Improving a school is a goal that technically never arrives – we rise to meet a continuously evolving moment, anchored and guided by our mission and vision as we work together to plan for the years ahead. While creating a plan takes countless hours, some of our school’s most extraordinary achievements start with a simple question: what if?
That what if is already taking shape this year through a series of Community Conversations, where every member of our community is invited to help us think about what might be possible for Hillbrook’s future. A guiding vision takes many different voices – here’s how our community is helping us create a plan for the years to come.
Perspectives guide us.
Held as informal gatherings in living rooms and conference rooms, Community Conversations offer a dynamic workspace in which to share ideas, ask questions, and provide unique perspectives on what it means to be a part of Hillbrook. Each conversation builds upon the one before it—as new families join in, they help us add new topics and personal stories. Bit by bit, sticky note by sticky note, the years ahead have begun to take shape. With our community’s help, Vision 2030 is forming.
With three Community Conversations done and more to come, we’ve already heard an abundance of informative and inspiring ideas: maintaining childhood through challenging times, supporting confidence and belonging, student mental health and mindfulness, AI’s role in education, teaching financial literacy, and more. Through the stories shared by Hillbrook’s families, we can dive deeper into different trends, challenges, and opportunities affecting the world at large. We take this time to dream big and push ourselves further, discovering new ways to make our school extraordinary.
Past achievements inspire us.
Through past strategic plans – Vision 2015 and Vision 2020 – we have been able to accomplish incredible things, built upon or inspired by past Community Conversations.
We have:
- Created the Resident Teacher Program – a program modeled after medical residency training that allows our teaching residents to gain hands-on experience and learn to teach by teaching.
- Launched our Flexible Tuition Program that has become a foundation of our school, supporting our commitment to making a Hillbrook education more accessible.
- Built the Hub, a two-story Makerspace near the center of our JK – 8th campus where hundreds of projects of every size, shape, and purpose have taken shape.
- Established The Scott Center for Social Entrepreneurship, inspiring staff and students like to find their own answers for two life-changing questions: “What matters to you? And what are you doing about it?”
- Made history at Hillbrook by founding our Upper School – a dream that was rooted in Vision 2015 and will officially be open in the fall of 2023.
Opportunities ignite us.
We can’t wait to continue building Vision 2030 together and using our community ideas as a compass for the next seven years. With 87 years of history and endless years to go, Hillbrook School will continue to be an incredible place to learn, grow, thrive – and, in just a few short years, graduate.
