Mid-Year Update 2026: The Impact of Stuart's Strategic Plan

Dear Stuart Community,

Last week, during National Girls and Women in Sports Day and the Upper School Cor Cordis Wellness Summit, our students were treated to a keynote address by Olympian Priscilla Loomis, who described a circuitous route to success marked by resilience, faith and courage, “Before planning for your future, make sure to straighten your crown. Then, make a plan that scares you, and honors your excellence.” 

Launched in 2021 and culminating this year, the Faith in Her Future Strategic Plan set a bold vision that encouraged academic acceleration, fostered belonging within a diverse community, built a stronger infrastructure for health and wellness education and support, and created the incubator for growing our students’ capacity for exceptional leadership.  Five years later, we can look back with pride on the work we have accomplished as a community. The outcomes are visible, measurable, and—most importantly—felt. The Sacred Heart Commission on Goals Accreditation Report affirmed what our community has been living day by day: Stuart is a school grounded in purpose, shaped by relationships, impelled to action, and animated by faith, intellect, and love.

The purpose of this letter is threefold: to demonstrate and celebrate the lasting impact of Faith in Her Future; to reflect on the insights gained through our recent accreditation processes; and to look ahead with courage and confidence—and straighten our crown—as we enter a new phase of bold, strategic visioning for Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart.

Impact on Community and Culture

Over the past five years, Stuart has experienced meaningful growth in community engagement and shared ownership of our mission. Across constituencies—students, families, faculty, staff, trustees, alumnae, and friends of Stuart—there is strong alignment around who we are and why we exist. The Faith in Her Future plan intentionally centered mission as the common language of decision-making, and that clarity has strengthened trust, commitment, and collective buy-in.

This sense of rootedness has supported improved and steady faculty retention, allowing us to sustain institutional knowledge, deepen collaboration, and build enduring relationships. Similarly, student retention has improved and remained strong, reflecting a school environment where girls feel known, supported, and inspired to grow.

Our community’s confidence in Stuart is also reflected in increased donor participation and dollars raised over time, as documented in our past annual reports. Philanthropic engagement has grown not simply as a response to need, but as an expression of belief in the mission and the future of the school. We are also proud of the ever-increasing commitment of our parent volunteers and participation through Stuart Parent Association leadership positions, community social events, parent education, cultural celebrations, and faculty and staff support and appreciation. Our community loves a good excuse to gather!

The Sacred Heart Commission on Goals Accreditation Report captured the spirit we have been diligently nurturing over these years, noting the warmth, care, and sense of belonging that define Stuart’s culture. As one educator shared during the visit, “Once you come on campus, you are ours”—a sentiment that echoes Madeleine Sophie Barat’s enduring words: ‘Once a child of the Sacred Heart, always a child of the Sacred Heart.’ This deep sense of community connection remains one of Stuart’s greatest strengths.

Impact on Teaching and Learning

Faith in Her Future challenged us to accelerate academic excellence while remaining faithful to the education of the whole child. Over these five years, data and lived experience alike demonstrate meaningful progress.

In the Lower and Middle Schools, MAP and ERB assessment data show consistent strength, affirming the effectiveness of our instructional practices and curriculum alignment. At the Upper School level, our Mission Impact Report highlights the enduring impact of a Stuart education, reflecting meaningful, purpose-filled outcomes for college-aged graduates and alumnae spanning six decades. 

Central to this success has been the continued development of a robust college and academic advising program. Starting in Grade 9, this program ensures each student is known individually for her gifts, aspirations, and opportunities. Families and students consistently cite this personalized approach as a defining feature of the Stuart experience.

The transition to a coordinator model for STEM and humanities has been transformational. Over five years, this model has fostered interdisciplinary connections, increased faculty collaboration, and sparked innovation across departments and divisions. Faculty report fewer silos, greater adaptability, and a stronger professional culture rooted in shared inquiry and experimentation.

Intentional work around vertical alignment K–12, including the recent launch of the integrated mathematics curriculum and regular curriculum audits, has ensured that learning experiences are cohesive, inclusive, and responsive to evolving best practices. These efforts are complemented by strategic investments in new facilities and programs centered on student support, including dedicated learning spaces that reflect our commitment to academic access, wellness, and belonging.

Impact on Mission in Action

The call to model our mission of educating girls who will lead with purpose and serve the common good has been a defining pillar of Faith in Her Future.

Led by our signature Cor Cordis philosophy of leadership, the expansion of Cor Cordis programs and spaces has further strengthened our commitment to educating mind, body, and spirit. By placing wellness, spirituality, learning support, and counseling at the heart of campus life, Stuart has created structures that honor personal growth in an atmosphere of wise freedom. By nurturing students’ core selves, we unlock their capacity to learn, cultivating confident leaders. 

Through the National Center for Girls Leadership (NCGLS), Stuart has built a robust K–12 leadership development continuum, culminating in the signature Leadership Endorsement program in the Upper School. The program introduces students to career exploration and applied leadership experiences that many students don’t encounter until college. Partnerships with universities, corporations, and external organizations have expanded opportunities for research, mentorship, networking, and visibility for Stuart students, positioning them as thoughtful, capable leaders in a broader world.

We have remained steadfast in our commitment to long-standing community partners in mission, including the Appalachia Service Project, Loaves and Fishes, and the Angel Scholarship Program, all spanning over 40 years, while also welcoming new partners invested in furthering our mission. The NCGLS Advisory Board continues its important work in guiding leadership initiatives, and as we look ahead, we are preparing to deepen opportunities that will further empower student-led initiatives focused on community belonging and campus ministry.

During this period, Stuart has also built a more deliberate and integrated program around diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, ensuring that global understanding and cultural responsiveness are essential outcomes of a Stuart education. Called by this specific pillar of the strategic plan and by our Sacred Heart mission, Stuart created the Office of DEIB, committed to a diversity policy of the Board of Trustees, voted into its bylaws a Black Alum and DEIB committee of the Stuart Alumnae Board, and published the philosophy statement Intersecting Vines to articulate the interconnectedness of our DEIB goals and our Goals and Criteria of the Sacred Heart.

Looking Ahead

Recognizing the interconnected work of Cor Cordis, the core values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, and our Sacred Heart mission, we are strengthening and integrating the structures that promote programmatic cohesion, support student growth and success, and allow us to build upon our strategic vision. Beginning in July 2026, Monique Jones, Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), will become the Head of Mission and Ministry. Under her leadership, she will oversee the vision, alignment, and implementation of intersecting programs that embody our mission and value our diversity through leadership, service, ministry, and the personal and communal belonging and well-being of our students. Building on the deeply impactful work Ms. Jones has done over the past five years to foster a strong sense of belonging and advance health and wellness among students and community members, we are excited that she will deepen her impact within the Stuart community through her leadership of the DEIB and Campus Ministry coordinators in each division, the Director of the National Center for Girls’ Leadership, and the school counselors. Her work will be supported through the hiring of a new role, Administrative Coordinator to the Office of Mission and Ministry. I am confident that this alignment of our Cor Cordis philosophy, our strong commitment to fostering a diverse community of shared belonging, and our Sacred Heart Goals and Criteria will move us further toward the work of Christ and the betterment of our students’ capacity to learn and lead.

As we honor the impact of Faith in Her Future, we also recognize strategic planning as an ongoing discipline of listening, discerning, and imagining what is next. As a community, we have learned so much from our NJAIS Self-Study and SHCOG accreditation processes and are ready to build on our good work. With that spirit, we are excited to announce that Darren Malone, Director of Facilities and Sustainable Planning, will lead Stuart’s next strategic planning process. Darren brings a wealth of internal and external experience, insight, and a deep appreciation for Stuart and other mission-driven schools. Stay tuned for how you might lend your voice to the next vision for Stuart!

As our namesake Mother Janet Erskine Stuart said, with courage and confidence, 

"The higher we want to fly, the greater the risk, but that is the glorious part of it. The great uncertainties in which we trust God, the breathless risks we run, with no assurance but our great trust in God, that seems to me to be the essence of our life and its beauty." 

With gratitude for the work that has brought us here and confidence in the future we will build together, we move forward—rooted in faith, strengthened by community, and inspired by the limitless potential of our Stuart students. Our crowns are positioned.