At the October meeting, the Board reviewed the results of Bethany’s annual financial audit—which came back clean! The Board also spent time in conversation around a revised draft of our Portrait of a Graduate, a document recently reviewed by a faculty committee. The Portrait of a Graduate outlines the knowledge, skills, and character traits we hope every Bethany student embodies by the time they graduate. It grows directly out of our mission of preparing students to participate in God’s work in the world and helps align our curriculum and shape how we think about teaching and learning across all grades.
Back in August, the Board and school leadership engaged in a strategic exercise to identify Bethany’s adaptive challenges—those complex issues that don’t have simple or technical solutions but instead require shifts in beliefs, relationships, and practices. At the October meeting, the group continued that work with a focus on the adaptive challenge of enrollment. Notably, this is the first year that students identifying as Mennonite are not the majority of our student body, which raises the question of what does it mean to be inclusive? This conversation also laid the groundwork for upcoming financial planning discussions, centered around three key factors that affect Bethany’s long-term sustainability: enrollment (and its link to student–staff ratios), compensation and benefits, and core income sources such as tuition.
As the Board continues this important work, we invite you to pray for wisdom and discernment. Together, we seek to steward Bethany’s mission faithfully—preparing students to participate in God’s work in the world, now and for generations to come.
The Bethany Board of Trustees