Compass Mission & Values
We are excited to share significant updates regarding our school's core identity! Over the past several months, the Compass Community Collaborative School Board of Directors has engaged in a comprehensive process to refine our Core Values and mission statement. This important work involved gathering valuable input from our staff, students, parents, and the Board itself through workshops, discussions, and a community-wide survey. Our goal was to create a simplified core ideology that is clear, meaningful, and inspirational to our entire community, reflecting both our founding principles and our vision for the future.
Following careful review and reflection on all the feedback received, the Board agreed upon a revised mission statement: "Compass inspires students to learn with purpose and passion as they author the best possible story of their lives and our collective future." This statement captures the essence of helping students discover the "why" behind their learning, empowers them to take ownership of their journey ("author the best possible story of their lives"), and emphasizes their role in shaping the world around them ("our collective future"). This revised mission statement serves as our core purpose, our most fundamental reason for being as an organization.
In addition to the mission, we have also refined our core values. While building on the values the school was founded upon, the revised set reflects the community's current priorities and aspirations. These values are the foundational principles that actively guide our behavior, problem solving, and decision-making. The four core values are now defined as:
Inspired Learning: Staff and students work together to foster passion for learning through creative exploration, deep understanding, and the development of essential competencies leading to self-growth, academic achievement, and future-readiness. This value emphasizes a collaborative learning environment that fosters creativity, deep understanding, skill development, competencies, and academic achievement.
Community Collaboration: We cultivate opportunities for students to collaborate with community partners as they address real-world problems, developing relevant skills for success in their personal, academic, and professional lives. This value focuses on students engaging with community partners to apply their learning in authentic contexts and develop skills for an ever-changing world.
Love: We create a safe and compassionate school where staff, students, and families feel a sense of belonging and contribute to collective well-being through kindness, trust, and accountability. This value is dedicated to creating a safe and compassionate environment where a passion for learning and self-growth thrives. We acknowledge that the term "Love" was discussed, with considerations for alternative wording like "compassion" or "empathy", ultimately retaining "Love" with a description emphasizing safety, compassion, belonging, kindness, trust, and accountability.
Fulfillment: We foster the courage to learn so that individuals develop potential, pursue purpose, build resilience, and thrive as they build a healthy and sustainable future for Compass, the greater community, and the world. This value connects learning to self-discovery, finding purpose, and living meaningful lives filled with long-term happiness.
These refined mission and values statements are intended to be the solid foundation that guides us toward an exciting future. They will be central to our strategic planning and efforts to become a model for learner-centered education. We are grateful to everyone who contributed their thoughts and perspectives to this process, helping to shape the future of Compass Community Collaborative School.