Updates on our continuing progress toward our strategic vision
In January 2020, we shared our multi-year strategic vision for the School, The Dream That Drives Us. We aim to become: a beacon of inclusion and equity; a learning environment for the students of the future, now; and a global resource and exemplar for child-centered education. Amidst all the challenges we’ve faced, we have also maintained progress towards those goals, including the following updates as we look to the new school year.
Curricular Review and Communication
We are nearing completion for our multi-year, school-wide curriculum documentation process, looking at curricular progression of knowledge and skills within and across disciplines and units. We anticipate finishing that internal process this fall.
The next phase of this project will be to examine the curricular continuity from Early through Upper School. That will then inform the creation of an outward facing articulation of our academic program. Once that project is complete, our dynamic curriculum will be captured and refined through periodic and continuous curriculum review. A familiar face to many will be guiding these efforts; we are excited to have Lisa Wilson Carboni taking on a new role as Director of Curriculum this August.
In addition to having served as our Lower School Head Teacher for the past fifteen years, Lisa has been an adjunct associate professor of education with Duke University. These experiences, her leadership of the committee guiding the staff’s curriculum documentation process, her PhD in curriculum and instruction, and her perspective as a parent of two Carolina Friends graduates make her ideally suited for this important work.
Supporting Belonging and Inclusion
This past year, we revitalized our affinity group for parents and guardians of students of color, as well as created new affinity groups for families of neurodiverse and LGBTQIA+ students. We also expanded the number of student-driven affinity groups in the Upper School and thoughtfully introduced affinity groups in the Middle School.
This year, two teaching staff joined director Naa Norley Adom in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion office. In addition to their teaching roles, they also now serve as unit-based iversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinators: Isabel Ríos-Torres in the Upper School and Kate Pendergrass in the Middle School.
We are also excited to announce that Clay Thomas has joined us as our first Assistant Director of Enrollment for Equity and Community Outreach. Clay comes to us with years of experience as a diversity coordinator and English teacher in several independent schools, and has family roots here in Durham. In this new role, he will be engaging with prospective and current students and families in a number of ways.
New Innovations from the Institute for Teaching and Learning
In addition to housing existing initiatives like Peaceful Schools, our Extended Learning programs, and professional development opportunities, the Institute for Teaching and Learning is also an innovation incubator. This summer, we are launching a new Summer Institute for Educators focused on restorative practices training. Looking forward to the school year, the institute is excited to offer The Art of Resiliency and Renewal, a personal growth and renewal program for seasoned teaching professionals led by former Carolina Friends Head of School Mike Hanas and former Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning Renée Prillaman.
Strengthening Our Physical Campus
During the previous Building Friends campaign, much attention and care was put into renovating and creating spaces that best meet the needs of our students. We are now at a place to direct that nurturing care to our Upper School facilities. We are engaged in developing a new main campus plan that both meets current needs and anticipates where flexibility will best support the development of our academic program. As part of our current needs assessment, this fall we are looking to engage consultants to partner in analyzing demographic trends for our area and ensuring right-sizing for our student body. They will also help us engage in community conversations about programmatic needs and desires. Once that information gathering is complete, we will begin seeking architectural solutions and ideas that will make our campus more accessible and adaptable while maintaining its unique feel, which one visitor recently described as a “learning village.”
— Katherine Scott