The 2026 Strategic Plan | City and Country School, New York

The 2026 Strategic Plan | City and Country School, New York

The 2026 Strategic Plan for City and Country


City and Country School has embarked on a comprehensive strategic planning process to honor our rich educational legacy by ensuring child-centered learning and innovation remain at the heart of C&C for generations to come.

Using the findings of our 2025 reaccreditation report and other recent studies as our backbone, we are engaging the entire community—trustees, faculty, staff, families, alums, and students—in reflecting on our values, priorities, and aspirations to shape the school's next chapter. The team from Ian Symmonds & Associates will guide us through this imperative time in the school's development.

Our Roadmap

This strategic planning process will move through six connected phases, each building toward a thoughtful and forward-looking strategic plan.

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Gather Information: January
Clarify goals, review what we already know about C&C, and design how we will gather input from our community. The Steering Committee will lay the groundwork.

Hear From the Community: February
Through surveys, conversations, and listening sessions with families, faculty, staff, and trustees, we will surface the stories, strengths, challenges, and hopes that define who we are. Mission statement alignment and refinement will begin.

Analyze What We Learned: March
Synthesize everything—your feedback, our history, enrollment and demographic trends, what's happening in progressive education, and how we compare to peer schools. The result will be a key findings report that shows us where we are and what matters most.

Shape Big Ideas: April
Design Teams (faculty, staff, trustees, and parents) will explore priorities and shape early ideas based on what we learned. The vision starts becoming a strategy.

Set Priorities: May
Review draft strategies for impact, feasibility, and alignment with our mission. Through collaboration, we will prioritize the strongest ideas—the ones that honor our values and actually work in practice.

Finalize the Plan: June
Final strategies, action steps, and cost considerations come into focus. The Board will review and get ready to share the plan with the full community as we head into the new school year.

Share and Mobilize the Plan: Fall 2026
Introduce the strategic plan to the full community, highlighting the priorities and stories that shaped it. Teams across the school will begin turning strategy into action.

Our Strategic Planning Committee

This committee is charged with making sure that this process is representative of the community and produces a meaningful and actionable plan that strengthens our ability to deliver our mission and transformative student experiences.

Meet the Committee
  • Elise Bauer, Director of Admissions / Alum Parent
  • Kate Bostock, Board Member / Alum Parent
  • Josh Cender, Board Member / Alum Parent
  • Lucy Christiana, Middle School Faculty / Education Committee Chair
  • Emily Essner, Board Member / Lower School Parent
  • Pam Finlow, Lower School Faculty / Lower School Parent
  • Jay Frankel, Faculty Representative to the Board / Middle School Faculty
  • Dori Haber, Lower School Reading Specialist
  • Alice Kong, Director of Technology
  • Kim Momoh, Director of Community Life, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Tracey Mumford, Board Chair / Lower, Middle, and Upper School Parent
  • Frank Patti, Principal / Lower School Parent
  • Laela Rae, Director of Curriculum
  • Jessica Tamberlane, Board Member / Middle and Upper School Parent
  • Mike Vogel, Board Member / Lower and Middle School Parent

Help Define the Next Chapter

This is more than a planning process—it's a chance to shape what's next for City and Country. Every voice in our community matters, and we hope you'll join us. There will be many opportunities to share your ideas, your stories, and your hopes for the school. Please stay tuned for a range of opportunities to participate.

“As the school community charts its future, it should have confidence in its ability to not only ‘live up’ to Pratt’s ideas, but also authentically interpret them, considering the current times. Change is challenging, yes, but also exciting. The chance to influence the future is the privilege of an educator. The strengths and passions of the City and Country community will surely have a positive influence on thousands of children in the years to come.”
- Report of the Decennial Visiting Committee, April 2025

 

 

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