St. Francis Borgia Regional High School has developed a new five-year strategic plan.
The comprehensive plan will guide the Catholic co-ed high school through the year 2017.
Some key elements in the plan call for transitioning the school board from an advisory board to a governing board and enhancing facilities, specifically building a multipurpose and upgrading the existing gym.
School President George Wingbermuehle said restructuring the school board is a push of the Archdiocese, but it’s a move he supports.
“I think it makes sense,” he said, especially because it will give officials more direction, and include representation in all areas of the Borgia community.
The board would have reps from specific regions and members would be elected.
Wingbermuehle said the plans calls for the new board to be in place by August 2013, but he said that may be a little ambitious.
Construction of a new multipurpose building is not a new idea, the president said.
“When we built our new athletic complex, the multipurpose building was phase two of that project,” he explained.
The strategic plan calls for a cost analysis for the proposed new building and enhancements to the current gym, as well as a feasibility study to determine the level of support for these projects.
“Our gym is in high demand with us being a co-ed school with many sports teams, plus dance, cheer, drum line, flag corps and other groups needing space,” Wingbermuehle said.
Other goals in the plan include increasing enrollment from Borgia’s partner schools and PSR students through visits to the high school, surveys and other programs, and maximizing the availability of tuition assistance.
Wingbermuehle said Borgia is very fortunate to have a strong athletic association, a healthy endowment fund and support from other organizations. He estimates the athletic association alone provides about $200,000 to $250,000 in support each year.
“We don’t have to put money toward our athletics which allows us to keep our costs down,” he said. “We’ve also been averaging about $100,000 from the endowment fund. All of this helps with the bottom line.”
The top two objectives in the strategic plan are to increase evangelization and Catholic identity within the community and the continued pursuit of academic excellence.
“We want our students to be strong Catholics and service-oriented,” Wingber-muehle said.
The plan calls for increasing facilty knowledge of the teachings of the Catholic church and continued fostering of faith development with students.
Curriculum upgrades also are planned to match the state common core standards.
“We are strong academically, but you can always improve and that’s what we want to do,” said Wingbermuehle, who feels the switch to all students and staff being on iPads next year will only enhance learning.
How the Plan Was Developed
Work on the plan began in the fall of 2011 at the direction of Wingbermuehle.
Volunteers were sought for the committee, he said, and a faculty representative from each deanery also was identified.
At the first meeting, the team began discussing, in general, the major areas that Borgia needed to address over the next five years.
A subteam was established for each of these areas, and members were assigned dbased upon their responsibilities and/or interests.
Teams were charged with developing specific goals for their assigned area, along with establishing measurable and achievable supporting objectives.
In addition, the subteams were asked to provide strategic actions that outline specific steps toward accomplishing the objective and identifying target completion dates and responsible persons.
Wingbermuehle said the final version of the strategic plan was approved by the administration and the full strategic plan team in March.
“It was then forwarded for approval by all members of our faculty and by the advisory board at their meetings April 18,” he said.
“This final Strategic Plan is the result of a collaborative effort of the team members representing core leadership groups and community stakeholders of St. Francis Borgia Regional High School,” he said. “Going forward, Borgia’s administration, in collaboration with the school board, will be responsible for implementing and revising this plan.”
