and actions.

Online surveys were sent to every EMS constituency: students, parents, alumni parents, alumni, faculty, administrators and staff. 634 members of the EMS community participated, lending important and valued input to the development of our strategic plan!

Dear EMS Community:

Thank you so much for your participation in our core values sessions with Christina Drouin last week. These sessions gave her some important information about how our constituencies view these values in the life of our school today. This foundational information will be important as the process progresses, under the guidance of our Strategic Planning Steering Committee.

As we previously noted, strategic planning is most successful when there are many contributors to the process who experience EMS through a variety of lenses. To that end, we thought that it would be a good time to introduce those members of the community who have graciously agreed to be part of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. They are:

Joseph Agresta, '78; p '18, p '24, Second Vice President, Board of Trustees
Gregory Amerkanian p '15, p '17, p '27, First Vice President, Board of Trustees
Paul Baly p '20, p '24, p '26, Middle School Head
Beth Brennan, Lower School Head
Aaron Cooper, p ‘20, p ‘22, Head of School
Robin Robison Dillard: p '20, Trustee
Catherine Ferreira: p '21, p '23, Secretary, Parents Association
Amelia Gold: p '15, p '17, p '22, p '24, Arts Department Chair
Richard Han: p '18, p '19, p '24
Kathie Kamiel: p '22, p' 24, Secretary, Board of Trustees
Laura Khutorsky: p '16, p '22, Associate Director of Admissions
Gil Mandelzis, p '15, p '19, p '19, Trustee
Jamil Myrie: p '20
Rurik Nackerud, Lower School Faculty
Stephanie Nebel, PhD, Middle School Faculty
Dana Ranawat, PhD, p22, p24, Trustee
Phoebe Search: p '25, p '25, Middle School Faculty
Clare Sheridan, p '15, p '18, Trustee
Hanita Walia: p '16, p '22, President, Board of Trustees
Melanie Weinraub: p '21, p '24, President, Parents Association

This steering committee is divided into three groups:

• The Research Group, which gathers information about the school from its constituencies as well as information that can impact the school in its marketplace;
• The Visioning Day Group, which will be responsible for the planning of our Visioning Day on March 10, when we will be asking a broad spectrum of constituents to come to campus for a brainstorming session;
• The Communications Group, which provides the community with information about the process and its progress.

As the Strategic Planning Steering Committee continues its work and seeks community involvement, you will be receiving updates. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the strategic planning process, please feel free to contact one of us. Thank you again for your contribution to this process thus far, and for your interest in making EMS the best school it can be for all of our students.

Our best,

Hanita Walia
Board President

Aaron Cooper
Head of School

Dear EMS Community:

We are writing to share an exciting opportunity for you to help shape the future of The Elisabeth Morrow School by participating in our strategic planning process.

• We want to engage our community in helping to create a shared vision for our future;
• We are operating from a position of strength with a solid brand and financial position, and we want to lay the groundwork for the next three to five years;
• We want greater clarity on how our community views our strengths and challenges so we can leverage our strengths, build community, and make EMS the strongest educational institution it can be.

Most of all we have a desire to affect the future of our institution rather than have the future affect us. We believe that a strategic plan, developed through a comprehensive process, ensures that this will happen.

Facilitated by Christina Drouin of the Center for Strategic Planning, our strategic planning process will take approximately one year. It began with a full-day board retreat at the beginning of October in which trustees discussed the school’s core values and mission statement. As the process continues, ample input from all members of the community is important for us to have the most successful plan and the strongest future. The first opportunity for input will occur at a series of meetings on November 7 and 8. These meetings, which will take about two hours each, will be conducted separately for different constituent groups including faculty and staff, administration and families. During these meetings, participants will be led through a series of small-group exercises designed to elicit their thoughts on our core values.

We are eager to hear your views and hope that as many community members as possible will participate in this exciting undertaking. Meetings for families will be immediately after drop off or in the evening.

If you are interested in participating in a session on November 7 or 8, please email Millie Castano (mcastano@elisabethmorrow.org) with your name and preference of time (Tuesday or Wednesday, morning or evening).

Throughout this process, please do not hesitate to reach out to either of us with questions. We look forward to sharing updates and information with you throughout the year as we progress.

Best,
Hanita Walia
Board President

Aaron Cooper
Head of School