Our Commitments: A Strategic Plan Update

Dear Keys Families,

I’ll be honest: I have complicated feelings about strategic plans.

Not because I don’t believe in planning — I wholeheartedly do. But because I’ve watched too many plans get laminated, trifolded, lost on websites, and quietly forgotten within a couple of months, just after they’ve been finalized. What I believe in is the living version: a set of commitments that shapes daily decisions, fuels hard conversations, and keeps a community honest about the distance between who we are and who we aspire to be.

Keys Strategic Plan is exactly that. This is our second year of implementation since the board ratified it in October 2023, and I wanted to give you an honest glimpse of how it is gaining momentum — not as an aspiration, but as action.

Our Heart: Community and Connection
Let’s start where everything starts: belonging.

We know from developmental and neuroscientific research that children cannot learn well unless they feel safe, seen, and genuinely known. Relationships are not the backdrop to learning at Keys — they are essential to learning. And our K-8 arc across two campuses is, I believe, our quiet superpower.

It’s eighth graders stewarding kindergarteners’ growth in Buddies and House Challenges. It’s fifth graders traveling to the Lower School to teach their second-grade Buddies about their changemaker graphic novels. It’s our Wednesday Gatherings and Openings, where mixed-grade-level groups come together, week after week, and live out our core values — know and be known, listen and be heard, dive in — not as a motto but as a practice.

We’ve also been reaching beyond our walls. Our middle schoolers performed a winter concert for residents at The Commons, a senior housing facility within walking distance of campus. That visit grew into something richer and more lasting than any of us anticipated. Fifth and sixth graders wrote letters to residents about living through the Civil Rights era — and several seniors wrote back with their own stories, “Seeing Martin Luther King Jr. speak was one of the most powerful experiences of my life.” That exchange, unhurried and deeply human, is exactly the kind of learning we mean.

Our Mind: Curriculum and Program
Keys is a scholarly place, and we’re committed to academic excellence. But here is something I believe without reservation: emotional intelligence and academic rigor are not in tension. They are inextricably woven. Deepening both is our second commitment.

One of the most significant investments we’ve made this year is the hiring of Dr. Elizabeth Veal as Associate Head for Curriculum, Community, and Culture. Dr. Veal has hit the ground running — listening deeply, examining our current practices with care, and working alongside our curriculum and instruction team to strengthen teaching craftsmanship across the school. She is leading our implementation of Transformative Social-Emotional Learning, so that students leave Keys with the skills to self-regulate, build inclusive communities, and genuinely listen across differences.
We’ve also launched a K-8 Math Committee with cross-grade-level representation, focused on strengthening alignment and shared vision in how we teach mathematics from kindergarten through eighth grade. And we are participating in an 18-month program through World Leadership School to develop assessment frameworks that remain relevant and rigorous in an age of artificial intelligence — because how we measure learning must evolve alongside the world our students are inheriting.

Our Place: Campus and Facilities
There’s a principle in education that I love: after the teacher and fellow students, the learning environment is the third teacher. We take that seriously.

After a year in the works, we’ve finally received city approval to install solar panels — and that work begins in June. It’s a small but meaningful milestone, and a real reflection of our commitment to environmental stewardship. At the lower school, we’ve completed new roofing on the specialist classroom buildings and are improving storage and learning spaces. And our board is engaged in the longer, harder work of envisioning our campuses for the future: a story we are determined to finish well.

Our Foundation: Financial Sustainability
A school’s values are visible in its budget. That is a truth I hold onto.

We have enlisted Stifel, a financial services firm with deep expertise in independent school capital planning and long-term financial modeling, to help us think rigorously about different scenarios for the road ahead. We’ve also retained Sand Hill Global Advisors to oversee and steward our investments, working closely with our Finance Committee. Both of these organizations, along with our thoughtful trustees, work to ensure that a Keys education remains excellent, accessible, and sustainable — not just for the families here today, but for the community yet to come. That horizon matters to us enormously.

Two years in, this plan is not a promise we made. It is a practice we are building — imperfectly, joyfully, together, every day.

All the best,
Heather