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Faculty Profile 26 Future Growth
STRATEGIC PLANNING
When the first fresh-faced students walked through the school gates on that warm September morning in 1955, a revolutionary vision became a reality. Sixty-six years later, the mission of the Tech continues to be fulfilled. With a tradition rooted in innovation, the school has graduated more than 9,000 young men, each with a unique hands-on STEM education that fully incorporates the highly effective Salesian pedagogy.
— ALAN LAKEIN, AUTHOR
Plans for the Tech’s future are as important today as they were seven decades ago; to ensure continued success and growth, vigilant review and deliberation remain paramount in importance. In the past year, strategic planning came to the forefront as the Board of Trustees, administrators, parents, and alumni launched an exhaustive review and planning process, focused on the school’s mission and responsiveness to the changes in the environment around us, while enhancing both our effectiveness and efficiency of operation. The year-long process and resulting data, based upon in-depth interviews with multiple stakeholders, will guide sound decision making as Bosco Tech seeks to be recognized as the preeminent Catholic, college-preparatory engineering-science-technology school in the nation.
Beginning last fall, the strategic planning team examined the school’s mission and vision statements to recalibrate and refine them to more effectively reflect today’s Tech and emphasize our future vision. Based upon carefully analyzed results, the foundational goals of a long-range plan were created.
Most specifically, this strategic vision will address four major elements of Bosco Tech’s future: • Academic program—our unchanging mission is ministering to and guiding the young, and we must continue to ensure the relevance, meaningfulness, and realworld skills and experience that have been a cornerstone of academic rigor for nearly 70 years; • Facilities—our environment must be conducive to delivering the best educational product possible which entails improving and renewing the physical plant; • Governance and organizational capacity—we must strengthen the governance and organizational capacity in order to better serve the community and establish
Bosco Tech as an educational pillar in the Greater Los Angeles Area; • Financial position—our resources must be wisely invested and reinforced in support of the strategic plan initiatives
Dovetailing with strategic planning, a committee dedicated to facilities planning has been established within the school’s Board of Trustees. Their mandate is the careful inventorying and evaluation of the existing physical plant and infrastructure, considered in concert with a blueprint for enhancement, envisioning where the campus can and should be in 10 and 20 years.
“We see our overall strategic plan as a roadmap that will guide us into the future, as an independent Catholic school, with a rigorous, meaningful, and nationally unique academic program,” said John Krakowski (DR ’72), Board Trustee and a member of both the Strategic Planning and Facilities Planning committees. “Unchanging are the timeless core values upon which the Tech community was established, and the committees continually focused on reflecting those values in their work.”
The Strategic Planning committee, with approval of the Board of Trustees, adopted new mission and vision statements for Tech.
Mission
The Don Bosco Technical Institute is dedicated to creating leaders in engineering, science, and technology by presenting opportunities for real world experience that provide graduates an edge in university studies and career development. Established in 1955, Bosco Tech is a college preparatory Catholic high school guided by the educational philosophy of St. John Bosco and offers challenging academic exploration through project-based learning.
Vision
To be recognized as the nation’s premiere Catholic college preparatory high school, fully integrating engineering, science and technology across a curriculum that prepares students for a faith-filled journey of life-long learning, responsible leadership, and distinguished service.
Values
In creating both statements, the committee gathered around the values of the Bosco Tech community, namely:
• Dedicated students of faith • Diversity and inclusion • Lifelong learning • Distinguished service • Social responsibility • Leadership
Strategic Planning Committee members (left to right) John Krakowski (DR '72), Shannon McConnell, Memo Gutierrez (AU '83), and Nick Mansur (EL '72).
