The strategic planning process officially launched last week under the wonderfully thoughtful and engaging guidance of our facilitator, Antonio Viva, Partner at Leadership + Design, who joined us on campus for a three-day visit. Antonio spent his first day at CA checking in with the Leadership Team and then meeting with the Board to frame the process and collect initial feedback.  On the second day of his visit, Antonio was able to participate in the morning’s Parent Dialogue, followed by a tour of campus and meetings with groups of students and employees.  Day three was devoted to a kick-off retreat with the Steering Committee and the 24 members of the Design Team:

The group’s time together focused on team building, school anthropology, context mapping, and question-storming.

The next step in the process will be for members of the Design Team to conduct a series of stakeholder interviews with a randomized sample of approximately 100 parents and employees.  You will be notified by email if you have been selected for an interview, and if you are among those contacted, we hope that you will accept the invitation to share your thoughts and experiences with a Team member as we listen to discover important themes and insights to inform the new plan.

As a reminder, there will be two other major opportunities for members of our community to share thoughts with the Design Team this year.  On Tuesday, October 22^nd, Antonio will host a series of two-hour “think tanks”—a morning coffee with parents, a lunch with students, an after-school session with employees, and an early evening meeting with parents. On Saturday, February 1^st, we will hold an intensive 6-hour Community Design Day that will allow anyone in the Cary Academy community to join the Design Team for a creative brainstorming session around previously identified areas of inquiry.  Please stay tuned for sign-up information for these events in upcoming editions of the CA Weekly.