Queen Anne School Philosophy

Queen Anne School is an independent, college preparatory, coeducational, day school for middle and upper school students, founded and sponsored within the Episcopal tradition by St. Barnabas’ Church, Queen Anne Parish.  The school encourages expansion of academic, artistic, and athletic horizons while promoting moral, social, and spiritual growth in each student.  The faculty undertakes the dual task of instilling proven values while preparing students to meet the challenges of a changing world.  Combining traditional and contemporary teaching techniques, incorporating emerging technologies, and using resources unique to our location, the school seeks to prepare students to examine their world critically and respond to its challenges with integrity, flexibility, and creativity.  Students are encouraged to assume leadership, to value the opportunity for service and outreach, and to accept, understand, and respond to the diversity of their community and the wider world.

Objectives

• To provide a center for college preparatory education where all are challenged to strive to their utmost for excellence;
• To stimulate students to read with understanding and appreciation and to develop clear written and oral communication skills;
• To assure that students achieve adequate command of each major discipline enabling them to pursue further study in a given field ;
• To enable students to share the responsibility for academic and social standards as they grow in their role as knowledgeable and responsible citizens;
• To involve students in seeking and providing mutual support and to foster increasing student responsibility for the governance of the variety of student activities;
• To challenge students by encouraging participations in a wide range of well-conceived and professionally guided activities such as art, music, drama, and athletics, while adhering to the belief that everyone with real interest and commitment should be given the opportunity to participate;
• To develop a student body and faculty that reflects in its makeup the ethnic and cultural diversity of the surrounding community;
• To pursue an admission and recruitment policy designed to allow academically qualified persons the richness of an open and accepting multicultural community in which all are valued for their unique individual qualities and talents;
• To foster a program of worship and religious instruction that welcomes, affirms, and encourages the understanding and inclusion of persons of all faiths and persuasions, believing that we are all children of God and that each contributes to the fullness of the whole.

Revised and approved September 2003

The Philosophy of Queen Anne School is developed by the leadership of Queen Anne School in response to the guiding Vestry Policy of St. Barnabas' Church  as follows:

                                        VESTRY POLICY - QUEEN ANNE SCHOOL

                                                                 September 1993

            Queen Anne School, founded in 1964 by the Rector, Vestry, and Congregation of St. Barnabas' Church, and by members of the surrounding community, continues the best traditions of outstanding schools founded, guided, and supported by Episcopalians and the Episcopal Church.  Queen Anne's tradition dates back to the 1700's, when students such as George Washington's stepson were given tutoring by rectors of St. Barnabas' Church. 

            The school is viewed as an expression of the outreach of the church, particularly its mission to young people in important formative years of their lives.  Drawing heavily upon the resources of the Seton Belt Trust, the church continues to support the school with leadership; with tuition assistance; with the campus and its care; with the presence, influence, and use of St. Barnabas' Church; and with the involvement of members and leaders of the parish. 

            The Vestry will continue to sponsor Queen Anne School, and to operate the School as "The Vestry of St. Barnabas' Church doing business as Queen Anne School" for the young people of the church and the community.  

The school is intended to provide the following:

                        A.  a center for college preparatory education where all are challenged to strive to their utmost for excellence;

                        B.  an environment where young people can be stimulated and taught to think critically, constructively, and creatively;

                        C. an atmosphere which fosters spiritual, moral, intellectual, and physical development;

                        D.  a fellowship in which young people of all ethnic, cultural, religious, and economic backgrounds may develop into the fullness which God purposed for them; and

                        E.  an incorporation of the values inherent in the Judeo-Christian tradition: reconciliation, which draws "all sorts and conditions" of people into community; and reaching out in service to the community of all people.

The Vestry views the following as particularly important expressions of the outreach intended through Queen Anne School: 
 

                        A.        a student body and faculty that reflects in its makeup the ethnic and cultural diversity of the    surrounding community;

                        B.         a program of worship and religious instruction which welcomes, affirms, and encourages the understanding and inclusion of persons of all faiths and persuasions;

                        C.        a program of outreach that involves students in addressing the needs and issues of people from the surrounding community; 

                         D.        small classes and a high number of teachers in    relation to the number of students, so as to foster care and concern for each student as an individual;

                         E.         a program that provides opportunity for each student to experience and develop a wide range of disciplines and activities, such as art, music, drama, and athletics.

            Students shall be eligible for admission without regard to race, creed, sex, or national origin with the exception that, all other things being equal, special consideration shall be given to the children of Queen Anne School alumni and children of members of St. Barnabas' Church, Queen Anne Parish. 

            Faculty and staff members shall be employed without regard to age, race, sex, creed, or national origin.

            Subject to the ultimate responsibility of the Vestry with respect to the operation of the School, the Vestry shall delegate and entrust to a Vestry committee known as the Board of Queen Anne School the authority to determine policies for the operation, conduct, and direction of the School.  Such policies shall be in full accord with the overall policies established by the Vestry from time to time.  The Board shall function in accord with the School Bylaws as in effect from time to time.  These School Bylaws shall be reviewed and approved by the Vestry and no amendments to the School Bylaws shall become effective until they have been approved by the Vestry. 

            In the enterprise of educating young people at Queen Anne School, the Vestry sees itself as a fiduciary in the sense that we have sought to engender the trust and confidence of those young people who become our students, and their families.  The Vestry will act with good faith and candor in legal matters and in every other sense in regard to the school.  We have a duty created by our undertaking to act primarily for the benefit of others - again, students and their families - in matters connected with the educational enterprise we have undertaken.

            While our proper policy and practice is to look to the Board of Queen Anne School to act on our behalf in areas such as fiscal management, maintaining and operating the campus in a safe manner, and following personnel policies that are sound and responsible, we ask the Board to report to us from time to time as to its policies and practices in areas where we, the Vestry, have an eye on our fiduciary role and responsibility with respect to Queen Anne School.

            The Board of Queen Anne School shall have the authority to employ and compensate a Head of School; to delegate to the Head such authority as is necessary and appropriate for the operation and management of an independent school; and, if necessary, to discharge the Head.

            The Board of Queen Anne School shall be responsible for ordering the School's fiscal affairs: entering into contracts on the School's behalf, formulating a budget, determining appropriate levels of tuition and expenditure and other relevant matters, subject to the approval of the Vestry of St. Barnabas.  The Vestry must approve all major fund-raising projects conducted in the name of the School prior to their announcement.  (A program or campaign seeking to raise more than $5,000 is considered "major.")   With respect to unbudgeted income and expenditure, the Vestry looks to the Board to act in its behalf, to do so in full accord with the purpose and philosophy of the school, and to share information as part of its monthly reports or in the form of a special report when necessary or appropriate.

            The Board shall see to periodic evaluations of the School, the Head of School, and the Board's own performance.  The findings and recommendations shall be shared openly with the Vestry with opportunity for discussion and reflection.

            The Board of Queen Anne School shall be composed of not less than 15 nor more than 30 voting members, who are to be residents of the United States, over the age of 25 years, and supportive of the philosophy and purpose of the school.

            In every calendar year, at least one member of St. Barnabas' Church shall be elected to the Board.  Persons shall be chosen for membership on the Board in accord with the bylaws of the Board, and they shall be approved by the Vestry.

            Specifically excluded from service as members of the Board are members of the Vestry and their spouses, and salaried employees of the school and their spouses or immediate family members.  No member of the Board may receive a salary or other remuneration for service on the Board.

            Effort shall be made to insure that the Board of Queen Anne School is composed of members from diverse social, ethnic, cultural, and economic and geographic backgrounds.

            Any member of the Board of Queen Anne School shall disclose to the Board any relationship which he/she may have with any person, corporation, or other entity with whom the school proposes to enter into contract or other transaction which will or may result in financial gain or advantage to such member by reason of such relationship.

            The Chair of the Board, or his or her designee, shall provide a written report to the Vestry in advance of the Vestry's regular monthly meeting.  These reports shall address the philosophy and purpose of the school, and any matters concerning the fiduciary responsibility of the Vestry.  The reports shall inform the Vestry periodically as to current and anticipated enrollment, the financial condition of the school, and the current and long-range objectives of the school.  The Vestry is to receive and respond to these reports in a manner that respects the authority entrusted to the board to carry out the intended mission and outreach of the parish.

            With particular thought for this intended mission and outreach of the parish, the chair of the board, or his or her designee, shall prepare an annual report in written form early in each calendar year.  This report shall be distributed in advance of a special meeting at which members of the Vestry and the Board shall sit down together to review and discuss the ways the school is meeting and fulfilling the intended purpose, and ways in which the school might be more effective in meeting its purpose.  The meeting is intended to reflect and foster a mutual commitment to the philosophy of the school, and to address ways in which the resources of both church and school might be shared and applied.

            When the Vestry chooses to specify additional matters of policy with respect to the school, these are to be presented to the Board in advance.  Time is to be allowed for the Board to respond, and for the Vestry to consider the Board's response.  When matters are to be added as policy, they shall be appended to this statement, and shared in written form with both members of the Vestry and members of the Board. 

Adopted by the Vestry of St. Barnabas' Church

As revised, September 14, 1993