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Strategic Planning

With a heralded history of 160 years serving families in Colorado, St. Mary’s Academy engages in deliberate and focused strategic planning to ensure graceful growth and forward-thinking vision. Our current strategic planning project will: a) develop agreement on and alignment to a shared 10-year vision for impact; b) set key three- to five-year planning initiatives; and c) articulate a comprehensive implementation roadmap for St. Mary's Academy. This process is guided by our foundational Loretto School Values of faith, community, justice, and respect in pursuit of our mission to foster excellence in each child through academic achievement, spiritual development, and service. 

Background

In 2023, St. Mary's Academy's Board of Trustees and leadership team took the first steps toward comprehensive strategic planning by creating a thoughtful request for proposals and interviewing specialized firms with proven independent school experience. After careful consideration, Bloom Planning was selected as our strategic partner, bringing their expertise in educational planning to our community.

Our formal strategic planning process officially launched in July 2024. To ensure diverse perspectives and community representation throughout this important work, we convened a dedicated planning team including representatives from: parents and caregivers, faculty and staff members, the Board of Trustees, Middle School students, and High School students.

This collaborative team has been actively engaged in the vision development, planning, and accountability phases, ensuring that multiple voices and viewpoints inform our strategic direction.

Timeline: Progress to Date

Our comprehensive strategic planning process consists of five phases, each designed to build upon the previous work. Here's a recap of what has been accomplished and what's ahead:


Discovery Phase (July 2024 - October 2024)
Status: Completed
  • Bloom reviewed and analyzed existing programmatic and organizational materials
  • Built a research plan based on organizational due diligence
  • Conducted a kickoff meeting for the planning team
  • Gathered stakeholder research through:
    • One-on-one interviews
    • Stakeholder surveys (receiving over 900 responses from our community)
    • Multiple focus groups with parents, students, instructional staff, non-instructional staff, alumnae, and board of trustees
  • Completed an environmental scan of different variations of preschool-grade 8 modeling for student success
  • Created a comprehensive research report with key findings, analysis, and recommendations that informed subsequent planning phases
Visioning Phase (October 2024 - December 2024)
Status: Completed
  • Conducted research review with the planning team
  • Drafted the Vision for Impact Statement for the Planning Team
  • Facilitated a Visioning and Priorities Workshop with the planning team
  • Held a community review of the process in December
Detailed Planning Phase (December 2024 - March 2025)
Status: In progress
  • Pathway groups have met separately for the gap analysis and articulation of key initiatives workshop
  • Pathway groups are currently meeting to establish SMARTIE objectives, milestones, and KPIs
  • Community review of the pathways has been completed
  • An action planning workshop with pathway groups will identify year-one tasks, milestones, owners, resources, and timelines for implementation

Accountability Phase (March 2025 - April 2025)
Status: Upcoming
  • Development of metrics and measures dashboard that establishes measures for all KPIs
  • Creation of risk identification, mitigation, and contingency plans
  • Leadership participation in an accountability agreement that maps how SMA commits to managing the implementation of the plan
  • Board of Trustees review of the process, pathways, and key accountability measures
  • Bloom's presentation of recommendations for trustee management and direction to inform leadership support in implementing the strategic plan
Finalization and Implementation (April 2025, plus 6 months)
Status: Upcoming
  • Bloom's production of an executive summary of findings, recommendations, process notes, and planning goals
  • Consolidation of all planning goals and implementation details into a practical implementation tool
  • Creation of a final presentation of the strategic plan
  • Six months of implementation support from Bloom Planning

Four Strategic Pathways

Contact Information

For questions, please contact strategicplanning@smanet.org.

Looking Ahead

As we move from planning to implementation, this webpage will evolve to showcase our strategic initiatives in action and highlight early successes. Check back often!