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Chappaqua board begins rewrite of 1991 mission statement, will seek student and staff feedback
Summary
At a board work session, members agreed the district's mission statement (Policy 100) is dated and discussed drafting a shorter, student-centered statement; the board plans to solicit feedback from students, staff and the community and return with a revised draft.
The Chappaqua Central School District Board of Education opened a work session at 12:17 p.m. to begin rewriting the district's mission statement, which board members said has not been reviewed since 1991. Board members discussed producing a shorter, more accessible statement to display in buildings and share with students, staff and families.
Board members said the first sentence of the existing policy captures the core purpose but the full text reads like a 'kitchen sink' and should be pared down. "Policy 100 on the mission' has not been looked at since 1991, so it's been 34 years," said the presiding board member. Several trustees said they prefer a succinct tagline or one-sentence mission that can be paired with a longer paragraph for context.
Discussion focused on audience and use. Members said the statement should be student-centered and usable as an easy reference for decision-making: "A very, very short statement ... allows people to remember it and then allows it to be actionable in decision making," a board member said. Trustees proposed testing short drafts with students and staff before finalizing language.
The board agreed on next steps: draft multiple candidate statements, solicit feedback from faculty and students (and then the broader community), and schedule a follow-up work session after staff compiles responses. Staff agreed to prepare a proposed schedule for that outreach and return to the board with a timeline.
No formal changes to Policy 100 were adopted at the session; the item remained discussion-only. The meeting opened and closed by motion with routine approval.
Why it matters: Board mission language frames district priorities and can be used to guide decisions about curriculum, programs and school culture. Revising the statement after decades could affect how the district communicates expectations to students, staff and prospective families.
