Description
Woodstock Academy is a nonselective, independent, coeducational secondary school that serves residents of Woodstock, Eastford, Union, Brooklyn, Pomfret, and Canterbury, and is open to residents of other communities in Connecticut and neighboring states. The Academy was the first of six academies chartered in Connecticut when it was founded in 1801, and has maintained the corporate governance structure, high academic standards and personalized educational approach characteristic of the New England Academy system.
Governed by a thirty-member Board of Trustees, the Academy's board process is open to the public, and structurally linked with each sending town's board of education through appointed, ex officio seats on the Academy's Board. The Academy's governance is, by design and regulation, independent of control by local elected officials. A committee structure focuses Trustee attention in specific areas of governance oversight required by regulation such as finance and nominating.
Woodstock Academy in 2006 is a strong school, with an engaged Board of Trustees and a skilled faculty and staff, all closely in touch with the values and diverse program that characterize ‘the Academy difference.' During the last several years, a number of significant accomplishments demonstrate the Academy's strengths related to expanded curricular and co-curricular program offerings, notable student performance outcomes, and improved business operations. These include:
§ New programs, including Freshman Focus and related efforts to effectively integrate new students and promote an early sense of connection to the Academy, have brought increased public recognition to beliefs about the role of community in education that have been part of the Academy tradition for years.
§ An expansion of the athletic program to include wrestling, lacrosse and football has provided additional opportunities to student athletes and established new relationships between the Academy and other schools in the region.
§ Innovative art and vocal music programs have gained recognition beyond the school community as outstanding examples in their respective disciplines, showcasing the talent and dedication of participating students and faculty members, and creating visibility for the Academy in the secondary school community.
§ The designation of an Academy student as Governor's Scholar for five of the past seven years, and for the past three consecutive years, as well as the Academy's improving scores on statewide tests indicate positive trends in student performance outcomes. The fall 2005 Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) results indicated improvement among Academy students in every major subject area, between 80 and 90% of Academy students performed at or above the ‘proficient' level, and overall scores above statewide and Educational Reference Group medians.
§ The Academy's financial systems have been the focus of an aggressive effort by the business office and Trustees to establish consistent budgeting, spending and monitoring procedures, all of which have resulted in more accurate budget planning and internal controls, and contributed to the Academy's overall financial stability.
§ The Academy's administration has been restructured to include an Administrative Council, Student Assistance Team and other designated teams that bring new focus to specific areas of planning, student support and resource management.
§ The Board of Trustees has formalized its board recruitment, orientation and ongoing board development processes, revitalized its committee structure, designated an annual board planning retreat, and undertaken comprehensive strategic planning.
With these accomplishments comes a new understanding of the challenges that the Academy will face - some familiar and some new - as the school seeks to improve its facilities, maintain a wide array of curricular and co-curricular choices that are delivered by a creative and experienced faculty and staff, and provide each student with adult attention and support for decision-making regarding post-graduation choices.
Many of the familiar challenges are financial. School buildings and campus infrastructure require vigilance with respect to maintenance and repair, and careful planning with regard to renovations and new construction that will sustain the Academy's unique program. The Academy's support for meaningful adult-student connections requires ongoing attention to student-teacher ratios and class size. During the last ten years, many independent schools have sought to decrease their dependence on the traditional tuition-based revenue model in order to respond to similar financial challenges, and the Academy must do the same, both through a significantly enhanced fund development program and through the implementation of revenue-generating programs. Growth in the endowment is critical to the Academy's future, and the pressure to continue this growth is unrelenting.
New challenges relate to managing increased parental, student and regulatory expectations, as well as increasing pressure to demonstrate results for multiple audiences in a complex environment. The Academy's faculty and administration drive the mission by creating the connections with students that help them engage fully in the educational experience. This expectation calls for ongoing, creative attention to professional development, team building, planning and scheduling. Similarly, curriculum content and organization is critical to a secondary school's ability to prepare students for additional education and/or employment in a rapidly changing global economy. Increased reliance, by public policy makers, on testing as the primary measure of student success, as well as increased regulatory requirements at the state and federal level, will challenge faculty members' and administrators' ability to provide effective curriculum planning and oversight, and to assess student performance in ways that include, but are not limited to, testing. This broader view will be necessary to the Academy's efforts to fully communicate student success to a variety of audiences including current and prospective parents, local residents and officials, alumni, individual donors, and institutional funders such as foundations and corporations. None of these challenges can be met without resources.
Regulatory expectations for the governing boards of independent schools are increasing, as well, and as an independent New England Academy, Woodstock Academy's board has the legal obligation to comply. The Academy has worked hard to develop a strong governing board, and this effort will continue into the future. It is critically important that local audiences, particularly potential students and families, as well as town officials, fully understand the Academy's governance model, and that trustees continue their diligence in assuring fiscal transparency, positive community relations, and ongoing strategic planning.
For any school, enrollment is the greatest determinant of revenue, and projecting enrollment is a critical component of responsible planning. Woodstock Academy, like other independent schools, has adjusted to fluctuations in enrollment over the years. Unlike other independent schools, however, the Academy's enrollment is largely determined by the decisions of sending towns, so the traditional marketing and recruitment campaigns that influence enrollment in other settings are not available here as tools for stabilizing enrollment.
As an independent school with a public purpose, the Academy has not instituted a selective admissions process or limited enrollment from any of its current sending towns in order to cap enrollment as the total number of students has grown to over 1100. This growth in school size has allowed the Academy to keep per-student costs down, expand curricular offerings and faculty talent, and maintain a pattern of tuition increases that compare favorably to those of public districts around the state. It has also stretched the physical capacity of the current campus and created the need for facility enhancements in addition to those that would be necessary to maintain and improve aging facilities regardless of school size.
The Academy's foremost responsibility is serving the students who are currently enrolled, and yet this very practical, day-to-day responsibility requires that the Board of Trustees remain alert to potential changes in future enrollment. Through the regular review and discussion of enrollment projections from a variety of sources, including those published by the State Department of Education, and through active participation in contract negotiations with sending towns, the Board of Trustees takes this responsibility seriously.
Based on the current configuration of sending towns, the Academy's enrollment is projected to increase very gradually over the next eight years, resulting in a possible growth of 150 students during that timeframe. However, as this plan is being written, the Town of Brooklyn is in negotiations with Region 11 regarding a cooperative high school, and it is possible that the outcome of this negotiation will result in a significantly decreased Academy enrollment.
At this time, it is the position of the Board of Trustees that the Academy will engage in good faith contract negotiations with current sending towns with the intent of developing the necessary long term stability to plan responsibly for the facility, curriculum, faculty and administrative capacity that will provide enrolled students with a high quality secondary school education. While it is understood that decreases in enrollment may well occur, the Academy Board of Trustees is fully committed to planning responsibly for any change in total enrollment to insure that the quality of education is not adversely affected, and that a positive sense of connection between students, faculty members, administrators and trustees prevails.
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