Lakeside School Strategic Plan

Lakeside’s strategic plan process was built around a simple concept: When we dream, plan, and work together, we are stronger. Our primary goal was to align Lakeside’s vision, purpose, and efforts as a school. To build understanding and alignment, we began with an extended process of listening and learning about the needs of our students in a post-pandemic world.

Throughout 2023, Lakeside School students, faculty, staff, trustees, parents and guardians, and alums shared insights into their experiences at Lakeside. They shared what they hoped would stay the same, what they hoped could change for the better, and where they believed the school should focus its energies. Through community members’ participation in surveys, conversations, focus groups, and interviews, a deeper understanding emerged of Lakeside’s strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.

Across all groups, there was a deep commitment to educational excellence in Lakeside’s academic and co-curricular programs. There was also a shared desire for connection and community rooted in health and well-being. And there was a real understanding that the systems and infrastructure — the operations that support everything at the school — needed attention.

With a growing understanding of community members’ dreams for Lakeside, the steering committee built the strategic plan’s foundation: They reaffirmed the school’s mission, which strongly resonated with people throughout the community. They drew from Lakeside’s long-standing community expectations to define the values that guide how we behave and treat each other. They articulated Lakeside’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, to make visible the deliberate nature of our work in this area and express the necessity of every member of our community sharing this commitment. Finally, they developed a vision that will guide us as we work to accomplish our mission amid the dynamic needs and circumstances of the coming years. 

The committee also reflected to the community what they had heard: That the work of the next five years should be focused on educational excellence; community members’ health and belonging and our relationships with the larger community beyond Lakeside’s campus; and Lakeside’s infrastructure and operations, which enable the day-to-day workings of the school. 

Next, the committee convened a diverse group of around 40 faculty, staff, coaches, and administrators to review what the larger community had surfaced as potential projects and initiatives that Lakeside could pursue. Four working groups evaluated more than 20 ideas in each area, narrowed their focus to 10, and then down to around five. At each point, the groups considered: How would this work help us accomplish Lakeside’s mission? How does it relate to the strategic plan vision? Is it aligned with Lakeside’s commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging? And how could we go about this work in a way that aligns with our shared values? 

At the close of the 2023-2024 school year, the teams presented their top priorities to Head of School Kai Bynum, who further narrowed the scope and, in collaboration with committee members, articulated the strategies that knit together the plan. 

The draft strategic framework and plan were presented to the Board of Trustees in fall 2024, and then shared with administrators, faculty, staff, and coaches for feedback and questions. Hope in Action: An Empowering Strategic Plan for Lakeside School officially launched in December 2024, and will guide our efforts in the coming years. 

We want to thank the faculty, staff, coaches, administrators, trustees, students, parents and guardians, and alums whose feedback, ideas, and efforts made this work possible. We are also grateful for the partnership with consultants from Intentional Futures, who assisted us with facilitation, data, analysis, and strategy.