STRATEGIC PLAN

A Look Forward

The Southern New Mexico Prep Academy Board of Trustees, to safeguard the School, its financial sustainability, its enrollment, and its physical plant, adopt the following Strategic Plan, to be considered for revision annually and updated as necessary.

PROGRAMS

Excellence in a Foundational & Relevant Educational Program

To ensure that we deliver on the historic academic mission of our school, interpreted in the light of the current and future needs of our students, we will:

Continue to focus on academic excellence as the hallmark of a Southern education.
Continue to work for a balance between the school’s traditional educational approaches and the development of innovative skill sets in our students, including critical thinking, problem-solving, effective communication skills, and leadership development through a program of experiential, investigatory, and interdisciplinary approaches to learning.
Work to articulate better the skillsets, mindsets, and experiences with which Southerns' students can expect to graduate.
Continue to support the growth of a broad range of top-flight extracurricular programs.
Continue to support developing and implementing social, emotional, and character education initiatives.

Best-Practices in Governance

To ensure that the school conforms to best practices in governance, we will:

Continue to ensure that we comply with our requirements regarding conflict of interest, confidentiality statements, and good governance practices based on Principles of Good Practice.
Review board composition and operations with particular attention to:
- Balancing terms.
- Recruiting skill sets.
- Reflecting and paying attention to the need for the Board to reflect the diversity of the Southern community.
- Ensuring a balance of new perspectives and institutional memory.
- Reviewing and streamlining as appropriate the Board committee structure.
- Reviewing the size and composition of the board in view of the work to be done.
- Considering, as appropriate, potential trustees outside of the current and past parent community.
Review, streamline, and update as appropriate Board by-laws.
Continue to ensure that our new trustee orientation includes information on the roles and responsibilities of trustees, the board, and the administration, along with the challenges of being parent-trustees.
Develop and implement a plan to ensure the ongoing growth and professional development of Board members.
Continue to evaluate and address risks facing the school and its livelihood.

SPACES

Mission-Driven Facilities

To ensure that The Southern New Mexico Prep School’s physical facilities fully support our students, our faculty, the community, and the program of the school, we will:

Build out a Strategic Campus Master Plan to prioritize and focus our energies on the changing needs of our students and faculty while communicating those needs to the larger community to generate excitement and energy around fundraising goals.
Be attentive to the needs of students and educators in considering campus enhancements.
Bear in mind the need for sustainable growth by modeling construction, maintenance, and operational needs in terms of both finances and environmental impact.
Where appropriate, conduct feasibility studies to determine the various means of funding the facilities enhancements we seek.

PEOPLE

Faculty Excellence

To assure that our students continue to be led and inspired by the best faculty, we will:

Continue the founding aspirational goal of having a master teacher in each and every classroom on campus, as defined in the School’s Faculty Handbook.
Continue to fund, and encourage faculty to take advantage of the best professional development opportunities available.
Continue to benchmark local and national salaries to compete for the world’s finest faculty members.

Preparation for a Diverse World

To give our students the best exposure to the diversity of thought, perspective, and backgrounds that they will encounter for the rest of their lives, to deliver on our mission of producing citizens well-suited to find success in an increasingly globalized world, we will:

Continue articulating diversity's imperative in our school for academic, social, emotional, and character development.
Examine the possibility of additional world language instruction and cultural experiences as part of our academic program.

STORIES

Telling Southern NM Prep School Story

To better differentiate The Southern NM Prep School in the Southern New Mexico marketplace; replace antiquated and inaccurate perceptions with current and aspirational ones; guide our program with a clear understanding of who we are and our commitment to those whom we serve; and foster continued long-term sustainability in our school population and financial security, we will:

Continue to demonstrate our mission to prepare students for success in the world they will inherit and lead by explicitly affirming our commitment to academic excellence and supporting social, emotional, character, and physical development.
Further identify and articulate the characteristics of The Southern NM Prep School’s students and graduates that uniquely prepare them for success in school, work, and life.
Better direct our admissions efforts to ensure that families who value what we do accurately understand the access to and benefits of a Southern NM Prep School education.
Build admissions infrastructure and processes to support a growing applicant pool of mission-appropriate students of diverse backgrounds.
Empower our current parents and alumni with the language and tools to explain “the Southerns' difference” to their friends and the external community.
Identify and exploit opportunities to raise the profile of The Southern NM Prep School locally, regionally, and nationally so that The Southern might take its rightful place as a recognized leader in the world of independent school education.