Always Forward: The Campaign for Junipero Serra High School

OUR INVITATION

We believe that there is an opportunity in this moment to assume an even greater, transformational role in our efforts to improve the educational experiences of our young men.

For more than 75 years, Serra has been a leader in the social, emotional and spiritual evolution of guiding boys to be men. Each year, Serra sends forth into the world a diverse cadre of graduates who are self-reliant, disciplined, confident and prepared men ready to succeed in college and beyond.

Our graduates are doctors, firefighters, air force pilots, priests, teachers, and professional athletes. They are faithful husbands and devoted fathers and serve as community role-models. They represent the finest of a Serra education that develops men of faith, wisdom, service, community and leadership.

Serra is a community rooted in the Catholic faith and committed to walking with boys as they grow to be young men. They are a brotherhood—a brotherhood defined by respect, integrity, inclusion and compassion. Serra graduates are change agents making a difference for the good in the world.

Serra is a transformative community that is defined by an incredible vision, a vision made concrete in a strategic plan that a group of dedicated Serra community members just completed. This new strategic plan, Transforming Lives, is courageous and bold. As illustrated over time, our achievements are made possible by individuals who repeatedly connect their dreams with strategic, focused actions.

Serra’s motto, Siempre Adelante, Always Forward, provides the name and inspiration for our Capital Campaign designed to take the first step in realizing our renewed strategic vision.

Imagine the many students whose lives have been truly transformed by Junípero Serra High School. Imagine how many more lives are waiting for an opportunity to benefit from our programs. Together, we can energize our educational model, renew our facilities to support our outstanding program and do more to realize unparalleled levels of success in transforming the lives of the Padres.

We invite you to review our case for support. We ask for your counsel, your questions and your philanthropic support. Imagine the difference you can make in partnering with us. Our strength as a school is the strength of our community and a unified commitment to its future.

Sincerely,

Barry Thornton, Ed.D. President

Eric Eger Board of Regents Chair

OUR MISSION

Inspired by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and empowered by a faith that is living, conscious and active, Junípero Serra is a Catholic college preparatory dedicated to the holistic formation of our students. Our community supports students in their journey toward becoming men of faith, wisdom, service, community and leadership. We seek to develop the gifts and talents of each student in an environment of excellence and mutual respect.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

At Serra, the educational process, grounded in the Catholic tradition, affirms the dignity of the human person. Serra students transform from their freshman year as young boys to balanced, well-rounded men focused on positively contributing to our changing world. Our unparalleled academic program supports the way boys think and provides students with a range of perspectives designed to develop a moral worldview that fosters compassion, inclusivity and respect. Our program focuses on educating the whole student, with a range of extracurricular activities, rigorous academics and opportunities for global growth and connection. Our committed teachers are supportive, professional mentors who specialize in teaching boys and are acutely aware of how boys learn, relate, compete and achieve.

Consistent with our mission statement, the Serra community supports students in their journey toward becoming men of faith, wisdom, service, community and leadership. Like our patron, Saint Junípero Serra, we seek to find Christ in and bring Christ to the people with whom we live, work and serve.

OUR BROTHERHOOD

The Serra Brotherhood is a bond shared among Padres, past and present, based on the values of respect, integrity, inclusion and compassion

Padre brothers hold themselves and each other accountable to these values every day, as Jesus modeled in his own life. Following this example,

A Padre is a man of respect, treating others with love and kindness.

A Padre is a man of integrity, acting with honesty and fairness, seeking truth.

A Padre is a man of inclusion, embracing diversity and the gifts of others.

A Padre is a man of compassion, compelled to help others, especially those most in need.

OUR STORY

Serra’s legacy spans more than 75 years of excellence in Catholic education and includes more than 13,000 alumni worldwide. Emerging from our celebration of 75 years of Serra’s transformative mission, Serra’s new leadership developed a strategy encompassing three related components:

• To establish a viable phased plan to renovate Serra’s physical facility

• To engage in a process to define a five-year strategic vision

• To align the school’s financial resources to provide momentum to execute both the building strategy and the broader vision

Despite the challenges of the past three years, we completed our five-year strategic plan and vision for Serra, Transforming Lives, in November 2021. The 20-month process engaged alumni, parents, board members, students, teachers, administrators and community members to develop an exciting vision for the future.

Simultaneously, Serra responded to the pandemic with successive and impactful capital projects, including an Apple technology platform upgrade for teachers, the Pereira Center for Robotics and Engineering, and an Academic Wing (A-wing) electrical infrastructure upgrade totaling $1.4 million. In April 2021, we completed phasing and cost analysis of the academic wing with a total cost of $48.5 million. We immediately began construction on the $4 million Phase I of a multiphased renovation program, completing it in the fall of 2021. In June 2022, we broke ground on Phase II,

the Stinson Center for Learning

and Innovation.

We are ready to take the next step in the school’s strategic plan and create an inspiring educational environment, ensuring the future of this great school and living our mission in a manner that transforms our students into men who will become leaders in the world.

OUR GOAL

Our new Strategic Plan, Transforming Lives, crystallizes Serra’s needs and sets a bold vision for the future. The plan focuses on inspiring academic excellence and ensuring our future through comprehensive facility renovations to enhance educational programs, growing the endowment in support of students, teachers and programs, and centering all decisions in Serra's mission to transform boys into young men who will make a difference for the good.

The goal of this capital campaign is to build off of the momentum that Serra has as a leader in the community and provide a state-of-the-art educational facility for future generations of Padres.

This project will be central to our strategic plan to modernize our facilities to match the innovative and rigorous academic experience we strive to provide for our students. Junípero Serra High School remains focused on its future.

Following two years of unimaginable challenges during the pandemic, Serra’s leadership team is committed to the future and dedicated to improving the experience that our young men can expect from our premier Catholic college preparatory school.

OUR PROPOSAL Inspiring Educational Excellence

Stinson Center for Learning and Innovation $17 million

We envision a learning commons where students can be inspired, collaborate on problem solving and create. We envision a presentation center where speakers can share ideas and teachers can engage their students and colleagues in research. We envision a home for Serra’s design-led innovation and Serra Global programs where the walls of the class extend across continents. We see this space as an event center where our parent, student and faculty community can gather in celebration.

We envision Serra’s new Center for Learning and Innovation, where the library and surrounding rooms, dating back from the 1950’s, will not just be rebuilt—–they will be reimagined.

The Stinson Center for Learning and Innovation will allow Serra’s Design-led Innovation Program to take center stage, where global student collaboration, creative thinking and inspirational problem solving will be the curriculum for the day. In its fifth year, the design-led innovation program is the envy of the region. Using design-thinking principles, students create a culminating project in “Solutions for the Common Good.” This past year, Serra students participated in a worldwide Zoom presentation with participants from 15 countries and students in a partner school in South Africa to present their projects.

The new space will house design thinking, technology and will catapult Serra into a leadership position in the country.

Serra has constantly ingrained the true meaning of brotherhood into my life. This school has helped me develop my lifestyle and relationship with God, family and friends. At Serra, I was reminded of the character traits a man should have and continue to develop.

Jackson Lataimua '20

Classroom Renovation $4 million

Working closely with teachers and students, the design team developed a classroom plan for technology, lighting, sound and furniture that would support the highest level of student learning. Serra implemented this concept in its first phase of classroom upgrades completed in 2021. Feedback from students and teachers has been extraordinary. As a result, we are moving forward to implement this plan throughout the rest of the academic wing renovation.

Serra continues to find ways to enhance the learning experience of its students. In the past two years, Serra has made significant progress in its effort to upgrade its classrooms for optimum comfort and focused learning. Each new classroom includes powerful wireless connectivity, short throw projectors equipped with Apple TV, as well as white boards on every wall, to allow teachers and students to move throughout the room and use all walls as learning surfaces.

Furniture that is designed for ease of movement and a flexible classroom environment facilitates student collaboration, engagement and learning.

Lighting that automatically adjusts to the natural light and interactive projectors work together to facilitate a cohesive learning environment, along with sound systems inside the ceiling that produce greater clarity and sound distribution.

Serra has also added central HVAC for heating and cooling, equipped with MERV-13 filters for air purification in adverse environments.

Athletics Facilities Enhancements $2 million

Athletics, health and wellness play a vital role in the lives of our students and school community. Whether as fans or players, all Serra High School students are part of a tradition of athletic excellence that spans generations.

With nearly 80 percent of our student population involved in athletics, it is imperative that we maintain the highest quality facilities to ensure peak performance and injury prevention.

Gifts in support of the athletics component of our Always Forward campaign will modernize Serra’s baseball field with synthetic turf, transforming it into a state-of-the art, all-weather athletic space that will benefit the entire Serra community. This new field will allow Serra to meet the increased demand for an all-weather practice space for Padre athletic teams, including lacrosse, football, soccer and track, as well as conditioning for all student athletes.

The new field will support all of Serra’s students as they use the space for daily lunch activities, club and school events. In addition, it will provide a key facility for our popular summer camp program. The new generation synthetic turf is environmentally friendly, dramatically reduces water consumption and lowers maintenance costs.

Support for the athletic component of Always Forward will ensure ongoing maintenance and upgrading of all current facilities and equipment, including the pool, track, Morton Family Gymnasium, locker room and the Mark Vorsatz '72 Athletic Performance Center.

CONSTRUCTION PHASING PLAN

In 2019, Serra developed a phased approach to renovating its academic wing. Each phase has a direct and immediate impact on the educational program. The construction plan was designed to ensure that the heaviest construction activities can be completed during the summer with minimal disruption to school operations. Importantly, donor support can be used immediately on the project. Serra is successfully executing this plan as indicated below.

Completed Projects

Preparatory Work Phase I

Electrical Upgrade and Pereira Center for Robotics and Engineering

Academic Wing Renovation: Classrooms, HVAC, Seismic, Dept. Office, ADA Bathroom

Immediate Call to Action - Always Forward Campaign

Complete: November, 2020 $1 million

Complete: October, 2021 $4 million

Phase II Phase III (a)

Stinson Center for Learning and Innovation

Academic Wing Classrooms and Seismic All-weather Baseball and Athletics Field

Additional Call to Action

Phase III (b)

Phase IV

Phase V

Academic Wing: Classrooms and Seismic

Academic Wing: Classrooms and Seismic

Exterior Windows, Curtain Wall, and Bridge to the Center for Arts and Sciences

In progress; estimated completion - May, 2023 $17 million

June 2023 $4 million

$2 million - June 2023

Ensuring the Future Endowment and Scholarship

$12 million

The strategic plan identified critical areas to ensure Serra’s ability to thrive well into the future. Financial aid will provide access for all students, maintain competitive salaries to recruit and retain the finest in educational talent, and the programmatic stability to ensure Serra’s learning and innovation center remains cutting edge.

Affording Serra

Since our founding, donors have consistently and generously understood the value of investing in Serra’s endowment. These funds are an enduring foundation for our future, built by past and present donors who believe in sustaining our unique mission. Serra's endowment provides financial aid in support of access for all students, helps fund competitive salaries to recruit and retain the finest in educational talent, and ensures stability for cutting-edge educational programs.

Teacher Compensation

Teachers give our students purpose, set them up for success as citizens of our world, and inspire in them a drive to do well and succeed in life. Serra’s team of outstanding educators—80 percent of whom hold advanced degrees—are what make the student transformation so magical. They are mentors, role models and guides who provide an environment of support, encouragement and motivation. Increasing teacher salaries will strengthen Serra’s pipeline. We lose valued teachers each year for financial reasons and the success of our program is hinged on teacher retention. The endowment will ensure our ability to pay top salaries and allow us to recruit and retain the educators that inspire our students.

Living Our Mission

Padre Fund $3 million

The Padre Fund is the lifeblood of Serra’s fundraising efforts. Serra relies on these annual gifts to the Padre Fund from our community of alumni, parents, grandparents, board members, friends and faculty. These gifts are used to fund the school’s greatest determined needs.

Padre Fund dollars were used to pay for a $500,000 technological upgrade that was critical to Serra’s success during the beginning of the pandemic when schools were in distance learning and reliant on Zoom technology for classroom instruction. Funds from the Padre Fund were also used to provide HVAC upgrades so that the student learning environment was both safe and comfortable and ready to learn once on campus again.

Gifts to the Padre Fund serve as Serra’s greatest source of unrestricted income.

Serra’s academic program is truly outstanding. We have 100 percent college attendance, more than $21 million in college scholarships last year with 95 percent of those being awarded for academic achievement and, most important, students are realizing their full potential and succeeding in their next steps in academia. I look forward to continuing the academic excellence at Serra and expanding our innovation and global possibilities.

Rita Lee Assistant Principal, Academics

IMMEDIATE CALL TO ACTION

Center for Learning and Innovation $17 million

Classroom Renovation $4 million Athletics Facilities Enhancements $2 million

Endowment and Scholarship $12 million

• Financial Aid

• Teacher Support Padre Fund $3 million

TOTAL $38 million

All of the teachers, coaches and mentors I have had at Serra have taught me about wisdom, humility and life in general. I wouldn't have the mindset I have today on life and other people without Serra High School.

ADDITIONAL CALL TO ACTION

Comprehensive renovation of academic wing; classrooms, HVAC, seismic, fire suppression, exterior windows and bridge to the Center for Arts and Sciences $27.5 million

Will Mauer '20

WHEN GIVING BECOMES LEADING

Always Forward: The Campaign for Junípero Serra High School offers numerous opportunities for donors at all levels to make a difference in the exciting revitalization of our school.

You can participate in the campaign by making a commitment that allots flexibility and time to complete the commitment. We are excited to bring these improvements and opportunities to our students as soon as possible; therefore, we hope that most commitments will be completed within 36 months. However, if you require a longer period to complete your commitment, we would be pleased to work with you to arrange such a gift.

When deciding how you can help support Always Forward: The Campaign for Junípero High School, there are a variety of giving options that you might wish to consider. Each presents certain advantages. All are tax deductible within the limits specified by the IRS code. We would recommend that you consult with an attorney or financial advisor when planning your commitment.

GIFTS OF CASH qualify for a charitable deduction in the year given and are limited to 50 percent of your adjusted gross income annually. Any amount given over this limit is eligible for a five-year carryover.

GIFTS OF APPRECIATED SECURITIES held for more than one year permit a donor to use the full value of the security at the time of donation as a tax deduction, while avoiding the capital gains tax that would be imposed if the security were sold.

GIFTS OF PROPERTY, including residence, farm, vacation home, jewelry, art, etc. can provide significant benefits to the school and to the donor. The specialized help of appraisers and tax advisors is necessary to make such a gift.

GIFTS OF LIFE INSURANCE can provide a way to make a sizable gift at a relatively low cost. Consulting with your attorney or tax advisor is important.

BEQUESTS AND LIFE PAYMENT PLANS are excellent ways to participate in the campaign at levels you might not ordinarily consider. These include a bequest in one’s will as well as various trust instruments. Our team of professionals will be happy to assist your own financial advisors in finding an attractive plan for your situation.

The main consideration in making any type of gift to the campaign is to find a way that brings joy to you and your family—joy in supporting a cause in which you believe and value.

For further information about Always Forward: The Campaign for Junípero Serra High School, please contact:

Barry Thornton, Ed.D, President

650.345.0365

bthornton@serrahs.com

Michael P. Fadelli ‘88, Chief Advancement Officer

650.430.5580

mfadelli@serrahs.com

all of our commitments (pledges) are non binding. the donor is under no legal obligation to fulfill the pledge. the use of this pledge or gift is to fund the always forward campaign for junipero serra high school (serra). the funds also may be used, at the discretion of serra, to pay for expenses incurred by serra during the campaign, including the repayment of indebtedness any contributions received in excess of the amounts needed for the designated project will be used for future operating costs of related programs or will be used as needed at the discretion of serra

junípero serra high school is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. all donations are 100% tax-deductible tax id: 94-1156697.

School Prayer

Lord God, from you comes all that is good, all our talents and abilities. Help us develop these gifts, even when it means hard work. Help us face the reality of working together as a community. When necessary, help us deal with pain and disappointment. Be with us in our endeavors. In the spirit of Junípero Serra, let us never give up. Let this dedication in our lives today, help us grow in faith, maturity and life for tomorrow. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

The world is constantly changing. Institutions that do not change and evolve are left behind. The improvements that Serra is hoping to make to its campus and programming will assure that current and future Padres will be well prepared to face all the challenges of their new world. In today's competitive world of attracting students to attend high school, that school must be offering the highest and best academic and extracurricular experiences. By modernizing Serra's campus, it ensures that those students looking for the best will find it at Serra High School.

Bob Grassilli '66

junipEro sErra high school advisory

board of regents

Eric Eger, Chair

Aric Agresti ‘98, Vice Chair

campaign leadership team

Tom Brady, Sr.

Ken and Ann Stinson

Honorary Co-Chairs

Megan Armando

Jason Coloma

Eric Dooley ‘02

Brian Dowd

Ronnie Fields ‘86

Ralph Ho ‘89

Roxanne Ivory

Tammy Kiely

Manufou Liaiga-Anoa'i

Hanna Malak '08

Andrea O’Riordan

Nick Severino

Aida Soto

Monsignor John Talesfore

Maky Zanganeh

Greg Regan '91, Co-Chair

Benay Todzo, Co-Chair

Liana Brady

Jeff Brady

Frank Caufield

Betsy Chung

Ben Coughlin

Brian Dowd

Kevin Flynn '82

Bob Grassilli ‘66

Tammy Kiely

Denise Moriaty

Andrea O’Riordan

Nick Severino

Aida Soto

Jennifer Ullyot