NewsUpper SchoolPre-K to 8
Goals 2000 Addresses Boarding Retention, Drug and Alcohol Use, and Technology
Oct 1, 1999 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
After David Hicks was named Darlington’s sixth president last April, he met with Darlington senior administrative staff and members of the Board of Trustees during the spring to determine priorities for the 1999-2000 academic year.
Darlington’s Goals 2000 represents the unanimous conclusions of the school’s leadership. The goals are as follows:
1. Develop and implement an aggressive plan for improving boarding retention.
2. Study the patterns and extent of drug and alcohol use among Darlington students and develop a community-wide response.
3. Develop and implement a plan to close the gap between those who use technology effectively in their work and those who don’t.
“We hope that all the Darlington community will become involved in recommending action steps through which to accomplish these goals,” Hicks said, noting that “faculty and trustees have already provided us with a lot of feedback.”
Darlington’s senior administrative staff has already crystallized faculty recommendations into proposed action steps, which will “form the basis for our discussions this fall with students, parents, alumni, and members of the Boards of Trustees and Visitors,” Hicks said. “Really, at the moment they are talking points, not action steps. They will be amended and converted to action steps later this fall after we’ve had these discussions.”
The senior staff is composed of Hicks, Headmaster David Rhodes, Vice President for Finance Bob Rogers, Vice President for Development Mollie Avery, Director of Admission Lisa Schlenk, Middle School Principal Jim Van Es, Lower School Principal Mark Tayloe, and Dean of Studies and College Guidance Sam Moss.
Boarding retention, which has been below the average of National Association of Independent Schools member schools for several years, is an important measure of the confidence Darlington’s families place in the school. Improving the retention rate is the highest priority of Hicks’ administration.
Proposed steps to achieve a lower attrition rate revolve around the empowerment of students. These include:
• Establishing a “Perfect Dorm” committee with six faculty and six students.
• Inviting the Student Council to study and make recommendations to the headmaster for clarifying, streamlining, and simplifying the school’s rules, regulations, and punitive responses.
• Developing a thoughtful plan to involve students in the management of the school, including consideration of the following: student representation on the Curriculum Committee; Alumni Council membership for the president of the senior class; chapels run by the Y-Cabinet president; weekly student officer meetings with the headmaster and/or president; student membership on the Discipline Committee; assemblies run by the student body president; student participation on the Food Service Committee; and the creation of a resident assistant and dorm heads council.
• Investigating the creation of an incentive system that rewards participation and leadership, and links privileges with responsibility.
• Dedicating a faculty in-service day next year to residential issues and training.
• Developing a policy that ensures some form of tuition prepayment from all parents, including those receiving financial assistance, to avoid delinquent accounts, bad debts, and forced removal of students for non-payment.
• Considering the Eton model of house management by raising the stature and compensation of resident deans while involving them more directly in admission and reducing their teaching and coaching duties.
Over the years, Darlington’s retention rate has been adversely affected by students who made poor decisions with drugs and alcohol, which at Darlington results in dismissal upon the first violation for drugs and the second violation for alcohol (many schools provide students with a second chance for drug violations). The second goal calls for the school to study the patterns and extent of drug and alcohol use among its students and to develop a community-wide response.
Proposed steps to address drug and alcohol use among students include:
• Adopting a policy of universal random drug testing and a rigorous, one-time, in-school rehab program for those with positive test results.
• Dedicating a day of faculty in-service to help teachers recognize early signs of chemical abuse and learn appropriate intervention methods.
• Examining our policies of serving alcohol on campus and at school events and of picturing people drinking in school publications.
• Continuing to promote and expand awareness of the work of the Student Support Team as a means of helping students make healthy choices.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of our current drug and alcohol education programs.
Proposed steps to achieve the third goal – to develop and implement a plan to close the gap between those who use technology effectively in their work and those who don’t – have yet to be formulated by the senior administrative staff. Thus far, the senior staff has surveyed faculty and staff on their use of technology in the classroom and office, is interviewing a cross-section of the faculty on the future of technology in the classroom, and is researching issues in technology and education.
Darlington’s Goals 2000 is the theme of focus groups to take place during Parents Weekend Oct. 1-3 and Alumni Weekend Oct. 8-10 and at the fall Board of Visitors meeting Oct. 8. The senior staff is also exploring ways to involve students in these discussions and decisions.
Hicks hopes to receive further recommendations and comments from anyone in the Darlington community who wishes to contribute – students, parents, grandparents, alumni, friends. He can be contacted by e-mail at dhicks@darlington.rome.ga.us, or by mail at 1014 Cave Spring Road, Rome, GA 30161.
Darlington’s Goals 2000 represents the unanimous conclusions of the school’s leadership. The goals are as follows:
1. Develop and implement an aggressive plan for improving boarding retention.
2. Study the patterns and extent of drug and alcohol use among Darlington students and develop a community-wide response.
3. Develop and implement a plan to close the gap between those who use technology effectively in their work and those who don’t.
“We hope that all the Darlington community will become involved in recommending action steps through which to accomplish these goals,” Hicks said, noting that “faculty and trustees have already provided us with a lot of feedback.”
Darlington’s senior administrative staff has already crystallized faculty recommendations into proposed action steps, which will “form the basis for our discussions this fall with students, parents, alumni, and members of the Boards of Trustees and Visitors,” Hicks said. “Really, at the moment they are talking points, not action steps. They will be amended and converted to action steps later this fall after we’ve had these discussions.”
The senior staff is composed of Hicks, Headmaster David Rhodes, Vice President for Finance Bob Rogers, Vice President for Development Mollie Avery, Director of Admission Lisa Schlenk, Middle School Principal Jim Van Es, Lower School Principal Mark Tayloe, and Dean of Studies and College Guidance Sam Moss.
Boarding retention, which has been below the average of National Association of Independent Schools member schools for several years, is an important measure of the confidence Darlington’s families place in the school. Improving the retention rate is the highest priority of Hicks’ administration.
Proposed steps to achieve a lower attrition rate revolve around the empowerment of students. These include:
• Establishing a “Perfect Dorm” committee with six faculty and six students.
• Inviting the Student Council to study and make recommendations to the headmaster for clarifying, streamlining, and simplifying the school’s rules, regulations, and punitive responses.
• Developing a thoughtful plan to involve students in the management of the school, including consideration of the following: student representation on the Curriculum Committee; Alumni Council membership for the president of the senior class; chapels run by the Y-Cabinet president; weekly student officer meetings with the headmaster and/or president; student membership on the Discipline Committee; assemblies run by the student body president; student participation on the Food Service Committee; and the creation of a resident assistant and dorm heads council.
• Investigating the creation of an incentive system that rewards participation and leadership, and links privileges with responsibility.
• Dedicating a faculty in-service day next year to residential issues and training.
• Developing a policy that ensures some form of tuition prepayment from all parents, including those receiving financial assistance, to avoid delinquent accounts, bad debts, and forced removal of students for non-payment.
• Considering the Eton model of house management by raising the stature and compensation of resident deans while involving them more directly in admission and reducing their teaching and coaching duties.
Over the years, Darlington’s retention rate has been adversely affected by students who made poor decisions with drugs and alcohol, which at Darlington results in dismissal upon the first violation for drugs and the second violation for alcohol (many schools provide students with a second chance for drug violations). The second goal calls for the school to study the patterns and extent of drug and alcohol use among its students and to develop a community-wide response.
Proposed steps to address drug and alcohol use among students include:
• Adopting a policy of universal random drug testing and a rigorous, one-time, in-school rehab program for those with positive test results.
• Dedicating a day of faculty in-service to help teachers recognize early signs of chemical abuse and learn appropriate intervention methods.
• Examining our policies of serving alcohol on campus and at school events and of picturing people drinking in school publications.
• Continuing to promote and expand awareness of the work of the Student Support Team as a means of helping students make healthy choices.
• Evaluating the effectiveness of our current drug and alcohol education programs.
Proposed steps to achieve the third goal – to develop and implement a plan to close the gap between those who use technology effectively in their work and those who don’t – have yet to be formulated by the senior administrative staff. Thus far, the senior staff has surveyed faculty and staff on their use of technology in the classroom and office, is interviewing a cross-section of the faculty on the future of technology in the classroom, and is researching issues in technology and education.
Darlington’s Goals 2000 is the theme of focus groups to take place during Parents Weekend Oct. 1-3 and Alumni Weekend Oct. 8-10 and at the fall Board of Visitors meeting Oct. 8. The senior staff is also exploring ways to involve students in these discussions and decisions.
Hicks hopes to receive further recommendations and comments from anyone in the Darlington community who wishes to contribute – students, parents, grandparents, alumni, friends. He can be contacted by e-mail at dhicks@darlington.rome.ga.us, or by mail at 1014 Cave Spring Road, Rome, GA 30161.
