Oak Hill School Mission Statement:

Oak Hill School models innovative educational practices, harnessing the power of relationships to inspire social, emotional and intellectual growth in children with autism and other developmental differences.

Oak Hill School Vision statement:

Oak Hill envisions its future as a leading center of education, applied research, professional training, and support for families and children affected by autism and other developmental differences.

Introduction, Strategic Plan 2007-2012

Oak Hill is an emerging leader in the field of special education in Northern California, providing integrated therapeutic education programs for children with autism and other developmentally-based learning challenges.

The school opened it’s doors with the children of four founding families in 2000 and, in response to the growing demand for individualized, quality special education programming, now serves twenty-one children during the school day and more in an after school program.

To understand the growing demand for special education, therapy services and to effectively achieve the goal to serve more students, Oak Hill’s leadership initiated a strategic planning process in the fall of 2005. A steering committee of Board members, parents, faculty and administration identified core areas for discussion and developed a process to gather input from our constituents. Utilizing surveys, focus groups and individual interviews, we learned what stakeholders thought about the school’s past, present and future and the rapidly changing field of special education. The process culminated in a community-wide summit, where we crystallized the focus areas and created a shared vision of Oak Hill’s top priorities for the next five years. The following document is the result.

What are Oak Hill’s top priorities through 2012? We are committed to articulating and refining our service model for a diverse and growing population, to organizational assessment and best practices, to strengthening our extended community and to positively impacting special education in the Bay Area and beyond.

We look forward to a rewarding journey

The Oak Hill Model: Articulating and Refining our Approach

Guiding Principle: Relationships are central to the social-emotional, physical and cognitive development of children.

Context: The Oak Hill School strives to implement an innovative model of therapeutic, developmental education for children with a range of neurologically-based challenges. To varying degrees, all Oak Hill children struggle to develop capacities to form and sustain mutually gratifying relationships, to process and use sensory information, to regulate emotion and action and to communicate spontaneously with others.

The Oak Hill Model is based on the DIR method, an acronym for a "Developmental, Individual Difference, Relationship-based" model of therapeutic intervention. In addition, we consider and integrate a broad range of curricula, therapeutic practices and methods and other innovative best practice interventions as appropriate for each child's individualized goals. For this multi-disciplinary approach intervention to be successful, collaboration among parents and all members the child's team is essential.

Goal 1: The Oak Hill community will share a common understanding of The Oak Hill Model. Strategies: . Develop a document, accessible to parents, professionals and the larger community, describing the Oak Hill Model. . Develop training programs to teach the Oak Hill Model. . Train all faculty and educate families thoroughly in the Oak Hill Model.

Goal 2: Create and implement mechanisms to support meaningful collaboration among all members of each child's team. Strategies: . Design systems that will promote increased communication, coordination and collaboration among families, teachers, therapists, significant care-givers and external providers. . Encourage and facilitate the involvement of significant external providers in the implementation of the Oak Hill Model with our students.

Goal 3: Regularly evaluate how successful we are at consistently implementing the Oak Hill Model while meeting the requirements of a Non-Public School. Strategies: . Maintain the integrity of the Oak Hill Model as we satisfy federal, state and local public school regulations. . Evaluate our Individualized Education Plan process and structure to ensure consistent implementation of and adherence to the Oak Hill Model.

What will signify success?
The Oak Hill Model will be well articulated and understood by all persons providing services for our children and will become a prime example of best-practices relationship-based programs for children with developmental challenges. Our families, faculty and outside providers will understand the limits and scope of each child's program and what the school is doing for each child. As a result, our children will achieve their maximum potential for independent thinking, learning and relating to others.

The Oak Hill Culture: Developing a Strong Community

Guiding Principle: Shared vision, meaningful engagement, mutual respect and open communication are essential to Oak Hill School's success.

Context: Oak Hill School began with four families and part-time staff in rapid response to the lack of programming available to the children of the founding families. Now seven years old, Oak Hill has twenty-one children and twenty-nine members of the faculty and administration. As a start-up organization, our focus was on program development and staffing. A cohesive, well-supported community is now beginning to emerge and must be nurtured to flourish. Now it is time to develop relevant and inclusive systems to support and connect the work being done by the entire Oak Hill community.

Goal 1: Develop community-wide ownership of organizational objectives. Strategies:

. Recruit faculty, administration, families and Board members who will work together to achieve Oak Hill's vision.
. Communicate the Oak Hill mission, vision and organizational objectives effectively to existing faculty, administration, families and the Board members.

Goal 2: Foster direct, honest, constructive communication throughout the Oak Hill community.

Strategies:
. Develop a plan for all members of the Oak Hill community to practice openness to constructive feedback.
. Develop a plan for regularly educating all members of the Oak Hill community about the benefits of direct, honest and constructive communication, including Oak Hill's issue resolution process.
. Create systems for:
> Providing constructive feedback to faculty, administration, families and the Board on an annual basis;
> Incorporating constructive feedback into organizational objectives on an annual basis.

Goal 3: Foster a shared awareness of the unique rewards and challenges faced by families and faculty in the support of our children.

Strategies:
. Develop a plan for educating:
> Families about the experiences of the faculty during the school day;
> Families about the experience and needs of families with children functioning at different levels from their own child; and
> Faculty about the home experience of each child and the challenges faced by families.

Goal 4: Maintain a welcoming, inclusive environment for children, families and faculty.

Strategies:
. Create an orientation program for new faculty, administration, families and Board members that emphasizes their important roles in the Oak Hill community.
. Create formal and informal support systems for families and faculty.
. Create meaningful, transparent policies and procedures while allowing for individual differences.

What will signify success?
The Oak Hill Community will have a collective understanding of the vision for Oak Hill's future and share responsibility for our current and future success. Open communication, mutual respect, and appreciation will characterize the interactions of community members, creating an atmosphere of inclusion, cooperation and support. Oak Hill's faculty, administration, families and the Board will understand their respective roles in realizing Oak Hill's vision.

People: Supporting & Strengthening our Faculty & Leadership

Guiding Principle:
Excellent and satisfied faculty and effective organizational leadership are essential to our success.

Context:
The faculty and administration at Oak Hill are dedicated, hard-working and well-qualified. They possess traits that predispose them to create an engaging, relationship-based learning environment. Their job of implementing an integrated therapeutic and educational model is complex and difficult. They are charged with creating a new way of thinking about educating our children. It is vital that we provide the support and encouragement needed to ensure their success and job satisfaction. Oak Hill's leadership must support faculty by creating effective, transparent policies and systems and practicing good governance.

Goal 1: Develop a work environment that attracts and retains individuals who are highly qualified and motivated to implement the Oak Hill Model.

Strategies:
. Develop and implement a comprehensive training and professional development program.
. Implement a financially viable and competitive compensation and incentive program for faculty and administration.
. Create time for evaluation, planning and reflection in all functional areas.
. Develop effective processes to support program services.
. Develop a leadership structure that best supports our model.v

Goal 2: Foster transparent, effective management by the Leadership and the Board. Strategies:
. Develop a plan for the Leadership and the Board to effectively communicate their decisions and decision-making processes to the community.
. Identify, create, document and communicate the policies necessary for effective governance at a non-public, special education school.
. Regularly evaluate current Board and Leadership management structure and implement viable improvements to increase effectiveness.
. Create succession plans for Leadership positions.

What will signify success?
Outstanding, dedicated individuals will work at Oak Hill for long periods of time and develop their professional expertise as they provide an excellent program for our children. These individuals will have adequate resources and clear leadership that supports and guides them in doing rewarding, meaningful work.

Oak Hill's Students: Meeting the Needs

Guiding Principle: The Oak Hill community is committed to serving a diverse population of children with a range of developmentally-based learning challenges in individualized, relationship-based programs.

Context: Oak Hill School has grown rapidly from the four children of the founding families to twenty-one students. The school now serves both publicly placed and privately placed children with a diverse range of abilities from many school districts in a K-12 program. The ideal number of students and range of student ability that the Model best serves is not presently known. However, the current school size does not allow for ample cohesiveness among cluster groupings. Grouping students with most similar developmental profiles will allow for more successful programming and allow us to commit to our current population for a longer period of time. There is also a demand in the community for services for pre-school, high school and services for adults with developmentally based learning challenges.

Goal 1: Determine the ideal student body composition for realizing the Oak Hill Model.

Strategies:
. Develop a detailed description for the range of student ability that the Model serves well.
. Create an admissions and recruitment process that creates balanced, cohesive clusters.
. Determine the ideal balance between public and private students.
. Determine the maximum number of students that can be served on our site while maintaining the Oak Hill Model.

Goal 2: Determine which additional program areas Oak Hill is best equipped to serve.

Strategies:
. Explore the demand for preschool and residential programs.
. Assess the organizational ability and commitment to providing services in additional program areas.

What will signify success?
Oak Hill School will add just enough students in our K-12 program to ensure faculty, administrative and student success. We will create services in additional program areas where we believe that we can have significant impact and provide excellent programs without compromise in our K-12 program. In addition, we will achieve an ideal balance of public and private students.

Oak Hill's Presence: Engaging and Communicating Externally

Guiding Principle: Oak Hill School must have a local, statewide and national presence to share and develop the Oak Hill Model.

Context: Oak Hill School has opportunities for educating and communicating with many external entities. To date this process has been reactive. A strategic initiative to establish an external presence is necessary for success, extension and improvement of the Oak Hill Model.

Goal 1: Share the successes of Oak Hill School and the Oak Hill Model locally, statewide and nationally.

Strategies:
. Develop partnerships and alliances with relevant universities, schools and other organizations.
. Improve and develop local community relations.
. Increase public awareness of our model locally, statewide and nationally via web, TV, conferences, and written materials.

Goal 2: Educate ourselves about programs, interventions and practices that will help to continually improve the Oak Hill Model.

Strategies:
. Create opportunities for meaningful interaction with other schools and agencies working with children with developmentally-based learning challenges.
. Support faculty attendance at relevant local, statewide and national conferences.
. Invite external experts to Oak Hill School to share knowledge with families and faculty.

What will signify success?
Oak Hill will be known as a model of excellence and current best practices in the education and development of children with developmentally-based learning challenges. Our external communications will not only increase public knowledge of our Model, but will contribute to its development as a result of regular interaction with outside experts.

Oak Hill's Successes: Assessment

Guiding Principle:
Continual assessment of our work informs and improves our program.

Context:
While having high standards and expectations, Oak Hill has not yet put in place any formal program or organizational assessment processes. To gauge our progress on our strategic and programmatic objectives, creating such a process is the next step. Our evaluation processes will be comprehensive and will assess the organizations' effectiveness at every level.

Goal 1: Assess all components of our organizational performance in order to continually improve.

Strategies:
. Create a system for developing performance goals, feedback and evaluation of all members of the faculty and administration.
. Develop a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary student assessment and monitoring process that leads to effective programming and measures growth in each child's goal areas.
. Develop a process to assess family needs and track progress toward meeting those needs.
. Develop an assessment tool to evaluate family and faculty satisfaction with program services.
. Create and implement annual evaluation of the Board's effectiveness.

Goal 2: Create an ongoing process for assessing Oak Hill's strengths and incorporating them into our mission and vision.

Strategy:
. Create a group of individuals with an ongoing interest in Oak Hill to meet regularly to evaluate our strengths and the relevance of our programs to the larger community.

What will signify success?
All levels of Oak Hill School will have goals that are evaluated and reflected upon regularly. The results of these evaluations will be incorporated into programs, administrative practices, Board activity and this plan so that our entire organization is continually improving. As a result, Oak Hill will have: data that demonstrates the success of our children, excellent and appropriate programs for each child, and good management and governance practices. These outcomes will serve to enhance awareness of our Model and support from Foundations.

Participants in the Strategic Planning Process

Strategic Planning Steering Committee
Board Members
Dennis Aftergut
Jennifer Fearon
Scott Fearon
Valerie Pierce
Nancy Rubin
Connie Tabas

Faculty and Administration:
Charla Cunningham
Karen Kaplan
Michael McDonald
Jayme Mogen

Consultant: David Barkan

Board of Directors, fall 2007
Jennifer Fearon, co-chair
Valerie Pierce, co-chair
Andrew Allen
Scott Fearon
Dan Feshbach
Jill Fisher
Kathleen Hahn
Anne Marie Massocca
Mary Porter
Connie Tabas

Plan Participants
Faculty and Administration
Cathy Ainsworth
Amy Buckwalter
Lisa Dempsey
Elizabeth Deutsch
Lizz Domash
Leah Felson
Gabriel Hochschild
Dana Jensen
Dr. Barbara Kalmanson
Karena Kirkpatrick
Allura MacGillivary
Laura Marsh
Christine Meyer
Priscilla Mollard
Pat Moran
Han Nguyen
Dr. Cheryl-lynn Rogers
Theresa Searcy
Jessica Smith
Carolyn Steinberg
Dan Weil
Kari Wilcox

Families
Anne and Andrew Allen
Terri and Jim Beckett
Susan and Max Chiodo
Kris and George Donellan
Lisa and Dan Feshbach
Lissa and Alan Glassberg
Mellen and Rupert Hansen
Laura and Mike Hislop
Dee Dee Kim
Arlene and Doug Lipinski
Anne Marie and Steve Massocca
Jane Moore
Cate Muther
Miriam Nathanson
Mary Porter and Vic Magnotti
Charlotte Saxon and Paul Glassner
Steve Sherwood
Michael Stortz
Eric Tabas

Community Participants
Melvin Adkins
Lucie Alexander
Susan Andrews
Chad Carvey
Jaime Crane
Thomas A. Dreyer
Lawrence Drouin
Leslie Ferguson-Dietz
Rev. Veronica Goines
Susan Hendrie-Marais
Sharon Jackson
Don Jen
Sarah King
John LaLonde
Supervisor Charles McGlashan
Joseph McGovern
Jackie Novis
Pam Raymond
Dr. Bryna Siegel
Karen Steele
Michael Tabb
Rona Weintraub
Dr. Pamela Wolfberg
Gwen Wong

We sincerely apologize if we have omitted the name of any participant. A portion of this project was generously underwritten by the San Francisco Foundation.