St. Alphonsus School 
What is your Strategy?
July 4, 2023
I believe that people make their own luck by great preparation and good strategy.
I come from a long line of board and card gamers. As children we spent pretty much every summer afternoon swimming and then playing Monopoly. We learned the ins and out of penny poker at a young age and it was a right of passage to play a solo game of cribbage with the family patriarch, Uncle Bob. We developed strategies for different games, adapting them as we grew more skilled with each passing summer.
Blake brought similar experiences to our family, so our children grew up immersed in games, too. We passed on our enjoyment of friendly competition and a few of our time-tested strategies. Over the years the games changed, though. We moved on the Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and, most recently, Splendor. These games take strategizing to a whole new level, placing parent in the role of learner again. Thinking differently, creatively and strategically activates one’s brain in new ways, often leading to those aha moments where you see things from an entirely different perspective. Pardon the pun, but the process can be a game changer.
Over the course of the past year, our school board has been engaged in a strategic planning process. Information has been gathered from staff and alumni, parents and parishioners. We wanted to get a feel from our stakeholders on what our strengths and weaknesses are, and what opportunities are possible for our school community. After some initial work as a board, we engaged a facilitator with a wealth of experience in school planning to help us to look at the information we gathered with fresh eyes. The experience gave us an opportunity to reflect on what we have been doing and to consider new ideas that could shape the future of our school. Long term planning isn’t a game, but the elements of thinking in new ways and considering other perspectives can be game changing in a figurative sense.
It may be that I have a warped sense of what’s enjoyable, but it was a fun process. People have different opinions and reaching consensus is time consuming; still what I really enjoyed was the collective passion for the school community. Over and over, various stakeholders talked about their experiences and their vision for the future. The high level of engagement that came out of the work makes me proud of our school and full of faith for what will come next. Our community is invested in its future and together we will work to be the best possible environment for the children in our care.
Over the coming months, the Board will finish distilling down the information and identifying the next steps for our school. Once we have completed the last part of the process, we will provide the community with our strategic priorities for next year and the years beyond, a game plan, if you will.
Peace,
Christine McInnis