Message from Tad Roach

Each year I live here at St. Andrew's provides an education in the art of human relations, the art of teaching and the state of the American family, society and culture, but because the 2005-2006 year was one full of strategic discussions and planning, I feel that I gained a sabbatical year's worth of insight, creativity and inspiration. The discussions emanating from the Board of Trustees retreat, our Advisory Group, our faculty, alumni, student and parent discussions confirmed that we at St. Andrew's have an opportunity and responsibility to expand the ambition and horizons of the American boarding school in important ways. Our work over the next five to 10 years will enable us to sustain and carve out a distinctive position in American education.

For a variety of reasons, the American private school has significantly reduced its sense of mission and spirit of idealism and creativity. As schools battle for a competitive edge in admissions, they lose their way, focusing less and less on the challenges and responsibilities they seek to pose and share with their students and emphasizing instead a strategic view of education that is full of entitlements, soft challenges, narrow ambition. We see reduced emphasis in secondary schools on leadership, community service, ethics, authentic scholarship, sportsmanship and diversity. We see schools choosing to live in a bubble of exclusion, homogeneity, mediocrity and isolation, schools willing to sell their souls in the pursuit of the mad college admissions race. We see schools abandoning their most exciting and rewarding views and objectives: to fulfill the opportunity of being private institutions serving a public good, to graduate young men and women of good character, engaged citizenship and civic leadership.

At a time when schools retreat from idealism and creativity, St. Andrew's is becoming even more engaged, responsible and ambitious. At a time when schools ask less of their students in terms of scholarship, leadership, engagement and integrity, St. Andrew's invites its student body to express and build deep ownership of the school and build, sustain and create a culture of engagement, acceptance, responsibility and service. The implications and results of this countercultural approach to education are visible throughout the School. We celebrate a tradition of VI Form leadership that expects and enacts kindness, acceptance and humility, one that fights on a daily basis to embrace the responsibilities of living in a community of faith and learning. We see St. Andrew's students, faculty and staff march in AIDS walks, swim to support research for a cure for multiple sclerosis, develop fundraising campaigns to support our sister school in South Africa and to provide hurricane relief to New Orleans, knit hats for children recovering from chemotherapy treatments, volunteer in Honduras, give blood to the Red Cross, participate in Habitat for Humanity in Middletown, march to protest genocide in Darfur. We have doubled and redoubled our efforts to live responsibly on this beautiful campus, expanding our organic garden, seeking partnership with the University of Delaware and other groups committed to agricultural and open space protection, and increasing our commitment to energy conservation and recycling.

The foundation of the spirit, energy and ambition of this unfolding School came from our faculty, staff, student body, alumni, Board of Trustees and friends of the School. The flame that is the spirit of St. Andrew's was lit over 75 years ago by a group of visionaries who dreamed of the possibilities of a small Episcopal Church School in Delaware. Now we dream of a School that can, must and will fulfill the great potential of the American boarding school in the 21st century.

In this report I want to share a few key elements of the strategic plan that has emerged from our work and discussions during the 2005-06 year. We have divided this report into four sections. First, we pause to consider the importance and sustainability of St. Andrew's deep commitment to a generous and accessible financial aid program. Created as one of the key foundations of the School in 1929, the financial aid program today allows St. Andrew's to attract a diversity of students to our campus that ignite the learning, the spirit and the vigor of our community. In the 21st century, great colleges and universities have concluded that socioeconomic diversity must be strong on their campuses if we as institutions are to fulfill our responsibilities as institutions serving a public good. In this report, we reflect on our program and develop plans to protect and enhance financial aid at the School.

Secondly, we believe that St. Andrew's has a deep responsibility and exciting opportunity to take on a leadership role in promoting environmental sustainability and stewardship here on our campus, in the Middletown and Delaware community and in the world. We agree with Oberlin Professor David Orr who suggests that one of the most important educational standards schools and colleges must meet in this century is whether our students graduate with a deep understanding of, appreciation for and commitment to the health and sustainability of our environment. Here, you will begin to see the outlines of St. Andrew's embrace of that challenge.

Thirdly, the plan discusses St. Andrew's desire to continue and intensify its emphasis on educational programs that develop in our students a deep sense of honesty and integrity and a sustained commitment to service and engagement in the affairs of the world. In this section, you will see how St. Andrew's plans to expand our students' definition of the boarding school's ambition and objectives. We want to teach our students to understand that the most important question to ask in high school is not "Where will I go to college?" but rather "How will my life transform the world as we know it today?"

Finally, we examine the crucial issue of St. Andrew's financial sustainability. As a School committed to excellence within the faculty and staff, as a School with ambitious program goals, as a School committed to remaining small and all boarding, as a School committed to financial aid, as a School committed to providing facilities that are appropriate for the full academic, residential, athletic and artistic program, we must plan carefully and protect this experience not only for the present, but for the future. The report suggests a number of ways we plan to assure the sustainability of the St. Andrew's experience.

I thank you for allowing us to dream and to do the work of educational transformation and inspiration.

Tad Roach
Headmaster