Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees is Westside School's governing body.

Westside School is governed by a Board of Trustees. The board is responsible for the integrity of the school, the standing and reputation built by its founders and those who have labored over the years. The board holds in trust the school's future as well as its present; the board's collective judgment will affect how the institution can serve constituencies to come.

The board has four principal responsibilities:

  • To organize and manage itself so as to fulfill its duties to the school
  • To plan, develop, and establish policy, and to assess the school's performance
  • The school's financial condition and physical plant
  • Hiring and evaluating the Head of School and working cooperatively with that person

Westside School's 2017-2022 Strategic Plan

Goal #1: Prepare Our Students
Academic Excellence for a Global Future

Westside students develop essential 21st century skills and practices that prepare them to succeed as highly engaged creative thinkers who “connect their human spirit and imagination to learning.”

Strategies
1. Invest in faculty professional development, staffing and curriculum that will strengthen Westside’s ability to serve the diversity of its student body.
2. Expand revenue driving enrichment programs that build on our current strengths.
3. Attract, support, and retain the highest quality of teachers.
4. Effectively adopt technology that deepens our ability to understand, challenge and support each student at Westside.

Initiatives
-Rebuild Westside’s preschool program
-Launch and maintain a Teacher Excellence Fund to support ongoing professional growth for faculty
- Expand on After-School, Summer and Learning Support program offerings
- Continue to develop school-wide programs for service and experiential learning
- Review and implement strong recruitment, development and retention plans for faculty
- Design, adopt and annually review a leading edge technology plan

Goal #2: Connect Our Community
Mission-Driven, Caring and Inclusive Community

Westside's mission, values and diversity statements are demonstrated by its community in daily activities, decisions, academic program, and events. Westside is recognized as an education asset to our local neighborhood and region.

Strategies
1.  Create time and spaces for meeting, learning and communication that manifest the long standing feel of community at Westside School
2.  Strengthen volunteerism, service programs, alumni programs and parent  education
3.  Deepen the school’s ability to serve an increasingly ethnically diverse student and family population by cultivating the intercultural fluency of our faculty and staff
4. Position Westside as an educational asset to our local community

Initiatives
· Strengthen the volunteer infrastructure at Westside through support of the Parent Association, advancement staff and the Board’s Advancement Committee
· Increase opportunities for parent engagement with the school and with one another
· Develop a strong, on-going parent orientation and community education program
· Allocate time and resources to community training around intercultural competency and diversity
· As our Learning Support programming meets the needs of our current student body, expand programming to serve the local community
- Develop events and mechanisms (including facility use) that can deepen Westside’s relationship with its surrounding neighborhoods and communities

Goal #3: Sustain Our Resources
Stewardship and Sustainability 

Westside School pro-actively safeguards its human, capital and environmental resources so as to position the school for longevity and readiness for growth opportunities that may arise.

Strategies
1.  Strengthen school enrollment & expand Preschool/Prekindergarten to meet demand
2.  Develop a portfolio of reserve funds
3.  Integrate environmental stewardship and energy sustainability into our institutional practices, facility, and school-wide curricular focus
4.  Sustain the school’s affordability through a long-term tuition and financial assistance strategy that maintains broad access to enrollment
5. Develop the Westside brand, through new or expanded programs that further anchor the school to the West Seattle community

Initiatives
- Implement a marketing & communications plan that increases internal and external awareness of Westside and its market value
- Maintain a disciplined approach to budgeting that includes annual contributions to reserves
- Develop funding opportunities to help sustain financial accessibility to a Westside education
- Track the demographic changes and needs of our market area to best understand its educational needs

2022-2023 Board of Trustees

2022-2023 Board of Trustees

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Josh Kornfeld: Board President
  • Parent of Westside Alumni Children
Richard Millard: Board Secretary
  • Parent of a Westside 8th Grade Child
Rory Tipton: Board Treasurer
  • Parent of Westside 7th Grade, 3rd Grade, and 1st Grade Children
Courtney Flora: Secretary
  • Parent of a Westside 5th Grade Child

 

TRUSTEES
Luis Aguilar: Parent of Westside Alumni, 8th Grade, and 4th Grade Children
Jason Bennett: Parent of Westside 2nd Grade and Kindergarten Children
Hallidie Haid: Westside Alumni Parent
Andrew LaBadie: Parent of Westside 1st Grade Children
Radhika Makhija: Parent of Westside 3rd and 1st Grade Children
Colleen Montoya Barbano: Parent of a Westside 7th Grade Child
John Schack: Parent of Westside 2nd and 4th Grade Children
Josh Utt: Member of Finance Committee, Parent of Westside 4th and 1st Grade Children
Gabe Verdugo: Community Member

 

Contact the Board of Trustees at
westsideboardoftrustees@westsideschool.org