Fall Updates
Hello Soundview community!
Fall is in the air, and the school year is zipping along. I wanted to take a few minutes to provide an update from Soundview’s Board of Trustees. As the board, we are primarily focused on long term strategy that will impact the school five to fifteen years into the future. As a result, our goals have a lot of consistency from year to year. At the start of the previous school year (2022-2023), we set out two primary goals for the board, and they remain in place today:
Define Soundview’s growth strategy
While there are things we like about Soundview’s campus, we recognize the current facilities are maxed out from a capacity standpoint, and many of the structures are nearing the end of their planned life. Soundview’s long term sustainability requires opportunity for growth in program, services, and enrollment.
This challenge has resulted in critical and creative thinking (growing within the existing location, adding another location, or even moving to a new campus). We are actively evaluating campus options and know our work is not done until we have a clear path to enable growth. Over the past six months, we have also been heavily engaged with an architect to determine the spatial needs of the school’s program, and to define options for growth and configuration.
Grow the size and diversity focus of the board
At the start of last year we set out to optimize the size of the board within two years. We believe having a larger, more diverse board will better support the school’s needs. We now have twelve trustees, with a goal of sustaining a board of fourteen trustees.
The board also plays an important leadership role for Soundview's ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We have a strong, active committee leading efforts here, and believe the board must lead by example. We are in the process of participating in the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), which is used to build cultural competence. We will be leveraging the IDI results to further our own understanding and help define future focus areas for the board within the DEIB space.
We look forward to sharing more details about the board’s role and agenda during the State of the School meeting on December 1st, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM, in the Soundview Performing Arts Center. We are also always looking for members of our community that are interested in working with or on the board. If you would like to learn more, don’t hesitate to reach out to me or any trustee. You can find our info HERE.
Thank you!
Shawn Heidel (Finn, 6th grade)
Soundview Board President
