To strengthen Parker’s mission, achieve academic goals, and remain competitive in the evolving private school market, Parker’s administrative leadership periodically reviews the school’s vision, objectives, and roadmap. The most recent strategic planning process commenced in January of 2025, 10 years after the prior analysis.
The project is led by a design team of 20, including board members, administrators, and a faculty representative. With help from Joe Romano, a planner from the non-profit Leadership + Design, Strategic Planning Board (SPB) members are working to map out Parker’s priorities and recommend shifting resources to match forward-looking goals.
Associate Principal Priyanka Rupani is one of six members of the SPB’s steering committee. “The strategic plan is about highlighting the things that are on the wall,” Rupani said. “We’re making sure we’re finding ways to continue to look out for members of the community.”
As a result of community input and educational system research, the team landed on five areas of focus: Leaning into Progressive Education, Strengthening Leadership, Citizenship, and Discourse Across the Parker Experience, Interdisciplinary Learning in a Changing World, The Community Fabric: Inclusion and Belonging for Families, Students, and Employees, and Expanding Access and Deepening Connections.
These core themes were explored on October 4 when, in the most recent step of this strategic planning period, Parker hosted its first-ever Community Design Day. At the event, parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members were invited to spend a half day engaging in a mock planning session to test current thinking with a larger sample of the school’s population. Guided by the Strategic Planning Board, participants collaborated in conversation on issues like inclusion of students and expanding access to the school for all of Chicago.
“The steering committee wants to ensure that our community is accessible and truly reflects the diversity of this city,” Rupani said. In previous meetings, board members have conducted interviews with selected members of the community, and parents have engaged in “think tanks” to ensure that all opinions are reflected.
Unique to standard strategic planning meetings, this early October conversation was community-wide—open to the newest Parker families and longstanding alumni as well as everyone in between. It kicked off with an overview of work done to date, a summary of the issues and opportunities that emerged in the early months of investigation, followed by small group brainstorms of potential next steps across each of the five target areas. Each participating group was given a worksheet including early research findings, current strengths, opportunities for improvement, Parker’s vision, and a focus task based on the five target areas. By the end of the day, each group was tasked with prototyping and presenting ideas to the full group. “It was great engaging with a lot of different voices and hearing that we’re in the right direction,” Rupani said.
Lower School parent and Parker alumnus Alissa Shapiro attended the planning meeting on behalf of her family. “I think it’s really important for our families to be involved in school and in a lot of different ways,” she said. “There’s a lot of work left to do… and I’m really excited to see what will happen next. This discussion was such an amazing opportunity to think about the future and ask these important questions about what school will look like.”
Representing the student body, junior B Hirsch participated in the planning session. “I’ve been a member of the Strategic Design Team with Ewuraesi [Korankye] and Daniel [Chang] since last winter,” she said. “Most of the planning is in the early stages, and we are in the part of the process where we are cumulating ideas and information into different categories so we can move forward from there. As a student, I am grateful to have my voice as input in such an important part of Parker’s future.”
Following Saturday’s meeting, the Board debriefed to process and dive into the thoughts raised by the community. A pathway to reach the 2035 goal to be “a school that truly reflects the racial, economic, and cultural diversity of Chicago…and will be seen not only as a leading progressive school, but as an institution deeply rooted in Chicago, shaping the next generation of leaders,” will be shared with the full community by the end of the school year.
