Strategic Plan

From 2020 to 2025, The Overlake School embarked on its strategic plan, Coming Together. It served as a blueprint for aligning our values with our practices across four essential pillars: Well-Being, Attract & Retain, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Institutional Identity.

Now, as the plan concludes, we reflect on the extraordinary progress we've made - amidst a pandemic, a leadership transition, and a campus transformation. This area highlights what we've accomplished in each area and outlines what comes next for Overlake.

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Pillar 1: Well-Being 

What We Accomplished

• Formalized a Well-Being team and added a dedicated wellness coach
• Continued weekly late starts to support student rest and adult learning
• Embedded RULER SEL (Social Emotional Learning) tools into daily student experience
• Completed 4th year of HASS (High Achieving Schools Survey) and 5th year of Employee Engagement Survey
• Delivered student-led family education events on well-being

What's Next

• Advance as a national leader in student well-being
• Use HASS data and new dashboards to identify and address trends
• Increase faculty integration of SEL and UDL (Universal Design for Learning) frameworks into teaching

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Pillar 2: Attract & Retain

What We Accomplished

• Introduced a revised faculty salary scale and clearer benchmarking protocol
• Launched a benefits analysis and improved onboarding/offboarding practices
• Formalized HR roles with new Director and Generalist positions
• Developed a "stay interview" framework for 2025-26
• Began exploring ways to ease cost pressures for staff

What's Next

• Implement a predictable salary review cadence for staff
• Study trends in retention and promotion to support career growth
• Continue benchmarking compensation across peer schools and industries

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Pillar 3: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

What We Accomplished

• Shifted from episodic training to embedded DEI professional development
• Integrated EE Ford's "Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention" into professional development
• Hired a full-time Director of Human Resources and completed a hiring audit for cultural responsiveness
• Hired and Assistant Head for Inclusive Excellence (spring 2025)
• Expanded demographic tracking in admissions and enrollment
• Continued to use dashboards and HASS data to measure inclusion and belonging

What's Next

• Deepen partnerships across departments for equitable pedagogy and curriculum
• Clarify benchmarks and strategies for diversifying and sustaining a representative community

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Pillar 4: Institutional Identity

What We Accomplished

• Refreshed our mission and values, and created first ever vision statement to reflect Overlake's student-centered, purpose-driven approach
• Redesigned admission materials and began building a new website (launching fall 2025)
• Developed and launched the Alumni Engagement Survey to understand lifelong impact

What's Next

• Finalize and share a community-wide storytelling style guide
• Use alumni, family, and student surveys to deepen our understanding of Overlake's long-term impact