November 2021    

Greetings Chadwick Community,

 

As I mentioned in my letter to the community at the start of the year, I will be sending periodic newsletters to keep you informed on what work is happening with the Roessler-Chadwick Foundation (RCF) Board of Trustees. With that in mind, welcome to the inaugural newsletter.

 

No one would deny that our Chadwick community has gone through some significant stresses over the past couple of years. Some of those stresses have been due to unprecedented events impacting all educational institutions and beyond, while other stresses were uniquely experienced by Chadwick. In all fairness, those broader issues such as the pandemic certainly exacerbated our issues, but they were not the cause of our uniquely Chadwick issues. So, as I look forward, I'm cognizant that the improvement of external stressors do not in and of themselves solve all of our issues. I start with this because I want you all to know we can genuinely celebrate overall improvements without fear of such celebrations being taken as no need to deal with other underlying concerns.

 

Having established this thought, yes, I want to celebrate! It is impossible to have been on campus these first two months and not find the joy palpable. From the first day of school traditions, to the first ever CPA Family Fall Festival, to full sports activities and to the erupting school spirit associated with Homecoming, the joy in our community has been like a wave sweeping the campus. Not even ever-present COVID-19 protocols and obscured masked faces could dissipate that wave. I want to thank all of the individuals who have invested so much time and effort to make this all possible for the Chadwick students. Bravo!

 

As Board Chair, it's my responsibility to clarify for the community where the Board will focus its efforts and, most importantly, keep the community informed about progress around those efforts. The RCF Board of Trustees is charged with:

1. Safeguarding the school's Mission (tangibly supported through the school's Strategic Plan);
2. Hiring, supporting and evaluating the Head of School; and
3. Stewarding the school's finances.

Along with clarifying the role of the Board, I think it is useful to contrast the Board's area of stewardship versus that of the Head of School. This graphic illustrates the interaction between the Board and the Head of School. 

In this newsletter, we will focus on Chadwick's operational leadership, Chadwick's strategic plan and the Board structure we have in place to deliver the Board's charge for the benefit of Chadwick, the institution.

 

It is my sincere hope that this newsletter will play a part in strengthening the structure for healthy and honest discussion and debate within our community, recognizing we all want what is best for Chadwick and our students. In addition, we as a Board will continue to respectfully seek your thoughts and opinions by taking advantage of opportunities to have live conversations with the community as we go through this school year.

 

I will close by stating something that my pastor shared in the midst of the awakening after the murder of George Floyd. Community is not just about finding commonality among its constituents, but the true strength of a community comes from the ability to embrace the unique challenges of particular constituents within the community. Similar to what we see in Outdoor Education, where the group dynamics are strengthened when members of the group circle up to help someone struggling, we as a community gain as a whole when we show compassion for others within the community.

 

As always feel free to contact me at pv-rcf-board-chair@chadwickschool.org.

 

Respectfully,

Eden Warner

Chair, RCF Board of Trustees

CHADWICK LEADERSHIP/HEAD OF SCHOOL SEARCH

As you all know, Tom Sheppard joined the Chadwick community for a 2-year term as Interim Head of School in early July. The Board believes that the combination of Tom's extensive experience in high-caliber independent schools, his deep commitment to the vocation of education and his steady, balanced leadership style make him a solid choice to take on the Interim role. The Board has been quite pleased with Tom's performance in the position and looks forward to his continued leadership and efforts to position the school for the successful start of the long-term Head of School.

 

We have previously shared the Charge to the Interim Head of School currently in place, which outlines the initial goals for Tom as Interim. We are refining these a bit, but in general, they continue to provide the primary direction for Tom during his time as Interim.

 

To assist Tom in his on-boarding and continued acclimation to our community, we have created a Transition Team headed by Trustee Nick Richardson. This team includes a small group of Faculty, Parents, Administrators and Trustees all charged with providing suggestions and acting as a sounding board for Tom. I must say that even before we put the team together, Tom was already implementing many of their initial recommendations.

 

Finally, we are gearing up for our search for our long-term Head of School. The search is being chaired by Trustees Saskia Subramanian and Nick Tell. As with the Interim Head of School search, we are working with the consulting firm RG175 and the team of Tom Hudnut and Debbie Reed. For those of you new to our community, Tom and Debbie are former long-term heads of school (at Harvard-Westlake and Pasadena Poly, respectively) and have successfully placed dozens of heads in their consulting work, all of whom are enjoying a significant tenure at their schools. They are visiting our campus this week to kick off the search, interviewing students, faculty, administrators, parents and alumni from our community. RG175 has recommended that the best time to launch a search for a Head of School who will assume the role in the Summer of 2023 is in January of 2022. We agree and are now focused on kicking off the search in earnest at the start of 2022, and l look forward to sharing more in the next newsletter in the January timeframe.

STRATEGIC PLAN

We are currently in a process to develop our next strategic plan. While this is an extremely important effort, it would be good for us all to be universally informed about the current plan in effect. Typically, the Board has led efforts to create strategic plans every 5 years. That being said, the current plan is an interim plan put in place in 2019 as a refinement to the 5-year plan created in 2016. COVID-19 and our changes in leadership delayed the start of the new strategic planning cycle. As a result, we are now planning to put in place a new plan in line with the start of the long-term Head of School (2023-24 school year).

 

The overall goals of the current plan as outlined in the attached document are:

• Goal #1: Teach a world-class educational program that develops global citizens with keen minds, exemplary character, self-knowledge and the ability to lead.
• Goal #2: Attract and retain students, faculty and staff who are aligned with our Mission and Core Values, and who strengthen our community.
• Goal #3: Position Chadwick for long-term growth and success through strategic planning and investment in capital improvements.

The referenced document shows objectives developed to accomplish each of these overarching goals.

 

Recently, the Board has tasked the Administration to provide an update on progress towards these various objectives. The result of this update can be reviewed here. The good news is there is a great deal of work that has been done that is in line with the current plan. The bad news is the plan was not out front driving these results. As we look to develop and implement the new plan, we are focused on making that plan a living document with clear metrics which will be regularly tracked and shared.

 

The Strategic Plan is an important tool to allow the school to set appropriate priorities and a clear direction for its many activities. In reviewing the current plan, we have identified areas of improvement which we will make sure are part of the ongoing strategic planning process:

1. Make the process visible and inclusive of various constituents in the Chadwick community.
2. Establish and communicate a clear strategic direction.
3. Put "owners" in place to lead initiatives.
4. Provide regular reporting on initiatives to the Board.
5. Share regular plan progress updates to the broader Chadwick community.

As we engage in this undertaking, we can be certain there will be disagreements and lively discussions, but in the end, I hope we will bind together and move Chadwick forward with the resulting plan.

SEPTEMBER BOARD RETREAT

We hope to not only communicate the business of the Board in these newsletters, but also how we go about doing the business at hand. Every year, the first meeting of the RCF Board is a retreat where the members of the Board meet for a full day session on a Saturday to launch the new school year. Don't let the word "retreat" fool you. I know you have visions of lavish environs and Board members sipping drinks with cute umbrellas. In reality, it was in the library drinking coffee and bottled water.

 

This year, we wanted the retreat to be focused on the overall leadership for Chadwick. As such, we invited the entire School Leadership Team to join the Board, with a focus on the horizontal relationships necessary for effective leadership as a team. To facilitate a portion of the day's activities, we secured the services of Coreen Hester. Coreen led us through various exercises and discussions to help us learn more about one another, as well as our duties as leaders and ways to work in concert to benefit Chadwick. I think we all found the time quite productive, and the Board would like to thank the School Leadership Team for taking time out of their weekend to join us for this meeting.

BOARD COMMITTEE UPDATES

We want to share with you some general information regarding the Board's standing committees and ad hoc committees (task forces which are only in place for a period of time). 

PHOTO GALLERY

Left: 2021-22 RCF Board of Trustees (not all Board members are pictured). Right: RCF Board meeting with School Leadership Team.

Left: Board Chair Eden Warner and Interim Head of School Tom Sheppard meet with parents and students at the Inglewood Bus Stop Meet-and-Greet. Right: Board member Saskia Subramanian with 2021 Distinguished Chadwick Alumnus Bob Rule ('76) at the Distinguished Alumni event in October.

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