The Madison Waldorf School
Strategic Plan, 2015-2020
OUR MISSION
Education that honors every child’s enthusiasm for
initiative, creativity, and social responsibility.
OUR VISION
Provide early childhood through 8th grade Waldorf education while
building community to support whole education.
OUR VALUES
Madison Waldorf School, based on the insights of Rudolf Steiner,
views the educational process as an artistic endeavor.
We embrace the following:

Developmentally-appropriate teaching & learning methods grounded in current research

Curriculum that is dynamic, experiential, multi-sensory, creative, and relevant that strikes a balance
between academic, artistic, and practical skills with emphasis on developing capacities

Environment that promotes the aesthetics of goodness, beauty, and truth and develops empathy and
respect for others, reverence for nature, and an emerging sense of responsibility for the larger
community

Self-development of adults, parent and family involvement, and parent-teacher collaboration for
student success

Collaborative structure of governance and leadership based on kinship? Or brotherhood?, equal rights,
and freedom of individual initiative and creativity
Table of Contents
1. Background
2. Plan Development
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3. Goals and Actions
a. Focus Area 1: Governance
b. Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainability
c. Focus Area 3: Expansion
Appendix A: Strategic Planning Task Force Members
Appendix B: Strategic Planning Workgroup Process
Appendix C: Strategic Planning All-School Vision Conversation Data Summary
Appendix D: Strategic Planning Idea Box Data Summary
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BACKGROUND
Madison Waldorf School (MWS) was established in 2007 founded by Kathy MacAleese, Elizabeth Arth, Rudy
Martinka and Jacqueline Beecher. It is the only Waldorf school in Dane County. MWS offers Grades 1-8, with
early childhood classrooms and playgroups. MWS graduated its first 8th grade class in June 2014, a celebrated
event for this developing Waldorf school.
As a developing Waldorf school, MWS, like other schools, is working to establish itself by:
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Realizing the full potential of the Waldorf curriculum;
Defining a viable and nimble Governance structure that allows for
effective oversight by MWS’s 12-member Board, keen pedagogical
direction by MWS’s faculty, strong parent engagement as
supported by the Parent Circle, and robust Administrative support;
Securing financial sustainability through: strong enrollment of
students as well as retention of our students, faculty and staff,
cultivating a culture of giving within our community and external
donor support, strategic fundraising, and effective branding,
marketing and outreach.
Developing a campus that retains the current look and feel so
valued by our community and that also meets the organizational,
pedagogical and community needs of our community.
“Our highest endeavor must be to
develop free human beings who
are able of themselves to impart
purpose and direction to their
lives. The need for imagination, a
sense of truth, and a feeling of
responsibility – these three forces
are they very nerve of education.”
-Rudolf Steiner
Recognizing our developing status, one of our goals is to achieve accreditation from The Association of
Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) a process that can often take a decade or more.
In January 2014, MWS embarked on a process to update their Strategic Plan in an effort to realize this aim. A
previous plan exists (“Strategic Plans,” 2009-10) however it was not, as a whole, implemented. Since that
time, MWS has changed substantially including its membership across the constituencies, its successes and
challenges, and, to a degree, its goals.
The intent of this Strategic Plan is to outline a path forward that will allow MWS to realize the vision of the
school we aspire to be. It identifies and prioritizes shared goals and specific actions that allow our school to
move in a cohesive and unified manner toward this picture. The specific activities of our strategic plan will
constantly evolve over time as our community grows and our needs change. As MWS leadership implement
the goals and actions outlined in the plan they will continuously check-in around the progress of their work,
assess its impact, and make changes to the goals and actions in order to maintain effectiveness. MWS
Leadership will oversee this “plan-do-check-act” cycle of improvement in the coming years.
PLAN DEVELOPMENT
In January 2014, a Strategic Planning Workgroup was charged by the MWS Board both to establish a process
for developing a plan and to seek input from the MWS community (see Appendix A). This Workgroup sought
to better understand what parents, faculty, staff and the Board like about our school today and where they
think we can and should grow. During spring 2014, the Workgroup hosted an all-school conversation using the
Art of Hosting model, conducted a parent survey, and offered an idea drop-box in the lobby. The process as
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well as a summary of the data collected are described in Appendices B, C and D. Parent survey responses are
available upon request.
This Strategic Plan is the culmination of that process with the goals and actions within derived from input by
the MWS community and the experience and knowledge of our faculty, staff and Board.
Eight broad topics emerged from the data-collection efforts of the Strategic Planning Workgroup:
Governance, Compensation, Sustainability, Early Childhood, Accessibility, Facilities, Expansion,and Wholism.
Each of these is described below:
Accessibility: All-inclusive accessibility is the philosophical commitment to make MWS education available to
all children who want it irrespective of financial capacity, and eventually geography.
Compensation: The critical next step for retaining and recruiting excellent faculty and staff at MWS is to ensure
just salaries and benefits.
Governance: Identifying decision-making roles, processes and structures; accountability metrics and
mechanisms; succession-planning; and policies and procedures is the seminal next step in MWS’ development.
Sustainability: Over and again, one of our top goals is to ensure the survival and stability of MWS in terms of
finances, resources, students and personnel.
Early Childhood (EC): The view that our Early Childhood program is foundation to the future health and growth
of our grades emerged from this work. The previous stage of growth and development of MWS emphasized
the Grades as the goal to achieve, namely graduation of MWS’ first 8th grade class. Many stakeholders now
see that growing and developing our Early Childhood program is a requisite next step to securing the future of
the MWS. It was also noted that while Early Childhood programming is a priority, EC as a theme will be
replaced by a balance of EC-Grades-Middle/High School over time.
Facilities: How strong a positive impression and how limiting our current building and surrounding structures
are appeared again and again from all of our data sources. Our facilities could be better designed to support
the pedagogical needs of the children and Faculty, the administrative needs of staff as well as the larger needs
of our community. Further, MWS’s lease expires in 2018 with the option to renew and we want to be in a
position to take advantage of this opportunity when it arrives.
Expansion: Many vigorous voices have highlighted our need to aim for expansion of programming to realize a
full Waldorf curriculum, student numbers, geographic location and sociocultural penetration into the Madison
and surrounding areas.
Wholism: Repeatedly, stakeholder feedback in all of the data production emphasized how much they value the
curricular balance of MWS, stressing Nature, the Arts, Languages and core traditional content. That rounded,
balanced wholism is a key feature of MWS’ identity and ‘branding.’ It is also a central value in leading
successive stages of growth, not the least is the prominence of Nature education and experience for our
children at school.
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These themes have been grouped further into three Focus Areas that provide the framework for this plan.
Specific goals, actions and outcomes/metrics are identified for each Focus Area. In sum, the next section of
this document is organized as follows:
 Focus Area 1: Governance
 Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainability that includes Early Childhood, Accessibility and Compensation.
Compensation is viewed as an outcome/metric (measure of success).
 Focus Area 3: Expansion includes Facilities development and Wholism.
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GOALS AND ACTIONS
This section of the plan outlines the Goals, Actions, and Metrics/Outcomes in each of three focus areas:
 Governance
 Financial Sustainability
 Expansion
MWS identified short, mid and long-term actions in each of these focus areas. Short-term actions are to be
accomplished in the next year and mid-term actions are to be completed in the next 2-3 years. The long-term
actions are more visionary with a horizon of 3+ years. These are goals that MWS will need to cultivate
resources and community support to accomplish. Outcomes/Measures of Success are also identified for each
focus area at the end of each section.
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Focus Area 1: Governance
This area focuses on MWS’s commitment to developing effective Governance – or the rules, practices, and
policies by which we make decisions and carry out work within MWS. The focus includes decision-making,
accountability, succession planning, and policies and procedures. As a developing school, these systems have
evolved informally over time and we are now at a juncture where formalizing how we conduct our business is
essential.
MWS envisions the School five years from now with a Governance structure that is strong, transparent,
nimble, and understood by all. The goals and actions identified in this plan are steps to realizing that vision.
The 3 goals of this Focus Area are:
1. Define roles and responsibilities of committees, staff, faculty, and Parent Circle
2. Implement a quality improvement cycle
3. Shift from founding board to mature board
A description of each of these goals along with related short-term priority actions are outlined below.
Goal 1: Define roles and responsibilities of Committees, staff, faculty and Parent Circle
To date, MWS has developed an oversight structure without clearly documenting how this structure actually
works. The actions listed below will clarify roles and responsibilities as well as how decision-making processes
work. Documentation will also ensure that all members of the MWS community understand who is
accountable for what decisions.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Develop position descriptions for all employees of the school
 Update Committee mandates
 Develop and publish an organizational chart that includes the roles of committees
 Develop process maps for decision-making
 Develop policies and procedures and process maps for communication with a Plan-Do-Check-Act
focus for enhancing communication
 Update MWS By-Laws
Goal 2: Implement quality improvement cycle
As a developing school, MWS has yet to formalize a system that allows us to set long-term goals, truly
measure progress against those goals and continually assess our future directions. The actions below allow
MWS do just this fostering a shared understanding of critical issues, identifying strategic directions and
actions based in quantitative as well as qualitative data, measuring progress towards those directions, and
reassessing and adjusting this work as needed.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Institutionalize the strategic planning process
 Establish faculty, staff and board evaluation and mentoring cycle
 Evaluate faculty and staff salary structure
 Institutionalize data-driven decision-making
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o Identify data to be collected annually or more frequently
 Exit Interviews of all those who leave the school before 8th grade
o Develop systems for collecting that data
o Identify which staff and/or committee is responsible for conducting analyses and developing
recommendations
Goal 3: Shift from founding board to mature board
Since the beginning of MWS the Board has been involved in active administration to compensate for lower
staffing levels. It is important that the Board shift away from this practice and embrace fully the actual
responsibility of providing legal and financial oversight as well as strategic direction for the school in addition
to stewarding healthy and active membership on the Board
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Institute a strong Board Recruitment Committee to ensure succession planning
 Institute a strong Board Strategic Planning Committee to ensure the Board is providing the longterm guidance they are responsible for
 Establish practice of annual board self-evaluation
 Establish practice of annual board evaluation of Administrator
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Shift financial planning, analysis and budget development activities from volunteer Board
Treasurer to staff position
Outcomes/Measures of Success*:
 Achieve AWSNA accreditation as a Waldorf school
 Improved communication as measured by efficiency of decision-making and parent satisfaction via
annual survey
*Under development
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Focus Area 2: Financial Sustainability
A strong financial foundation lends stability and strength to organizations. It permits appropriate staffing
levels and variety in programming and frees up energy for experimentation and growth. Careful planning will
enable us to create a complete Waldorf offering from early childhood through middle school and to manage
growth over time.
MWS envisions the School five years from now in a more resilient financial position. Such a position is one that
becomes stronger and more stable by the year, with wages and benefits commensurate with faculty and staff
positions; it also incorporates an active approach to continuing to strengthen our financial position relative to
changing external conditions.
The seven goals and actions identified below are steps to realizing that vision.
1. Institutionalize a rigorous budgeting and financial planning process
2. Develop a more robust sequence of programs from early childhood to middle school beginning with Early
Childhood
3. Provide continuity of childcare throughout the school day and year
4. Define our educational (market) niche and identify target market(s)
5. Improve outreach and marketing
6. Expand development strategies
7. Support the social health of our school (increase parent engagement)
Goal 1: Institutionalize a rigorous budgeting and financial planning process
MWS has strong systems in place for managing year-to-year cashflow and accounting. This has allowed our
school to develop an annual budget that is solvent. Our next step is to improve and stabilize our budgeting
process to allow for more timely decision-making and long-term planning.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Clarify parameters driving budgeting decisions i.e. whole school enrollment perspective versus
individual classrooms
 Develop a financial model that articulates the operating and capital requirements for the next five
years including staffing, professional development, materials, faculty salary and benefits, and growth
of administrative functions
 Develop a rationale for tuition setting decisions
 Improve economy of Tuition recovery rate
 Consider multi-year contracts or discounts for multi-year commitments
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Develop a business plan
Goal 2: Develop a more robust Early Childhood program
The MWS Early Childhood Program, currently comprised of playgroup and two early childhood classrooms, is
seen as the foundation of our school. Most of the children entering our Waldorf grades program enter from
our early childhood programs. An examination of our enrollment data shows strong promise that increasing
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the number of students in our early childhood program will lead to more robust enrollment in the grades in
future years. Further, playgroup serves the same purpose with regard to our Early Childhood classes.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Add a third Early Childhood classroom
 Expand playgroup presence such as weekend or summer playgroup
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Consider satellite Early Childhood and/or playgroup programs (possibly on East Side)
 Establish a 4K Exploration Team to evaluate opportunities for 4K at MWS
Goal 3: Provide continuity of childcare throughout the school day and year
Working parents need care for their children before and after the school day, during days when the school is
closed and throughout the summer. By providing continuity of care throughout the day and year MWS
strengthens our ability to recruit and retain families
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Programming during the months of June and August
 Better understand how this programming fits into the Waldorf financial picture
Goal 4: Articulate our educational niche and target market(s)
Waldorf education clearly fills a unique educational niche in this region. There are no other Waldorf schools in
Dane County. It is possible to build upon this unique position by leveraging the Waldorf curriculum against the
values of our larger community.
Waldorf education aligns well with certain values of the larger Madison community including outdoor learning,
learning through doing (Makerspaces), sustainability, active living (biking), community service, and alternative
medicine. It is possible to deepen our programming in certain areas and thus appeal to a broader segment of
the Madison community by building up those aspects of our pedagogy that reflect those values. We need to
determine as a school, if this is a direction we want to pursue.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 Faculty identify existing programs/pedagogical areas MWS could build upon that align with
community values and create a picture of how these could become a theme for our whole school,
one that is carried through each grade.
 Follow a collaborative process that allows whole school input on this possibility
 Develop an implementation plan
Mid-term Priority Actions
 Seek resources to support implementation plan (including support for professional development)
 Implement programming across grades
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Goal 5: Improve outreach and marketing
There is a sense that MWS is not well-known in the Madison region or, if known, not well-understood. We also
know that word of mouth is the number one way private schools improve enrollment. The actions outlined
below address this concern:
Short-term Priority Actions
 Shape marketing materials to address misperceptions of Waldorf education and MWS
 Emphasize healthy development of the child including spiritual development of a non-religious
nature
 Market our tuition adjustment program
 Engage with area preschools to market our grade school to their parents
 Involve MWS community to increase word of mouth
 Establish a team of parent ambassadors who can attend events in our community and speak
about Waldorf (increase work of mouth)
 Parent generated talking points
 Gather and post parent and alumni testimonials
 Exit interviews with graduating students
 Expand tours to include outdoor curriculum
 Develop a larger Waldorf community by identifying other groups with overlapping values
 Understand our target market
 Offer parent information sessions at i.e. Happy Bambino, Co-op, etc.
 Outreach to other play-based early childhood/preschool programs

Make existing events more accessible
 Provide childcare at events
 Offer variety of times and types of events
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Create a network of childcare providers with similar values
 Offer shared Professional Development
 Officially declare partners
 Crossbrand
 Increase MWS presence at community events
 Promote more Lifeways programs in our area
 Link hot lunch program with local farmers and restaurants
 Create Book Prize for children
Goal 6: Create a strategy for fund development
All private schools are facing the reality that they can rely less and less on growing enrollment and traditional
fundraising to support their budget. Many schools are looking at other ways to develop revenue streams to
diversify and thus stabilize their income sources.
Short-term Priority Actions:
 100% participation in our Annual Appeal
 Evaluate efficacy of current fundraising efforts: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats
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 Adjust activities accordingly
 Develop grant seeking strategy
 Develop on going relationships with our graduates and their families
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Develop alternative revenue streams
Goal 7: Support the social health of our school (increase parent engagement)
A strong and engaged parent body is foundational to our Mission and Vision, is necessary to create
sustainability which is core to Rudolph Steiner’s philosophy and thus central to the whole health of our school.
Understanding parents concerns and desires, increasing parent understanding of how Waldorf pedagogy
works, as well as creating inviting and accessible ways to participate in our school are key.
Short-term Priority Actions:
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Develop buddy/mentor system for new parents and/or EC students with older grades
Establish annual rising first grade social with first and second graders
Provide childcare at events
Evaluate and adjust current in-reach activities – how well do they engage parents? Are they increasing
parents understand of Waldorf education
 Parent resources/educational materials available in lobby
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Create informal parent gathering space
 Hold at least 1 fun social event for parents to gather without children. It could be a fundraiser or
not.
Outcomes/Measures of Success:*
 Annual climate survey measures of satisfaction are high
 Volunteerism is high
 Faculty compensation increases from $38,000 per year to $45,000 and all full-time faculty receive tuition
remission
 Current base salary is not 38k. Our floor is $35k and the extra $3k is a “bonus” for those faculty members
who were hired when base salary was higher. New faculty have been hired and will be hired with a flat
$35k salary without the 3k bonus. This has created a two-tier salary structure at the school by default.
 Compensation for full-time classroom assistants increases from x to x, they receive a benefits package that
includes and tuition remission (I believe hourly rate is $12/hr)
 Faculty benefits package include $x per teacher per year for professional development, health insurance
and retirement (Professional development should be $1300 per FT teacher per year. At this time, most
summer PD seminars cost $600 and are held on either coast. Along with airfare and accommodation, you
are looking at that figure. Kindergarten PD seminars are equivalent in price. We should also be offering
PD for our specialist teachers, maybe not on an annual basis at first, but on a semi-annual one. Seminars
in Sacramento, CA for Spanish are $500.
 After-/before-care coordinator and staff? Summer camp staff?
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 Number of administrative staff meets standards set by AWSNA (i.e. x staff per 100 students)
 Administrative staff compensation increases from x to x
 Administrative staff benefits package includes $X per year for professional development, health insurance
and retirement
 Enrollment increases to 100
 Employee retention rate increases from x to x (we could define this by grade)
 Enrollment rates increase
 Student retention rates increase
 Full-time faculty chair is established and oversees evaluation and mentoring
 X number of new students enter our Early Childhood program per year
 X% of students enroll from Early Childhood into Grades
 X% of students enroll from Playgroup into Grades
 Madison community more aware of MWS and knows who we are and what we do (how do we measure
this?)
 Endowment established
*Under development
Focus Area 3: Expansion
Many vigorous voices have highlighted our need to aim for expansion of student numbers, program offerings,
accessibility to a broader geographic area and sociocultural penetration into the Madison and surrounding
areas. Steady growth is critical to sustain our school and to provide a rich, diverse, learning environment for
children in each developmental stage. MWS envisions a future where is enrollment is strong, a full Waldorf
curriculum exists and our location(s) is strategic offering accessibility to the broadest geographic region
possible.
We envision MWS five years from now meeting our desired student numbers, offering a full complement of
Waldorf curriculum, in a location that maximizes enrollment, and in a space (building and lands) that meet the
desires of the staff, faculty, parents and Board.
The goals and actions listed below will help us achieve that vision.
Goal 1: Define our facilities/space wants and needs and develop a plan for attaining that new facility/space
Goal 2: Offer full complement of specialties
Goal 3: Continue to build partnerships
Goal: 1 Improve our facilities
MWS started a space planning process in Spring of 2014. To date the larger MWS community has given input
on their wants/desires for our future space and faculty and administrative staff have completed two levels of
questionnaires assessing their wants/desires. Due to staffing constraints this process is on hold.
Mid-term Priority Actions:
 Complete formal space planning process
o Field verify existing school square footage and develop space allocation summary for
current facility
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o Conduct round 3 questionnaire with faculty and staff
o Complete space allocation summary (1 month)
o Develop adjacency diagrams
o Develop ideal fit plan
o Package summary of findings, final space allocation summary and ideal facility plan
o Evaluate options for geographic location
 Examine buying neighboring conservancy or other property
Goal 2: Offer full complement of specialties
A fully realized Waldorf curriculum includes a music program and Eurythmy, which MWS currently lacks.
Further, we have been unable to fully support our existing specialty teachers with professional development
and market-based wages and benefits.
Long-term Priority Action:
 Add music, Eurythmy, Spatial Dynamics/Games
 Mentoring opportunities and intensive professional development seminars for specialty teachers
 Hire learning support teacher.
Goal 3: Continue to build partnerships
The diverse nature of strategies in this plan provides an opportunity for collaboration with community
partners. There are many possible partners in the Madison region and beyond whose values align with those
of MWS. Identifying and creating strategic relationships with those individuals and organizations will allow
MWS to capitalize on the knowledge, expertise, and capital and financial resources of this community and
beyond. It will also achieve the outreach and marketing goals of becoming more well-known and wellunderstood in the Madison region.
MWS envisions a future 5 years from now where partnerships with a variety of strategic organizations and
individuals are helping MWS to realize the goals outlined in this plan
On-going Priority Action:
 Continue to build on existing partnerships to realize the goals, strategies and actions outlined in
this plan

Intentionally seek partners in the region who share our values; create generative relationships
for mutual benefit.
Outcomes/Measures of Success:*
 Partnerships contribute to increased outreach and enrollment
 Revenue from external sources increase
* Under development
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Appendix A: List of Strategic Planning Workgroup Members
Alon Andrews, Parent
Cherity Foat, Parent and Grades Faculty Chair
Nancy Gutknecht, Parent
Marcela Lopez-Lara, Grades Faculty
Rachel Martin, Parent and Board President
Kathy McAleese, Parent and Faculty Chair
Laurie Nagus, Parent and Administrator
Walt Schalick, Parent and Board Secretary
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Appendix B: Strategic Planning Work Group Process
Process for Creating a Short-, Medium- and Long-term Plans for MWS (January 2014)
Remit: This ad hoc subgroup has been tasked to propose to the Board a process by which short-, medium- and
long-range plans may be created for the Madison Waldorf School (MWS). Expressly, the remit of this group is
not to propose the plans, nor even to finalize the process, but merely to make a proposal to the Board from
which a process can be generated and implemented.
Background: Organizations of the complexity of the MWS do best with short, medium and long-term goals;
equally important are plans by which to achieve those goals. A previous plan exists (“Strategic Plans,” 200910). It was not, as a whole, implemented. In the interim, MWS has changed substantially including its
membership across the constituencies, its successes and challenges, and, to a degree, its goals.
A larger ad hoc group assembled in late 2013 with representation from the Board, the Faculty, the Staff and
Families to explore next steps for MWS. That group empaneled two ad hoc subgroups with comparably
diverse membership (one to explore next steps for enhancing the Early Childhood Programs, the other is this
subgroup). In no way were these groups necessarily representative of the full constituency of MWS. The
intention of the members was simply to help MWS take a next step.
Constituencies: There are four core constituencies within the MWS: a) Students, b) Faculty, c) Staff, and d)
Parents/Guardians/Families. There are two ancillary constituencies: e) the Wider (inter)national Waldorf
Community and f) the Local Madison Metropolitan Community. There are sub-constituencies within each
constituency. MWS as a school of the Whole includes all current members of a)-d).
Current MWS Structures: MWS is broadly organized via a Board, which has elected members from a)-d). It
has a Faculty composed of the Faculty of the Whole and supported by a Faculty Chair in a rotating
electoral position. It has a Staff, currently composed of individuals in the following roles: 1) Bookkeeping/
Payroll, 2) Website/Newsletter/ Marketing, 3) Administrator, and 4) Playgroup Coordination. The
Parents/Guardians/Families have representation on the Board as well as on the PTCC. The Families
generate volunteer work singly and in groups. Several ? standing committees also exist, largely staffed by
volunteers from the Parents/Guardians/Families including the Grounds Committee. This volunteer work
focuses on several large activities, including but not limited to: 1) Winter Festival, 2) May Festival, 3)
Halloween Festival, 4) Open Houses, 5) Back-to-School and End-of-School Picnics and 6) Waldorf
Wednesdays. Volunteer work also includes the two current ad hoc groups as well as smaller projects
generated out of typical work patterns. Finally, MWS Policies & Procedures (P&P) are largely defined by
interplay of the By-laws and informal, traditional practices. There are opportunities to further refine P&P
on an ongoing basis.
Facilities are leased from a private owner. Currently the space is almost too small for current needs and
would challenge growth. In addition, the internal design, while not incompatible with needs is not
conducive to full flexibility.
The approximate number of families in the MWS community is ~60 with ~80 children ranging from Early
Childhood to 8 grade; the first 8 grade class is due to graduate in 2013-14.
th
th
Revenue streams include: tuition, Annual Campaign, sales from Winter Fest, and *. Annual Campaign
donation percentage is *.
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Broad governance of MWS is framed by By-laws generated in 20* and revised in 20*. Day-to-day
governance exists through a composite of Staff decisions, Faculty decisions, Board decisions and
aggregate decisions of the Whole.
Themes: Over the course of the last four years, a variety of themes relating to future-visioning of the MWS
have included (but are not limited to): 1) Creation of a High School, 2) Creation of an Endowment, 3)
Creation of a building designed for MWS, 4) Enhancement of Early Childhood Program, and 5) *.
Scope/Characteristics: Any short-, medium- and long-term plans (hereinafter called “Plans”) must: 1) be
practicable, 2) be inspirational, 3) have broad/deep buy-in, 4) be linked to concrete deliverables of a sequential
nature to maintain momentum for change toward end-goal(s), 5) be linked to MWS structures and policies
that can fulfill the deliverables in 4), and 6) be able to be adapted as MWS continues to evolve. Thus the plans
may include suggested changes to the governance, structure and P&P of MWS.
Proposal: Given the above scope, a process to achieve those Plans must gather broad input from the
constituencies of MWS, gather an accurate sense of the collective actual and potential capabilities of MWS,
and synthesize these elements into structured priorities with identified actors and resources in a timeline to
achieve the goals.
1. Board meets to discuss the creation of a formal proposal to a long-term vision for our school as well
as associated short/medium/long-term goals and actions to move us towards our vision. If Board is
in agreement, board will give go ahead to ad hoc committee to create and, eventually, implement a
plan.
2. To gather data, encourage buy-in, build community, and potentially recruit others for plan
implementation, a school-wide visioning session will be arranged in March. Additional data will be
collected from those who cannot attend using focus groups, surveys, and one-on-one contact, and
any other prudent means. Student input will be collected by teachers, where appropriate, and
given to point person below to integrate into database.
3. A member of the Board or ad hoc committee will collect, organize, and synthesize input gathered at the
visioning session and by other means into school values and goals (see The Madison Waldorf School
Strategic Objectives 2010-2013). This document will be submitted to Faculty, Administration, Board and
PTCC.
4. Faculty, Administration, Board and PTCC will prioritize and consolidate goals individually and generate a
final prioritized list of goals that will move the school towards their long-term vision. At this time, an
audit of current skills and assets (human and material) will be completed to identify capacity for
implementation.
5. Once this prioritized list is created it will be synthesized into a final draft and shared with each
constituency – Faculty, Administration, Board and PTCC for final input and revised accordingly.
6. Faculty, Board, Administration and PTCC will then develop specific actions for achieving short (and mid?)
term goals in the form of an annual work plan. These workplans will identify a timeline, person
responsible, and outcomes against which we can measure progress.
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7. Workplans will be submitted to the School Administrator to ensure their coherency as well as alignment
with the overall Strategic Plan.
8. The Board will put in place a process to ensure that progress on workplans is taking place and that these
actions are aligned with the overall strategic plan. This process will include formal check-ins every 3
months.
9. The Board will ensure there is an Annual Review of the overall Strategic Plan each May. Should
substantial mismatch appear between constituency needs and the Strategic Plan, the Strategic Plan will
need to be revised.
Drafted by the Strategic Planning Task Force and submitted to the Board, Faculty and Administration for review
and approval.
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Appendix C: Strategic Planning All-School Vision Conversation Data Summary
This is a summary of the input collected from MWS faculty, staff and parents at an in-person event held on
March 15, 2014 using Art-of-Hosting methods.
Marketing/Branding
We asked participants “What is uniquely Madison about the Madison Waldorf School?” in order to identify
overlapping values between our school and the larger community. These are important to consider as we
develop our brand. The top themes that emerged are:
 Environmental Consciousness
 Progressive thinking
 Food (Slow Food, Healthy Food, Organic Local food)
 Creative Problem-solving (thinking ouside the box)
 Healthy/Active Lifestyle
 Interest in and value of outdoors
 Buying Local
 Concern with quality of education/Rigorous Education/High Academic Standards
We also asked “What is the message we want our school to convey to the public?” Top themes that emerged
are:
 Our unique curriculum i.e. integrating math learning with movement, building from observational
science to empirical science, focusing on developing core/human skills.
 Rigorous disciplined and relevant academics
 Sense of community and emphasis on community building
 “Slow, patient” schooling, based on the natural developmental pace of the child, that teaches the
whole child
 A happy learning environment
 Financially accessible
Space Planning
For the last few years our school has been interested in evaluating our space needs as we add grades and
continue to grow. The placement of our school on the market created the energy we needed to launch a
formal space planning process supported by two of our parents, John Seamon and Bridget LaGro, who are
experienced in this field. Please note, that we are not in a position of losing our space as our lease will go
along with the building sale.
One of the first steps in this process is to work with our community to identify what they like about our current
space, what they don’t like and what the hope for. Participants provided some answers to these questions and
voted on those that are of highest priority to them. The summary below shows those answers that received
the most votes and it is still important to consider all of the feedback we received.
What doesn’t work well with our current facility?
We need more:
 Outdoor space
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 Bathrooms
 Indoor play space i.e. bigger movement room/gym
 Gathering space
 Light
 Storage space
Also some classrooms are too small (1st, 2-3 esp.) and the EC classrooms should have kitchen and bathrooms.
And, we need human energy to maintain our grounds (they aren’t showing up).
What works well with our current facility?
 Kindergarten rooms and K playgrounds esp. back playground
 Architectural style (windows) and intimacy of space (cozy)
 Near natural areas, walks, nature
Program elements (wish list) for a new facility:
 Biodynamic garden
 Wooded area
 Playground with grass
 Industrial arts space
 Gym space
 Creative architecture in harmony with deep rhythms
 Stage/performance space/auditorium
 Auditorium
 Connected with biking and hiking trails
 Building that we at least partially make with mud/clay/brick
 Office located near building entrance
 School store more accessible and available to whole Madison community
Misc.
Many more children, Decreased cost to families, Mindfulness brought into kids/curriculum, No need to
combine classes each year
More opportunities for artists to share work
APPENDIX D: Strategic Planning Idea Box Data Summary
The information below was collected via an Idea Box placed in the school lobby during the months of April and
May 2014.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OUR SCHOOL IS DOING WELL?
 Fantastic teachers
 Compassionate and driven
 Hardworking volunteers
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Finding and creating balance.
Creating an environment for our children to be engaged – to grow and to thrive. Thank you
Rhythm
Emails
Updates on social calendar
Sense of community
Teachers are great, grounding and calming
Providing a Waldorf education for a growing number of children
Creating a community of parents and children who invest (both financially and w/their gifts) in the whole well
being of our children, our planet, and our shared future.
Feeling of home, comfort, stability for children, loving teachers, pedagogy, community of positivity
Decorating/painting the classrooms
The stories and art that the children are exposed to.
The Waldorf Wednesday
A Day in the Grades (great for new, prospective families)
Putting on plays
I think Cherity Foat is a great teacher so having her as a teacher is something the school is doing well.
Teaching
Holistically educating our children
Teaching our children
Offering high quality education.
Offering high quality education.
Age and developmentally appropriate curriculum
Providing parent enrichment evenings and gatheirngs that build community
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BRING TO OUR SCHOOL THAT DOESN'T CURRENTLY EXIST?
 Biodynamic education in grades 6-8
 Multiple streams of income that also offer outreach/education
 Growing school store and defining it’s goals and how it can help the school
 Eurythmy for early grades, regional folk dancing or capoeira (martial arts dance) for grades 7-8 (don’t laugh!)
 Perhaps a (part-time?) music staff to work with the teachers and offer more music opportunities for all of the
children.
 With the building for sale, exploring other locations/buildings that feature more outdoor space for gardens &
playful exploration of nature and seasons
 Support system for children who have learning challenges
 Larger, more diverse and beautiful outdoor play, work and farm space
 Early childhood tuition on par with outer EC (including Montesorri) programs
 Spanish foreign language
 More outside space
 Farm experiences
 Care for unusual days of i.e. Feb break and extra days after breaks
 Eurythmy for kids
 Conflict resolution process for kids to use or “Peace Maker” activities
 Stricter policy on letting kids watch media
 More talk about media’s effects in Early Childhood
 I hope the school can become a safe haven from media so the stories offered can take root more rather than be
moderate on media in fear of scaring families away
 Bigger space outside
 More presence in the community
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Hold winter festival in larger space so wider community can come
Eurythmy
More children
A space that provides adequate outdoor space, centrally located, and large enough to provide more parent
space with room to grow.
9-12 grades
A larger, more interactive library
9-12 grades
ARE THERE THINGS YOU THINK WE CAN DO BETTER?
 The school needs a unified vision of what makes Madison Waldorf special to other schools in the area and
different than other Waldorf Schools
 More informal gatherings/potlucks for whole school, not just per grade
 We are grateful for all that MWS has to offer! Thank you.
 We are happy the way things are.
 Hiring structure to be more transparent
 Fostering a sense of care and reverence for our current outdoor space/toys.
 Providing diverse opportunities for parent involvement i.e. different times for working parents versus stay at
home
 More school-wide activities
 Enforce the no hit policy or have kids have a consequence for it
 Help teach the children that respect of teacher’s is important
 I think you have a tough job – explore ways tuition could be cheaper (that said I know attracting great teachers
and Eurythmy come at a cost) it’s just that making ends meet on a very tight budget and having children come
to school at MWS is a hard choice. A choice we want for our children but it compromises other things like taking
care of our house, saving money (college, retirement, general rainy day savings) and travel (visiting family
abroad). I think the money thing (huge no?) is why children end up not coming. The community is doing its best
but needs help – fresh ideas, money, more energy (human).
 Nothing
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