Strategic Plan

Since arriving at Berwick Academy in the summer of 2018, Head of School Jim Hamilton has made it his mission for the School to be increasingly intentional about all it does—from teaching, to learning, to financial planning, to everything in between. It was with that mindset that Hamilton and the members of the Board of Trustees, supported by the full Berwick community, entered into the strategic planning process. 

“I think what most excites me,” Hamilton says, “is envisioning the confidence and pride we will feel, as a community, when we successfully achieve these goals. To me, this is about strengthening and enhancing our foundation in a way that will allow us to be continuously bold going forward.”

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Critical to Berwick’s success is the School’s work around justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI). Building on the work of the previous strategic plan, which focused on increasing cultural competency at Berwick, this essential goal of the new plan will incorporate inclusive programming into all three divisions. When evaluating JEDI, the School will look at how that translates in terms of faculty and staff hires, who sits on the Board of Trustees, and what it means in general to be a community that values diversity and inclusivity.

“We’ll be thinking about where we want our fourth graders to be in this,” Hamilton says. “Where do we want our eighth graders to be? And then, ultimately, have we given kids the tools they need when we send them off into the world?"

The development of strategic partnerships is a goal that will carry over into many areas of school life. Among the initiatives is for Berwick to create an internship program that facilitates opportunities for students in a variety of industries on the Seacoast. This could mean providing practical experiences for students within the fields of medicine, law, engineering, and sustainability, among many other areas. Relationships with strategic partners will help make these job shadow opportunities happen and Berwick hopes to form alliances with other schools, the University of New Hampshire in particular.

“We think a lot about UNH and other universities,” Hamilton says. “How do we create opportunities for our students to access all of the great things UNH has to offer? In turn, how do we entice more UNH faculty and staff to send their kids to Berwick? We are thinking about strategic partnerships with institutions of higher learning and potentially partnerships with other independent schools. Could someone teach Mandarin at multiple schools, for example? Could we share food service or custodial services? It will be important to be as efficient as possible going forward.”

A significant part of enhancing financial sustainability at Berwick is a $15 million capital campaign with a mission of “securing a financial future.” Growing the endowment is a top priority of the campaign, billed as a “transformational investment for our school” that comes with the “flexibility to thrive.” 

“[The plan] is to be intentional, to understand the big levers that we have financially, and how we either control them or employ them,” Hamilton says. “I think about the cost of tuition, I think about the cost of health insurance and faculty salaries, making sure we’re being thoughtful in our spending and appropriately conservative in how we live our life financially.”