Megan Ardovini ‘13|News Editor

Bishop McNamara has released their new strategic plan for the 2011-2016 school years. With its completion, it encompasses our mission, our philosophy, our history, and our goals for the future advancement of the school.

A strategic plan simply outlines all the goals our school has for the

next five years as well as determines the overall direction in which we want to go. It is common for schools, businesses, and organizations to develop a plan for success periodically as their needs and direction may change. According to President and CEO Mr. Marco Clark, McNamara has not updated their strategic plan since the early 90’s, and with new challenges facing Catholic secondary education and new opportunities present it was time for an update.

This process began in the 2009-2010 school year, and a system of data collecting was conducted over the span of the last two years. Students, parents, graduates, parents of alum, faculty, and staff were all involved in this stage.There were listening sessions where information and feedback was collected from parents and alumni. The faculty and staff participated in full-day workshops in which they evaluated some of the data collected from the school community and shared feedback of their own.

A steering committee, including the president, principal, other administrators, and select members of the faculty and board of directors, was then formed to review this data and do an in-depth analysis of the school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It was at this point that the four major themes of the strategic plan evolved. The four areas of focus were Charism and Culture; Academic Excellence for all Students by Educating Hearts and Minds; Infrastructure, Information Technology, Facility Management and Planning; and finally Institutional Advancement. Members of the faculty, staff, Board of Directors, and some parents served on the four committees responsible for drafting the goals that went along with each theme.

Kathy Newman, mother of Shane Kelly ‘12 and Justin Kelly ’13, was a parent who served on the committee regarding the theme of Academic Excellence for all Students by Educating Hearts and Minds. Her experience with the process was that it was an open-minded atmosphere and the different views were all heard. “[It was] a really good thing to have some parental view interjected,” Newman said, “I’m proud to be associated with this result.”

While most schools develop a strategic plan as a last resort or a life-raft when things go wrong, this is not the case with McNamara. Mr. Clark said the school’s goal for this process was to be “bold” and “visionary.” The new strategic plan can be found on the school website in the “About Us” section.