June 5, 2007

Dear Members of the PDS Community,

I am delighted to announce that at its June 2007 meeting the Poughkeepsie Day School Board of Trustees approved a three-year Strategic Plan for the school. This plan is designed to guide the school as it takes its next steps forward. It builds on the refreshed mission for the school that was approved in January 2007. (Read the executive summary of the plan.)

Together with the mission statement, the Strategic Plan is a launch pad for re-imagining the PDS design for learning and community. It is a bold vision for our future, guided at every step by our mission and its values. It represents the culmination of an intensive period of community-wide discussion and data gathering. The strategic-planning process was inclusive, involving critical input from all constituencies: parents, faculty, students, alumni, trustees and friends of the school. This process was helped in its early stages by Marc Frankel and Judith Schechtman of Triangle Associates in St. Louis. A strategic-planning task force, led by parent trustee Rene Schnider, then shepherded the plan through all the stages of goal development, data analysis, editing and design. All members of that task force deserve our thanks for their many hours of hard work.

This plan charts the future of the school for the years 2007 to 2010, the first phase of a longer-term 2020 vision for the school. It is an ambitious and imaginative plan and its successful implementation will require the energy, time, tenacity and talent of every one of us. Its goals and implementation strategies are designed to help PDS continue to evolve so that students, now and in the future, may thrive as joyful learners and contributing members of the global 21st century.

As we begin to implement this plan and work toward making its goals a reality, we hope that you will join us in helping PDS step forward with confidence.

Sincerely,

Josie Holford
Head of School