Post #21: Strategic Vision #3: Social, Emotional, and Physical Safety

Last spring I started a series of blog posts to elaborate on the five strategic vision statements in our 2020-2023 Strategic Growth Plan. Each of these vision statements describes what Augusta Prep will be by the end of 2023--as our motto is “To be, rather than to seem.”

In my first post, I gave an overview of our process and goals. In my second post, I described how we plan to further develop our fabulous faculty--and create the culture to attract new talent as some of our legendary teachers retire in the coming years. In my third post, I described how we plan to attract more stellar students. In today’s blog post, I want to describe strategic vision statement number three--how we plan to cultivate an even more diverse, inclusive, and safe community.

When we last surveyed Prep parents during the fall of 2019, we learned that quality of faculty, ability to teach students skills, and ensuring student safety were ranked as the top three most important areas for Prep to deliver to families. When considering safety, we have to think about social, emotional, and physical safety. Since safety is a top priority at Augusta Prep, this is a lengthy blog post! 

An important part of social and emotional safety for our students is a sense of belonging. Augusta Prep is the most geographically diverse independent school in the area, attracting students from six counties in Georgia and South Carolina. Additionally, Augusta Prep is the most ethnically diverse independent school in the area:

For Augusta Prep to continue to grow, we must be true to our mission language of being a “diverse...welcoming community” and make sure we have a safe and secure campus. To more fully achieve this vision, we developed these five objectives (not in any particular order) which address the social, emotional, and physical safety of our students:

1. Launch new programs and develop new spaces with student health and wellness in mind. For this post, let me focus on one new program instead of spaces. On August 31 of this year, we announced our new partnership with The Social Institute, a leader in social-emotional learning, to support families and help students in grades 4-12 navigate social-emotional health, social media, and technology in positive, high-character ways.

Lesson topics are developmentally appropriate, ranging from emotional well-being to soft skills, leadership, and college prep. The program was created in collaboration with student leaders across the country and The Social Institute’s Research Advisory Committee, a group of psychologists and social-emotional learning experts. Topics discussed include:
  • Reflecting our values, character, and interests in our actions online.
  • Balancing our time and attention between technology and the people around us.
  • Surrounding ourselves with positive and credible influences.
  • Using social media as a microphone to create meaningful change.
  • Finding your own path no matter the pressure from others.
  • Responding positively to relevant and trending current events.
In addition to on-campus programming, The Social Institute provides supplementary resources which offer families insight into social media, technology, and student experiences. Included in the resources are discussion prompts and informative resources that you can incorporate into your family conversations as much or as little as you like. You may locate information on these family resources in our August 31 email to you or on the MyAPDS Parent Resources page. If you have trouble accessing these resources or have questions or concerns, please reach out to your respective Division Head. We are currently planning a TSI parent workshop for 2022.

  1. Engage in cultural competency training for all faculty and staff. Given the wide range of diversity amongst our families, it is critical that our faculty and staff have instruction in the ability to appreciate and interpret other cultures than their own. Simply put, this instruction for our employees involves awareness of one’s own cultural worldview, attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of cultural differences, and cross-cultural communication skills. If our adult role models sharpen their abilities to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with parents and students across cultures, we increase the capacity for our students to do the same--an increasingly useful skill in rapidly globalizing workplaces across all industries. We also reinforce our mission language of being a diverse and welcoming community--one where all our students feel like they belong. Last year, we began our first professional development experiences to increase this capacity in our employees.

  1. Launch a Risk Task Force to develop an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) strategy for the organization. During the fall of 2019, I asked our APDS Board of Trustees to launch a joint Risk Task Force with my senior leadership team. By the end of the 2019-2020 this working group created this risk culture philosophy:

    Augusta Preparatory Day School is a dynamic community that serves CSRA families with artistic, athletic, academic and other opportunities that incur risk.  Every member of our organization is committed to and responsible for identifying, prioritizing, communicating, and mitigating risk.

    The purpose of this philosophy statement is to empower every employee to be a risk manager. In addition to this philosophy, the task force developed a risk identification and management matrix to complete a comprehensive risk assessment during the 2020-2021 school year. Finally, this group recommended our Board bylaws be changed to create a permanent Risk Management Committee charged with oversight of all categories of risk across the school--strategic, financial, operational, compliance, and reputational risks. Augusta Prep now has a top- to- bottom approach to managing risks associated with all areas of our operation.

  1. Improve passive and active security measures on campus via staffing and technologies. As we undertook the broader Risk Task Force work, we simultaneously doubled down on improving campus security and physical safety. During the 2020-2021 school year we asked the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office to conduct a campus security assessment. Using information from that assessment, as well as suggestions from our own Safety Committee, we have made the following changes to improve campus security:
    1. Inspected, adjusted, and upgraded the 50 security cameras on campus and the monitoring system software
    2. Added a new visitor badge system in each division
    3. Added a campus duty phone system for emergencies
    4. Added additional temporary and permanent signage at the school entrance and in carpool lanes to protect pedestrians
    5. Verified which doors are to remain locked on campus (limited access)

  1. Fully implement the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. When I arrived in the summer of 2019, Augusta Prep was already conducting training for this program. OBPP is one of the best-known bullying prevention programs and has been proven to prevent or reduce bullying. The program also works to make relationships better among students, not just those who are being bullied or who are bullying others. We fully implemented the program during the 2019-2020 school year and are now in year three of adoption. As a part of implementing OBPP we survey all students in grades 3 through 12 each October as to if and when they perceive bullying behaviors in our community, and then OBPP faculty teams in each division make plans to address issues. Parents and guardians play a key role in this program. Your child is asked to tell an adult at school and at home if he or she is bullied or sees bullying happening at school. Our staff members have been trained to deal with various bullying situations, and students receive lessons on bullying during in their classrooms or advisory groups. Bullying should not be seen as “kids being kids” or something that students just need to deal with. Having a safe school experience is something that all students should be able to enjoy. Augusta Prep is the only school in Columbia County or Richmond County to implement the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program. 

Since our founding 60 years ago, Augusta Prep has provided an excellent education designed to inspire students and equip them for college and career success. We remain passionate about teaching kids how to think, not what to think. In order for students to learn best they must first feel safe--they cannot be in “fight or flight” mode. This third vision statement and its objectives are meant to enhance every student’s sense of wellbeing by providing better for their social, emotional, and physical safety.
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Augusta Preparatory Day School

Augusta Preparatory Day School is an independent, college preparatory school serving children ages 2 through Grade 12 from the greater Augusta-Aiken area. Augusta Prep seeks to enroll a group of diverse students. We follow an open admission policy, whereby qualified candidates are admitted without regard to religion, race, nationality, economic background, or ethnic origin. 
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