Notre Dame’s new six-year strategic plan for the future is in place, soon to be released to constituents.
By setting up firm and achievable goals, Notre Dame’s new six-year strategic plan helps define what the school will look like during the next six years, and how it will achieve those goals. Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m., is corporate president at NDPMA.
The major purpose of the strategic plan is to delineate the financial, organizational and facility elements and, secondarily, the curricular, pedagogical, and programmatic elements needed to provide the strongest possible platform in support of NDPMA’s purposes and outcomes.
The planning-finalization process took place via working sessions held February 3-6 with a representative of the Independent School Management organization, Walker Buckalew, Ph.D. The data-collection process included ISM electronic surveys of the Board, faculty, parents and students in grades five and up. The data-generation process included ISM’s computerized scoring of NDPMA compared with 18 stability markers established by ISM.
One of the key new initiatives in this new plan is to form in year one of the six-year plan a “school culture team.” Comprised of three to five teachers, the school culture team will be tasked with sharpening the focus on — and the strengthening of — the Catholic identity and Marist Way themes that have been such an integral part of school life at NDPMA. These themes must “pervade the faculty and administrative cultures, as well as the student experience of those cultures,” said the official strategic-planning document, which will be mailed to all constituents in the coming weeks.
The Marist Way to Notre Dame
Fr. Leon Olszamowski, s.m., Notre Dame’s corporate president, who played a central role in the formation of the six-year plan, said the school culture team is a natural outgrowth of the school’s Marist Way initiative.
“It is very important that we as Marists pass on the tradition of what we call the Marist Way to a group of individuals in the school who show true leadership quality,” Olszamowski said, “and who are apt to become leaders of the future as the Marists move out of direct administration of the school and into a sponsorship model. We will likely be continuing members of the Board of Trustees and/or part of an oversight board who will make regular visits to the school well into the future to verify that the school continues its Marist-like culture. Once verified, the school would then be accredited to continue as a Marist-sponsored school.”
He said it’s of paramount importance because the school by-laws say Notre Dame must be both Catholic and Marist to continue as a school.
“Initially the school culture team will work as a liaison between the Marists themselves and the faculty and staff,” he said. “And it will likely produce our leadership for the future. I also believe that the culture team will take some initiative to help the school become even more Catholic and Marist. It is possible that members of the team also could become members of the head of school’s immediate staff at some point.”
Curricula and new space
Another key component of the school’s new strategic plan is already at hand.
“At the moment, it looks like we could break ground as early as this summer,” Olszamowski said. “We’ll need a solid year to build the facilities and furnish them for the opening. The greenhouse, in particular, but also the robotics lab, are getting a lot of buzz lately. I think we can actually build more parental and foundational support in the school around those two items.”
Proponents behind the new strategic plan have also bookmarked a review in the near future of Notre Dame’s various academic tracks in its upper division. Currently, high school students have four academic curriculums: traditional, honors, advanced placement and International Baccalaureate. The school’s planning group thought it was time to take a look at the four tracks to ensure they are providing the best options for students.
Olszamowski says that the academic tracks and offerings actually are under continuous review to make sure that we are offering the students the best possible education throughout all four years of high school.
“Over time I believe we will continue to offer the traditional track as we want to give an opportunity for kids of perhaps less academic prowess who still want a great NDP education,” he said. “I also believe that over the next six years we will continue to strengthen our other academic tracks.”
Catholicity and the IB
Continuing to tie the school’s central mission with its IB program also remains an important component of the plan, according to school officials. IB covers the entire lower and middle divisions completely, and for the upper division, where it’s just one of the four academic track options, it has been growing year-over-year in number of student participants.
“I also think we’ve been able to finally reconcile our Catholicity and the IB program here at Notre Dame,” Olszamowski said. “And we are receiving so much praise now from universities for the quality of our IB students. We regularly see 90%-plus of our students receive the IB diploma while the national and international average is much lower. And on top of that, we still have the distinction of being the only Catholic school offering the three programs, PYP, MYP and DP.”
Olszamowski added that while the past six years have been outstanding for the school, he is totally excited by what he sees in the future for Notre Dame. Personally, he said he’s especially thrilled by the pending school culture team in the new six-year plan.
“The school culture team is one of our most important initiatives,“ he said. “It of course will be ongoing as long as we Marists are here at NDPMA, but I am so glad we will be putting in place the means and the wherewithal to continue the ‘Marist Way’ when the time comes that there are physically no Marists on campus. Our culture is already ‘electric’ as one of our many visitors told us recently. I want that to continue as we move our school toward even more greatness. Programs and buildings and money help, but it’s our people who really make the difference.”
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." The Marist Fathers and Brothers sponsor NDPMA's Catholic identity and manages its educational program. Notre Dame is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.