THE PATH TO
OUR WAY FORWARD
An overview of our strategic planning process
To ensure Battle Ground Academy remains a vibrant, innovative educational institution that serves students with excellence and efficacy, the Board of Trustees authorizes and approves strategic planning at regular intervals. In the spring of 2023, having successfully implemented the vast majority of BGA’s 2019 Strategic Plan, the Board initiated a new process of planning, charting a path forward to the school’s next strategic vision.
OUR PROCESS
Predicated on widespread community involvement, our planning process sought input from all BGA constituencies—including faculty and staff members, students and families, and alumni and community partners. Crane + Peters was engaged to develop research and create the public-facing portion of the plan, while Ian Symmonds (who consulted on our previous two plans) was once again tapped with guiding the school through generative questions and providing market and industry analysis of both large-scale trends and local dynamics in Middle Tennessee.
In the spring of 2023, we initiated qualitative surveying on plan goals and priorities, first with BGA educators and current families and then alumni. The following fall, an open session of roughly 100 participants engaged in thought and visioning exercises about the forthcoming strategic plan and its impact on our school. Finally, utilizing the feedback from those touchpoints, work groups were formed around three themes of Curriculum & Program, Culture & Community, and Stewardship & Sustainability. A Steering Committee oversaw the process as these work groups moved us toward concrete areas of focus within each theme. In total, approximately 1000 members of the extended BGA community have generously contributed their insights and efforts to Our Way Forward, Battle Ground Academy’s 2024-2029 Strategic Plan.
OUR RESULTS
Reflecting on this wealth of community input—representing the priorities, aspirations, and concerns of all BGA stakeholder groups—we could detect several points of shared emphasis. We saw broad consensus on:
You will see these shared priorities reflected as key components in the Strategic Plan.
Desire for a comprehensive, K-12 approach to leadership and character development
Recognition of the critical importance of emerging technology and STEM instruction in today’s technologically dependent world
Support for opportunities that extend learning outside the traditional classroom through travel, internships, and authentic, hands-on projects
Ultimately, this Strategic Plan—Our Way Forward— serves less as a rigid roadmap than it does an adaptable, agile compass, designed to animate our choices and offer direction for the coming years. Guided by the overarching principles and priorities of this plan, specific initiatives and approaches will be developed and refined, programs and facilities will be enhanced and reimagined, and BGA families and educators will be supported and developed, through all the inevitable changes and shifts ahead.
OUR THANKS
As with any ambitious undertaking, these results spring from the work of many. We would like to thank Shelly Peters and Melissa Brookes from Crane + Peters for their guidance and support in creating many opportunities for community input and feedback, as well as shaping much of the language within the plan. In addition, we want to thank Ian Symmonds for his wisdom, guidance, and perspective on our process, approach, and direction. Our work groups drew from trustees, parents, faculty members, and staff members, and we cannot thank them enough for the time and effort they have invested in building out the pillars of this plan. Finally, we want to thank the Steering/Authoring Committee for overseeing and guiding our work: Colleen Hoke (Chair), Rhonda Bennett, Cedric Coco, Dawson Gray, Will Kesler, and Lyn Knopf.
“FORWARD EVER BE
OUR WATCHWORD”
Battle Ground Academy has never rested on its laurels. With 135 years of service to the families and young people of Middle Tennessee, BGA stands poised to serve as an educational leader in our city, our region, and beyond. The direction and shape this plan provides to our school will help us develop even further into the school of choice for families and faculty who seek the best possible educational experience. In making Our Way Forward, we intend to honor the legacy of our past even as we prepare the next generation of leaders for their futures.