Shortly after his arrival in the fall of 1997, Bishop Anderson initiated a process which lead to the formulation of a mission statement for the School. In this process, the Rector solicited the opinions of students, faculty, staff, trustees, alumni and parents. The outcome was a mission statement which has been shaped by all the constituencies of our School community. In order to begin to answer these questions, there must be a context. The mission statement, which takes into account the perspectives of those whose lives are connected with the School in important ways as well as the School's traditional sense of itself, furnishes this context.
Vision follows upon mission.
When the community achieved a consensus about a mission statement, the Rector began to articulate his vision of how that mission might best be accomplished in the context of the particular challenges which face our community at this point in time. To date, he has shared two of the three parts of his vision with the School. The second part was presented to students and faculty recently in his address at our academic convocation held in Chapel on the evening of January 6. The first two parts of the Rector's vision have been published in the Horae Scholasticae and in the S.P.S. Today. Last year, it became clear at the meetings of the academic division heads and in the deliberations of the faculty Committee on Quality of Life, that we were facing some issues which required careful attention and equitable resolution.