Wishing you a very blessed and joyful holiday season. Many wonderful events have happened in our organization over the last month as we continue to foster a sense of community and belonging. I had the pleasure of hosting two Community Coffees at both campuses to introduce our strategic plan. Here is the link to that presentation.

Our new three-year strategic plan will be officially launched in January. Miriam has focused our ability to help children over the last eight years with our new high school (which started in the 2016 school year) and the Learning Center, which has doubled our outreach services post-COVID almost annually. Did you know last year, Miriam helped over 1600 children? This new plan embraces the dynamic and impactful growth we have experienced while seeking to ensure our organization’s promise to change the trajectory of children’s lives remains consistent. With enhanced efficiency, a focus on demographic, philanthropic, and financial trends, and a change in management processes, Miriam will lean into our identity of building capacity in children who learn differently and the people who serve them. Our core values continue to put learners first, work together, strive for excellence, and respect one another. 

Many hours of work and discussion went into creating this new plan, which builds on the work we are already doing and the challenges we need to surmount so we can be around for years to come. The 2025-2028 Strategic Plan allows us to focus on what the Miriam community has deemed important: being leaders in our specialized educational approach, accessibility for students, financial durability, and organizational efficiency. Under these four pillars, we have nineteen objectives that seek to move us forward in achieving these goals.

The data collected from Miriam’s strategic plan was incredibly inspiring. All stakeholders participating in this process showed love and commitment to Miriam’s mission. There is a strong sense of community within each department of Miriam; our goal is to continue to foster an understanding of the organization as a whole so each entity understands how they each contribute to our revised mission statement, “Together, we empower students with learning differences through our specialized educational approach by unlocking their potential and paving a pathway for lifelong success.” Our aspirational vision statement states, “ Miriam will expand our impact as the leader in specialized education for students with learning differences and the people who serve them in the Midwest and beyond.”  

Even before we collected data regarding the strategic plan, Miriam’s Board of Trustees understood that the high cost of tuition and learning center rates are troublesome to families who are trying so hard to ensure their children get what they need throughout their childhood so they can ultimately live happy, independent lives beyond high school. We are looking to make our organization’s resources affordable to families for decades to come. Tuition and rates directly result from the cost of offering high-quality educational experiences by the most caring, committed educational experts we can find. The people who work at Miriam and the work of heart done daily is priceless. We can never pay them what they are truly worth, but we are trying! We know the formula for the educational success of students who learn differently, and we are not looking to compromise those elements such as small class sizes, integrated therapies, and building competency in academics and skills for life.

I am always happy to meet with anyone to discuss this dynamic plan further and welcome anyone’s help. Please feel free to reach out to me at any time. There will be periodic updates regarding our progress so our community will know where we are making our goals realities. 

Wishing you a joyful and blessed holiday season. 

With every good wish,

Meg Bamford, Head of Miriam School and Learning Center