By 2026, ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ will solidify its place as one of the best boys’ schools in the country, with an enhanced focus on academic excellence and on the development of character and leadership.
ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ operations and offerings will be benchmarked against the country's top boys' schools.
The School will serve the most talented, motivated, and accomplished boys from throughout the region.
Through its published work, seminars, speaker series, and expert practice within US, the School will be recognized as a valued national resource on how best to educate the whole boy from Junior K to Grade 12.
The culture wherein each boy is known and loved will be welcoming and will foster belonging for all its students and families, hold them to high standards, and encourage fulfilling their potential.
Faculty and staff will be individually and collectively recognized as leaders in boys' education and in cultivating valuable, meaningful, and enduring relationships.
The world-class curricular program will build on the School’s rich 130-year history while educating boys for the future; will draw on pedagogical expertise and developmental sensitivity; and will include signature programs that define a US experience at each division.
The campuses will be flexible environments, built for boys, with state-of-the-art and state-of-the-science classrooms, laboratory, studios, and athletic spaces to give teachers and coaches the tools to do their very best work.
The School's financial sustainability will be assured by the intentional balance of revenue sources and expenses.
US will be recognized nationally as providing world-class curricular, extracurricular, and co-curricular programming for boys in a diverse community, by creating a uniquely supportive and inspiring place where boys can aspire to be their best authentic selves.
US is first and foremost a school for boys during the critical years of their development into men, and all faculty and staff who work with our boys will exemplify excellence, both in their disciplines and in their care for students, in maximizing boys’ experiences.
Broadening and deepening students’ world outlook means expanding the concept of “classroom” to embrace the culture, perspectives, and learning opportunities available in Cleveland and beyond. The US experience is designed to prepare students to engage with the world throughout their lives.
US will provide an intentionally prepared educational environment with buildings, classrooms, and campus spaces that complement and enhance the School’s longstanding experiential emphasis and that support boys’ growth and learning.
To serve the broadest group of boys today and to develop aspirational plans for tomorrow’s generations of students, US will increase revenue beyond tuition while prudently managing costs associated with our robust Junior Kindergarten through Grade 12 program.
Additionally, we adapt the learning experience as he matures through the lower, middle, and upper schools. US celebrates the multiple dimensions of each boy and sets him on his path well beyond commencement – through risk, adversity, and failure – to success, accomplishment, and excellence in life.
Aspiration
ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ will be recognized nationally as providing world-class programming for boys in a diverse community by creating a uniquely supportive and inspiring place where boys can strive to be their best authentic selves. US aspires to:
Refine character and leadership development as cornerstones of the US education throughout the arc of boys’ development from Junior K-Grade 12;
Deliver a holistic approach to academic, athletic, extracurricular, social-emotional, and cultural programming at each level to help boys reach their full potential in becoming young men of character who lead and serve;
Articulate and deliver on the enduring potential and value of an all-boys education.
Develop and implement a thoughtful and cohesive program with a clear focus on boys’ development. Incorporate the School’s core values of Responsibility, Loyalty, and Consideration into the life of the School at every level. Publicize in-house research, host conferences and speaker series, and train and develop staff. Import and export specialized knowledge to become known as the national thought leader on boys’ education. Develop and maintain a system to measure the School’s effectiveness in developing men of character.
Ensure ongoing curricular evaluation and growth by creating a timeline for periodic curricular review and coordinating efforts among each of the lower, middle, and upper school divisions by empowering administration, faculty, and staff to effect institutional change, and by allotting time and resources in the interest of evaluation, calibration, and growth. Embrace measures to assess progress, provide feedback, and incorporate informed use of standardized testing data. Use this information for teachers to identify areas for individual student growth and areas for curricular review and development.
Make necessary updates to ensure academic excellence and preparation, including grade-level distribution. Implement a student services framework and professional development to equip faculty with specific strategies and resources to support all students.
Introduce coding and statistical analysis to all students. Develop programming Junior K-Grade 8 that will prepare students for Grades 9-12 programs in a defined scope and sequence. Consider staffing in Computer Science to accommodate increased enrollments and more expansive offerings through after-school, hybrid, and online programming.
Examine current and potential experiences in the academic curricular program, independent projects, civic engagement, outdoor programming, entrepreneurship, global citizenship, technology, self-expression, and performance. Identify a singular capstone program best suited to each division.
Maximize learning, increase access to elective offerings, provide adequate extension periods for learning maximization, and advance academic achievement.Develop and implement additional enrichment and acceleration programming through robust after-school classes, hybrid/online instruction, summer programs, and collaboration with other schools.
Utilize merit- and need-based aid scholarship opportunities to increase access. Continue to expand the reach of US throughout the region with increased targeted marketing. Ease logistical access for prospective US families through the expansion of the School’s transportation model.
Assess and benchmark the US college counseling process. Develop and actively manage individual student academic paths for each student beginning in the 7th grade. Increase college-level financial aid education and application support to 11th- and 12th-grade families. Measure the outcomes of the college matriculation process for continuous improvement.
Conduct alumni surveys on the School’s role and impact, allowing US to involve alumni as credible and effective ambassadors for admissions, employment, and philanthropy. Leverage their broader academic, employment, and life journeys to better articulate the US value proposition.
To this enduring dedication, we add “and hold to a high standard” to emphasize our responsibility to draw out and nurture the best from our boys as both scholars, citizens, and leaders. Relational teaching is indispensable to boys’ growth. The mentor-protégé relationship among faculty and students transcends the academic discipline and is a hallmark of the ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ experience.
Aspiration
US is first and foremost a school for boys during the critical years of their development into men, and all faculty and staff who work with our boys will exemplify excellence both in their disciplines and in their care for students. US aspires to:
Recruit a world-class faculty and staff and develop them further throughout their US careers;
Support faculty and staff through best-in-class compensation, professional development, healthcare, and benefits;
Implement clear, cogent, and consistent expectations and guidelines for ongoing professional growth and institutional excellence.
Ensure alignment between compensation and benefits and school objectives by maintaining salary and benefits at a competitive level. Recognize, support, and highlight teachers who excel at mentoring, developing character, and creating curriculum or programming that furthers the goals of the School. Ensure faculty and staff fully understand and maximize benefits available to them.
Ensure faculty model life-long learning. Critically examine the current model, benchmark it against models at peer schools, explore the use of an online platform for guiding ongoing teacher evaluation and professional development, and ultimately incorporate the model across all divisions.
Ensure diversity of perspective and composition of the faculty and staff. Explore the development of a teaching internship program and collaboration with local education schools to support early career teachers. Encourage and support US and REACH alumni interested in exploring a career in education.
Redesign the current professional development model and funding to meet these goals. Further develop the summer Teaching and Learning Institute for US faculty, staff, and administration to highlight areas of necessary growth and consistency for all teachers.
ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ creates men who engage meaningfully, positively, and effectually with the world. The School seeks to build solidarity with all constituents as a community known first and best for these values. In preparing our students for their futures, we aim to bring the world outside our campuses into ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ and, as far as possible, immerse students in the world beyond our walls.
Aspiration
Broadening and deepening students’ world outlook means expanding the concept of “classroom” to embrace the culture, perspectives, and learning opportunities available in Cleveland and beyond. The US experience is designed to prepare students to engage with the world throughout their lives. US aspires to:
Foster a diverse and inclusive community in which each boy not only is known and loved but feels known and loved and held to high standards;
Recognize, promote, and grow the importance of incorporating diverse perspectives in curricula and programs and of the composition of its student, faculty, staff, administrative, volunteer, and decision-making bodies;
Provide opportunities for its students to support and nurture their life and career aspirations, their efforts outside the school, and their embodiment of our mission.
Develop a strong sponsor/advisor program throughout all divisions. Prioritize the “teacher/coach” model that enables faculty and staff to build deeper relationships with students in every aspect of student life. Develop mechanisms to raise the bar on holding each boy to a high standard relative to his particular developmental journey.
Design an intentional onboarding process that speaks to the varied needs of the diversity of families who become part of the US community. Build pathways to access for families new to the US community. Capitalize on the location of the Shaker campus to make it more of a Greater Cleveland community hub. Design community moments to expand sense of community among all members of the community.
Redesign community engagement to align with the School’s mission and this aspiration. Develop key community partnerships and create a plan internally for how to involve all students Junior K-Grade 12 meaningfully in school-sponsored community engagement, as well as support for those students most interested and invested to distinguish themselves and the school by graduation.
Explore how the REACH program can further identify and encourage students as US admission candidates. Engage parents and alumni to help in US recruitment efforts.
Establish ongoing communication with parents through programming from internal and external resources that would allow them to know more about the School and the direction of the institution. Utilize Deans of Students’ annual presentations at USPA parent sessions. Create more collaboration between the Shaker campus and Hunting Valley campus USPAs.
Boys at US are given the environment and tools to create – whether they are making art or solving real-world problems. The Shaker Heights campus – home to the lower and middle schools – is conveniently located in one of Cleveland’s most storied suburbs and has been an iconic landmark of the neighborhood for nearly 100 years. The campus features a 32,000 square-foot performing arts and science complex; a primary wing specially designed for young boys; a state-of-the-art wood shop; critical spaces for free play, physical education programming, and interscholastic athletics; and innovative design lab. The upper school in Hunting Valley features a 52,000-square-foot academic wing, over 200 acres of outdoor classroom to explore, and athletic facilities that are among the best in Greater Cleveland with a full range of spaces, playing fields, and other amenities to support physical education and athletic programs.
Aspiration
ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ will provide an intentionally prepared educational environment with buildings, classrooms, and campus spaces that complement and enhance the School’s longstanding experiential emphasis and that support boys’ growth and learning across the Junior K-Grade 12 continuum. US aspires to
Modernize facilities that honor the School’s two campuses and its commitment to boys’ primary and secondary education, giving teachers the tools to do their very best work;
Enhance learning spaces that reflect the School’s commitment to a program of excellence in boys’ education;
Leverage and promote the attributes and strengths of our two campuses;
Use innovative spaces, technology, and the tools needed to continue to attract, retain, and inspire a talented, forward-thinking faculty and highly engaged students;
Ensure that our campuses support the academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional needs of all US students to enhance our distinctive philosophy of education.
Enhance safety and improve recreational play areas for the lower school by creating a compelling, versatile, and dynamic outdoor play area – including refurbished and expanded play fields. Expand and update the middle school learning spaces to match curricular programming and to culminate students’ Shaker Heights campus experience. Create flexible student common spaces for gatherings and exhibitions, as boys learn from one another as well as from their teachers. Update athletic facilities to provide unmatched arenas for students’ interests outside the classroom.
Open up US to still more prospective students and families with on-campus admissions and community outreach events. Establish a faculty and student task force to examine the current and potential uses of the outdoor physical plant to maximize its integration into curricular programming. Continue the fifty-year tradition of Outdoor Projects at the upper school while also reimagining the Hunting Valley campus for curricular, cocurricular, and extracurricular experiences for all students Junior K-Grade 12.
ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´’s endowment allows the school to strive to be one of the nation’s leaders in the education of boys and ensures that future generations of students will continue to be educated in the ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ tradition.
Aspiration
To serve the broadest group of boys, while allowing US to develop aspirational plans for future generations of students, US will need to increase revenue outside of tuition while prudently managing the costs associated with its program. US aspires to:
Provide a sustainable program of excellence in boys’ education by maximizing the allocation and utilization of our natural, physical plant, and human resources;
Increase access for qualified boys from across Greater Cleveland to attend ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´, regardless of their ability to meet tuition and fee costs;
Ensure financial resources that are sufficient and flexible enough to achieve our goals and support and advance the School’s mission.
Assess tuition revenue at every grade level by percentage.Ensure that all scholarship and financial aid goals are clearly linked with funding strategies in a five-year plan.
Prioritize spending based on mission-essential components. Determine what the key drivers/metrics of costs are and how they change over time. Force explicit choices required to deliver the mission.
Conduct a comprehensive campaign to meet defined goals. Benchmark giving by constituency group against previous years and peer schools. Increase Annual Fund goals relative to participation and giving.
Establish a perspective on the long-term sustainable model. Determine what level of endowment is required to balance this financial model and secure it for the long term.
About Our Plan
This plan boldly affirms the School’s commitment to our mission and to enduring institutional values. Upon a time-proven and inviolable foundation, it lays out an aspirational road to and through the School’s future. When executed, it will secure ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´’s place as one of the nation’s best schools for boys and will assure our long-term sustainability.
Our priorities are clear: to serve the most motivated, promising students from across the region in order to create a diverse school community pledged to a shared mission and vision; to develop a faculty energized by their surroundings and inspired by their students – teachers who are national leaders in their fields; to ensure robust and vibrant programming and state-of-the-art facilities; to solidify the financial resources to support the School’s aspirations.
By intent and design, this plan is comprehensive, far-reaching, ambitious, even audacious. We are proud to share it now with the wider community, to have you all join in our enthusiasm for a freshly-envisioned future for ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´.
Richard R. Hollington III ’82 President, Board of Trustees
This strategic plan culminates two years of spirited and ongoing dialogue among 35 members of a Steering Committee that included ÐÓ°ÉÔ´´ Directors, Trustees, parents, faculty, and administration. Seven sub-committees explored specific, identified areas of need; further research included focus-group discussions, extensive community surveying, national benchmarking, and demographic and financial analyses. The document bears the hallmarks of tremendous care, thought, and dedication.
William E. Oberndorf ’71 Chair
Patrick T. Gallagher Head of School
Richard R. Hollington III ’82 Parent of Charlie ’18, John ’19, and Dickie ’22
Michael C. Adams ’83 Parent of Connor ’13 and Trevor ’15
Lindsay Arnoult Director of the Middle School
Ralph R. Banks ’83
Thomas C. Barry ’62
Jennifer Rohan Beros Associate Head of School Parent of Michael ’21
Jonathan E. Bridge Assistant Head of School for Advancement Parent of Christopher ’22
James W. Brown III ’82
Durga Chigurupati Parent of Anuraag ’05 and Nehal ’20
Jennifer Coleman Parent of Cole ’20
Matthew V. Crawford ’87 Parent of Colin ’19
William Daughtrey Director of the Upper School
John Fay ’93 Middle School Dean of Students
John E. Feighan MD ’82
Ronald Hess, Jr. ’01 Parent of Kyle ’27, Ryan ’29, Sean ’31, Simon ’36, and Trey ‘36
Whitney Haslam Johnson Parent of Hank ’29, Ross ’30, and Max ‘31
Joseph K. (Joe) Juster Parent of Hal ’15
James C. Kralik ’82
Nicole Lawrence Director of Community Partnerships
Sarah Lyon Middle School teacher
Tara Malbasa Parent of Joey ’28, Scott ’30, and Mikey ’33
Charles L. Myers ’94
Katie Outcalt Parent of Max ’22 and Will ’24
Amy Paine Parent of Andy ’16 and Charlie ’20
Lily Peyrat Parent of Dev ’22 and Digen ’28
Anthony J. Salewski ’93
Scott W. Seelbach ’93 Parent of Thomas ’29
Neil Sethi Parent of Rohan ’23
David R. Smith ’80
Christopher E. Smythe ’78 Parent of Doug ’06
J.D. Sullivan Jr. ’80 Parent of Danny ’26
Steven J. Terrell ’75 Parent of Jeff ’03
Marques D. Torbert ’02
Christina Townsend-Hartz Director of Admission and Financial Aid
Lisa Ulery Director of IT and Libraries
David Wright Finance Director
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Shaker Heights Campus JUNIOR K – GRADE 8
20701 Brantley Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122 Phone: (216) 321-8260
Hunting Valley Campus GRADES 9 – 12
2785 SOM Center Road, Hunting Valley, Ohio 44022 Phone: (216) 831-2200