We are extremely proud of Gilmour Academy’s unique curriculum. It is designed to develop the whole person, mind and heart, empowering all students to become:
People of hope on a journey of faith
Courageous, collaborative leaders
Empathic, engaged global citizens
Authentic, effective communicators
Reflective, analytical thinkers
Innovative, resilient problem solvers
Curious, resourceful lifelong learners
As innovative educators recognizing the need to continually evolve, we will enhance the Gilmour curriculum in several important ways:
Increase the quality and quantity of experiential learning opportunities available to every child.
LANCERTECH INITIATIVE NATURE-BASED LEARNING INITIATIVE GLOBAL STUDIES INITIATIVE DIGITAL LEARNING INITIATIVE WELLNESS INITIATIVE
Create a best-in-class Performing Arts program.
Expand service learning opportunities, beginning at an early age.
Increase the number and variety of elective opportunities.
Use data-driven decision-making to make programmatic decisions and optimize student outcomes.
Curricular innovations are only as effective as the teachers who put them into practice. Since its founding, the Academy has been blessed with an extraordinary faculty. In order to build upon the legendary reputation of our faculty, we will:
Continue to recruit and retain only those with exceptional potential.
Encourage the highest standards of professionalism among our faculty.
While Gilmour’s focus is to help all students become the best version of themselves and help make the world a better place, we recognize that the college-preparatory aspect of what we do is very important to every student and every parent. And so, we will:
Help our students develop the confidence that they will find a college experience that is right for their unique set of strengths.
Partner with our students and parents to create a plan that maximizes the opportunity to attend the very best college within their aspiration set.
Measure our college placement success using the highest standard.
Gilmour is proud of the wide range of academic accomplishment and potential within the student body. We will develop a personal learning pathway for all students, partnering with them to set stretch goals throughout their time at Gilmour. To do this, we will:
Provide personalized guidance to our gifted students.
Match differentiated resources with individual student needs.
Offer additional support to students preparing to take standardized tests.
Gilmour recognizes and celebrates the positive contributions that students in our residence hall bring to our school community. We aspire to enhance the residence hall experience by being intentional about racial and cultural diversity. The physical structure of the residence hall is dated. Examination of plant needs will be included in the five-year campus plan.
Gilmour is extremely proud of the achievements of our athletes over the years. We are equally proud of the rate at which all Gilmour students participate in sports - 84% at the Upper School - because we understand the important role that sports play in helping students develop physically and emotionally. In order to achieve an even higher level of mens sana in corpore sano, we will:
Upgrade and maintain existing athletic facilities.
Gilmour Academy has a compelling story to tell. We resolve to more confidently communicate why Gilmour is an inspired choice for so many families, so that potential parents, students and other partners have a complete and accurate picture. This message will be supported by the following aspects of our approach:
Gilmour’s graduates are living proof that a Gilmour education has a profound and lasting impact on those who experience it. We will tell the stories of our remarkable graduates who, in large and small ways, are living out the Holy Cross charisms, making the world a better place.
Gilmour’s international students enrich our lives in many ways, especially by preparing our students to excel in a multicultural, increasingly connected world. We will continue to attract students from all over the globe by very intentionally telling the Gilmour story at every opportunity in every corner of the world.
The Lower School is committed to providing students with the academic, socio-emotional and spiritual foundations necessary for a lifetime of success. We will maintain that focus while adding new elements that are increasingly attractive to parents and children. Immediate curricular innovations include:
While the formal curriculum is extremely important in each of Gilmour’s divisions, helping students develop socialization skills is equally impactful. This is especially true for the youngest of our children. To that end, we will be intentional about providing the Lower School students with multiple opportunities to build positive social skills.
We recognize that each family has its own unique set of needs and aspirations. And so, we will continue to explore even more options to lessen the burden on parents in every way we can, including:
The location of the Lower School building – a brisk 10-minute walk from the Upper School – is both an asset and a challenge. We will seek to increase the connectedness between the Lower School and the rest of campus in a number of ways:
More Lower School interaction with the Upper School population.
Build a campus loop.
More frequent use of the Lower School for Academy-wide activities.
A parent partnership is particularly important when children are in the younger grades. We will communicate with parents at every opportunity, including phone calls, open grade books, curriculum maps and events on campus.
Gilmour Academy has benefited enormously from the generosity of its donors - people who believe that what the Academy does for the world is important, and worthy of their financial support. While we are grateful beyond words for this support, we believe that there remains significant untapped generosity among Gilmour’s many friends. As we look to the future, we know that we can grow the size of our donor base and the level of commitment.
Our renewed focus on philanthropy will include three key elements:
Annual Fund (The Gilmour Fund).
Endowment. Our goal is to increase the Academy’s endowment by 50% in the next decade.
Our admission and marketing efforts have increased the number of prospective students in the admission funnel, and we have seen a three-year trend of increased new student enrollment and decreased attrition in our Upper and Middle Schools.
The increase in inquiries has not brought about an increase in new student enrollment at our Lower School. We believe the strategic focus on the Lower School (see Enrich the Lower School initiative) will help drive increased new student enrollment and retention. We are committed to increasing new student enrollment at the Lower School by 50% and decreasing our rate of attrition by 75% over the next three years.
Some of the tools we will employ to do so include:
Increased marketing of new programs.
Increased programming for greater community involvement on campus.
These are just a few examples of Gilmour’s remarkable facilities: 144 acres, two ice rinks, Tudor House, a residence hall, a magnificent sports center and a brand-new Center for Performing Arts.
We will develop a five-year facilities management plan to maintain and improve existing facilities in the short term, while preparing for longer term needs. This plan will build upon our existing efforts to substantially reduce our carbon footprint.
The Gilmour community rightly expects the management team to be good stewards of the Academy’s resources.
From human resources to budgeting, we will update our systems, processes and procedures so that we can operate the school with a level of excellence that rivals any business.
These systems will afford us more sophisticated, real-time visibility to the operation of the Academy, enabling us to make even better management decisions, resulting in increased fiscal precision.
Gilmour has been blessed with outstanding leadership for many decades, both in the Head of School position and at the division head levels. In order to capitalize on this success, and prepare for inevitable personnel change, we will design a comprehensive process for succession planning.
It is important that we continue to think ahead about the composition of the Board of Trustees, as well as Gilmour’s Corporate Board. We will implement governance to honor term limits as well as explore the development of a Board of Visitors.
As the presence of Holy Cross Religious declines at Gilmour and throughout the country, solidifying our Holy Cross identity and charism will continue to be a priority. We will work closely with Holy Cross leadership and collaborate with other Holy Cross schools to make sure our Catholic mission and Holy Cross mission are integrated into all aspects of Gilmour Academy.
While students will always be at the center of everything we do, we recognize that the family partnership is an extremely important part of the education process. We will find new ways to engage families and make them feel part of a vibrant educational community. These will include:
Timely communication about student performance.
Enabling a greater connection to the campus.
Increased connectedness for families of resident students.
Our alumni are the greatest testament to the Gilmour experience. Our students leave Gilmour feeling grateful for their experience. We must fully capitalize on that goodwill, driving greater alumni engagement in our mission. To that end, we will:
Build a more vibrant connection with Gilmour alumni.
Create more opportunities for alumni to interface with students inside and outside the classroom.
Encourage our students to develop an “alumni mindset” before graduation.
As a Holy Cross school, we are uniquely called to be intentional about engaging with our local, regional, national and international communities. We recognize that the interdependence, support, cooperation and reciprocity of strong community partnerships provide potential benefits for the Academy, our students and the community. New opportunities for community engagement will include:
Sharing our expertise and experience with like-minded organizations.
Focused student service.
Increased involvement with affinity groups.
Unaffiliated use of campus.
Mailing Address
34001 Cedar Road, Gates Mills, Ohio 44040 phone: (440) 473-8000