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About MFS
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Strategic Plan - Introduction and Overarching Theme
Moorestown Friends School is dedicated to the pursuit of educational excellence for a diverse student body within an academically rigorous and balanced program emphasizing personal and spiritual growth. Mission Statement adopted by the School Committee in 1987
When the Moorestown Friends Meeting decided to create a school on Main Street, the United States was less than a decade old. Moorestown itself was a small community made up largely of Quaker-owned homes, businesses, and farms. Clearly, much has changed since 1785. Yet, as Moorestown Friends School approaches its 220th anniversary, it has never been healthier or more vibrant. This health is reflected in many facets of the school today, including many that are quantifiable: • Enrollment of 700 students, an increase of nearly 25% over the past decade • Admissions wait lists at most grade levels • A balanced budget • A debt-free balance sheet • Low student attrition • Low faculty turnover Even more important are strengths that are harder to quantify: • A warm and caring sense of community • A strong commitment to Quaker values • Dedicated faculty and staff • Energetic, upbeat students who are dedicated to MFS and to academic achievement • An attractive and well-cared for campus • A well-balanced program featuring strong academics and a wide array of activities and sports options. • A positive image throughout the area These areas of strength were noted repeatedly in the hundreds of surveys completed for this process and in the other information-gathering portions of the planning process, supporting our intuitive sense of the school's strengths. Moorestown Friends is clearly a very good school. The challenge undertaken in the Strategic Plan is to build MFS into a great school that reflects our unique history and culture. What does greatness mean at MFS? Greatness at Moorestown Friends means a passionate commitment to both Quaker values and academic excellence. As Samuel Phillips, the founder of Andover, wrote in the 18th century: Goodness without knowledge is weak and feeble; yet knowledge without goodness is dangerous; both united form the noblest character and lay the surest foundation of usefulness to mankind. The Strategic Plan focuses on these two areas because they are central to a superb education and because they are already strengths of the school. By clarifying our goals and committing significant resources to a number of aspects of the school's program, we will build a school that ultimately will serve as a national model for independent schools. The Overarching Theme The centerpiece of this plan takes its lead from the school's Mission Statement in its focus on spiritual and ethical education. Not only is this theme consistent with Quaker testimonies, it addresses urgent needs in our nation and world to restore honesty and civility in public discourse and private behavior. Through the centerpiece of spiritual and ethical education, MFS is committed to developing students who have learned how to live an "examined life" characterized by a dedication to critical thought, openness to the Spirit, ethical development, and resilience. This strategic planning process has underscored the fact that a Moorestown Friends School education is a transformational experience. Moorestown Friends is uniquely suited to develop students who are prepared to do well and to do good. Students emerge from our school with a different set of values and perceptions than they would had they not attended MFS. Helping students find and develop a values system that will guide them in their relationships, professional and personal, is hugely important. Thanks to the school's Quaker heritage, this is a responsibility and a challenge embraced by our school community. In fact, Moorestown Friends School is honored and proud to see its dedication to spiritual and ethical education defined, measuredand realized every day in the lives of its students and graduates. This theme of spiritual and ethical education also provides a framework for our goals in academic rigor. Many independent schools offer academically strong programs, but very few provide these programs in a context which is based on the transformation of the student, what MFS alumnus Bob Smith, retired head of Sidwell Friends School, meant when he stated, "Friends schools are unabashedly in the business of making better people." It's especially fitting that Bob Smith's alma mater lead the way in meeting this objective. The Planning Process As the chronology of the year-long planning process shows, the process has been exhaustive. Working with Stephen and Harriet DiCicco of Educational Directions, Inc., the first half of the planning period was devoted to processing of over one thousand opinion surveys (uniquely designed for 12 different constituent groups), conducting 15 focus groups, and facilitating a large "town meeting." The second half has been devoted to intensive study of the six areas that emerged from the information gathering stage: Vision/Program, Technology, Faculty Compensation/Benefits, Schedule/Planning Time, Physical Plant, and Fiscal Planning/Tuition. Task groups composed of trustees, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni were formed to focus on each area. To a large extent, the initiatives that follow are products of these hard-working groups. Guiding the entire process has been a 14-person Strategic Planning Committee that began its work in July, has met monthly since the fall of 2003, and has crafted the plan that has been submitted to the School Committee (Board of Trustees). It should be noted that the Strategic Planning Committee decided to focus on a handful of major issues and initiatives that are of great importance rather than on a more detailed approach that attempts to resolve all issues and problems, large and small. The Committee feels that those lesser areas of concern can best be dealt with on a day-to-day basis by the school's administration.
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Overview 