Delaware Valley Friends School
Developing a strategic framework that redefines what’s possible.
Delaware Valley Friends School (DVFriends) is a coed, Quaker, college preparatory school for bright students, grades 3-12, who struggle with reading, writing, math, memory, processing, ADHD, executive functioning, and other learning differences. The school opened in 1987 primarily as a high school serving students with learning differences in grades 7-12, and it maintained that profile for over two decades. The school recently experienced a period of significant enrollment growth, due primarily to higher demand for middle school grades as well as a recent downward expansion into the primary grades. The school operates in an unusually competitive market, with both private and public schools serving similar populations.
While the school had undertaken several strategic conversations during the process of adding elementary grades, a full strategic planning process had not been completed since 2005. DVFriends was seeking a consulting partner to assist the school in developing a framework that would serve as a guide for school leadership in carrying out a vision established by the school’s board as well as to help the school outline a process to develop discrete strategies to achieve the goals of the framework.
Working closely with the DVFriends’ Board of Trustees and school leadership, Triangle Associates developed and led a strategic design process that gathered input from all stakeholder groups, unifying the community in an exercise destined to envision and then realize the future of the school. Triangle Associates nurtured a deep and productive partnership with school leadership, discovering the critical elements that differentiate DVFriends from other schools in the marketplace. Focusing on these differentiators and synthesizing the information gathered from the community, Triangle Associates led the board and school leadership through a process that identified strategies that would leverage the school’s strengths and singled out critical opportunities to support continued growth.
DVFriends now has a clear and redefined sense of what is possible for its future. The community is excited and engaged in the work that is being undertaken — work that will ensure continued strength and sustainability and that will establish the school as a nationally recognized leader in the education of LD students.
