Will Patterson ’27
Episcopal is currently creating a new strategic plan that will guide the school’s future over the next decade. During the 2024-2025 school year, a comprehensive survey was sent out to the Episcopal community to assess what changes they hope to see in the near future. This information will be used to help guide the school’s next strategic plan, which is an undertaking that happens roughly every five to ten years to keep the experiences of its students and faculty current and applicable to the modern world. This plan will decide what EA will prioritize, how it will spend the money it receives, and how it adapts to an ever changing world
In the past, this strategic planning has resulted in changes that now seem paramount to the EA experience. Head of Upper School Mike Letts alluded to one such change, saying, “The last strategic plan was the impetus for things like the start of a computer science department– that department is only probably 10 to 12 years old. [Before] we didn’t have any computer science requirements. We didn’t really offer any computer science classes.”
As was the case with the addition of the computer science department, EA’s strategic plan can often look to improve the skills an EA graduate has at their disposal. V Form Dean and Upper School math teacher Ryan Klein ’09 commented on the goals of strategic planning, saying, “From a long-term planning perspective, it’s like a portrait of a graduate. What skills do we want every single graduate of Episcopal Academy to have when they leave here? And what do we want them to be prepared to do? What type of character do we want them to have?”
One pertinent topic when considering the evolving educational and work environments is the use of artificial intelligence. Letts discussed the topic’s prevalence, commenting, “We need to prepare kids for the use of technology in the future. Now we’re even in a particularly different place around technology. And so it’s thinking about how AI fits into the work that we do here? That kind of thinking. So yes, it could manifest itself into a department or courses that focus on the ethical use of AI, that kind of thing could potentially come out of a strategic plan.”
Strategic planning is also heavily focused on improving the student experience. This was one of the primary goals of last year’s survey, and areas that the community hopes to see addressed include limited flexibility in academic schedules, stressful workloads, and congestion on the roads.
In particular, the difficulty of driving and parking on campus has become a central talking point within the community in recent years. When asked about the physical campus, Letts articulates the parking issue, saying, “Parking is always a good discussion. Traffic on campus, that is at the top of the list. In essence, we have some issues, like we changed the start time, I think two years ago to 8:10. That provided some relief, but it’s still not great in the morning. And then in the afternoons, it can be really bad. And that came through very loud and clear in the survey and parking issues, certainly for students, but also for parents, so we have to try and find some solutions to that.”
Overall, the goal of EA’s strategic planning is to refine the skills and experiences of its students in order to better prepare them for life after high school. It is meant to address the prevalent concerns of the community, as well as ensure that the people who make Episcopal profound have their voices heard.
