Approved by the Board of Trustees in June 2024, Concord Academy’s strategic plan provides a blueprint for operationalizing CA’s mission over the next five years and beyond.
The plan envisions how the school will operate in 2030, then outlines five strategic priorities, each specifying key initiatives to support that priority, that are needed to fulfill this vision. Finally, the plan acknowledges the major financial investments it will require for the school to achieve these priorities.
Surveys of parents as well as faculty and staff conducted in spring 2024 revealed exceptional positivity and love for CA. Respondents cited a well-defined and lived mission, with, of course, opportunities for improvement. This valuable feedback was essential to creating the strategic plan presented on this page, and it will continue to be taken into account as the work of implementing the initiatives called for under each priority unfolds.
Having the tactical framework of a strategic plan enables alignment across the school not only about the priorities and initiatives set forth here but also about how to undertake these efforts collaboratively. Having a shared, public reference by which existing commitments and new opportunities can be measured is vital scaffolding for the work of living out CA’s mission.
Five-Year Vision
Priorities & Initiatives
Clearly articulating CA’s identity and value proposition provides a foundation for guiding the school’s implementation of all the following priorities. A working group, formed in summer 2024, has been meeting regularly to gather and integrate diverse perspectives from alums, parents, faculty, staff, and student leaders. As a significant outcome of this work, the “Portrait of a CA Graduate” was completed and approved by the Board of Trustees in spring 2025. This document precisely outlines the key qualities we aim to instill in every CA graduate. Next, the strategic priority leaders will turn their attention to considering the school’s unique value propositions and investing to tell that story through consistent and compelling messaging.
Based on valuable feedback from the Committees on Employee Community and Trust and Communication, we’ve taken steps to promote an open dialogue among faculty and staff including adjustments to the adult meeting schedule. We also launched student, family, and faculty/staff surveys to begin the important process of tracking longitudinal data on progress. Still to come, CA will adjust facilities, school schedule, and programming to bring together day and boarding populations. Recommendations from the Employee Community and Trust and Communication committees will also be implemented on an ongoing basis.
Better serving all of CA’s students is work that can’t wait. As a first step in guiding these efforts, this working group took steps to strengthen student support by drafting a proposal to increase staffing in the Academic Support Center. Simultaneously, the group drafted a “Principles of Community” document to articulate our shared CA values. Work to formalize integration of feedback from students and adults will be ongoing.
In spring 2025, this group completed a thorough selection process and engaged Flansburgh Architects to lead the development of a comprehensive Facility Master Plan (FMP), aligning our long-term campus needs with Concord Academy’s mission and values. The group also established an FMP Steering Committee and finalized a planning timeline through 2026. In parallel, they are preparing to execute a Centennial Arts Center (C.A.C.) transition plan, leveraging the existing Council on Operations West Campus steering group. They also oversaw key deferred maintenance and sustainability upgrades, including high-efficiency HVAC improvements, smart thermostat installations, campus-wide LED lighting upgrades, and the use of thermal imaging to prioritize window replacement needs. These efforts reflect a commitment to operational excellence and environmental stewardship as we prepare our campus for the decades ahead.
Through an existing council resource analysis subgroup, this group has clearly defined “financial resilience” and identified general funding reserves to invest in the priorities outlined in our strategic plan. Future priorities include auditing cost efficiency and resource allocation review.
The following financial investments, contingent on the school’s ability to achieve cost savings and a successful capital campaign, have been prioritized in this order:
Fortify academic support with additional dedicated Academic Support Center (ASC) resources, auxiliary supports beyond the ASC, and professional development for faculty and staff.
A marketing effort to align public awareness of CA with our mission-driven identity.
Address deferred maintenance in faculty/staff housing, boarding houses, classrooms, dining hall/kitchen, and other campus facilities.
Create a campus master plan, including an evaluation of the ability of our facilities to achieve these institutional priorities.
Head of School Henry Fairfax and CA’s executive leadership team are serving as the oversight body for the strategic plan’s implementation. In June 2024, following the plan’s approval, a strategic planning implementation group convened to assign captains for the initiatives outlined in each priority. During 2024–25, working groups comprised of stakeholders from across the school and including consultants from the Board of Trustees, are contributing the expertise required to implement the initiatives called for under each priority.
For this five-year strategic plan, human and financial resources are limited, and the coordinated work called for is being sequenced accordingly. Many efforts toward these goals were previously underway, and working groups are leveraging outcomes from prior and existing committees. Implementation planning began in summer 2024, and the full work of implementation begins during the fall 2024 semester.
In the interests of sustainability and preserving resources for CA’s program and operations, rather than designing a strategic plan brochure for an external audience, Concord Academy is using this webpage to communicate these objectives and priorities and share progress annually.
Dennis Goldstein P’20 ’25
Trustee, Strategic Planning Committee Co-Chair
Podie Lynch ’67
Trustee, Strategic Planning Committee Co-Chair
Jennifer Pline, P’13 ’15
Board of Trustees Co-President
Jen Burleigh ’85
Board of Trustees Co-President
Henry Fairfax
Head of School, Dresden Endowed Chair
Sara Staats
Strategy Consultant with Altshuler Staats LLC
Justin Bull P’25 ’28
Visual Arts Faculty
Amy Miller-Fredericks P’20
Chief Financial and Operating Officer
John Grossman P’17 ’19 ’26
Trustee
Grant Hightower
Assistant Head for Student Life
Karen McAlmon ’75
Trustee
Kevin Parke P’12 ’15
Trustee
Alyse Ruiz-Selsky ’05
Director of Studies
Sabrina Sadique
English Faculty
Carmen Welton
Modern and Classical Languages
Sarah Yeh P’24 ’27
Associate Head for Teaching, Learning, and Faculty