In 1994, I was invited to become the founding head of a new school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where there were already three other independent schools, grades 6-12, fairly well-established and serving the community quite well. Why, I wondered, did they need a fourth? According to the search consultants (John Bird and Len Richardson) a group of elementary school parents saw a genuine need for an additional school and according to John and Len, it seemed like a viable project. One piece of information that gave me pause, among numerous others, is that 90% of all new, small businesses fail and one of the primary reasons is the lack of sufficient start-up capital. And this group of eager parents had limited funds. But what they did have was a lot of faith and confidence in their mission and in themselves, and I was hooked.
Stepping off the plane at the Albuquerque Sunport, I was greeted by two, energetic and enthusiastic mothers who were part of a small group of dedicated parents, determined to bring this new school into being and they had clearly done their homework. The seductive line was, “How often in your lifetime will you get an opportunity to start a school with a blank slate?” Except for mission and vision which had been defined and embraced, nothing else had been determined. There were no teachers or administrators, no location, no curriculum and a very small budget. The mission was, and still is, “To prepare young men and women to become lifelong learners with the highest character values and academic goals in a natural New Mexico setting with strong family and community involvement.”
Where to begin? It was clear that these founding trustees believed strongly in their vision, that they cared deeply and that their mantra was “Success does not come to those who wait . . . and it does not wait for anyone to come to it." Their enthusiasm was palpable and I accepted the invitation to serve as the founding head of Bosque Preparatory School which has become just Bosque School. Bosque is the Spanish word for “woods” and we are now located on a 43 acre campus with an easement to 100 additional acres in the bosque along the Rio Grande.
What we did in the first four years was to set the stage for what was to happen over the following twelve years and become the school that it is today. I interviewed almost 100 teachers to select the eight pioneers who created the curriculum that first year and who were joined by several others in the second year to strengthen and enrich the program. We looked at 50+ different locations until we found an empty education building belonging to a church that had moved out. And the trustees raised the necessary funds to keep us afloat and solvent those first, four challenging years. We received a lot of support from our peer schools, from the larger community and from numerous families who shared our vision and values.
Last June 2010, I was invited by the Board of Trustees to return and serve as an interim Head of School while they searched for a new head to succeed the one who followed me in 1998. What I found is a school that has remained true to its original mission, one that grew from the original 60 students and 8 teachers to 545 students and 100 employees and moved to a beautiful, new campus where there are now 9 buildings and a few more yet to be completed or in one case, replaced. It is a temporary science building, donated to the school some eight years ago and has served well but run its course.
Bosque School is a vibrant, thriving independent school community with so many of the desirable characteristics that anyone would be glad to see and appreciate. Sixteen years is a brief history but the story is one of growth and success made possible by the cooperation and working relationships among three groups of people – The Board of Trustees, the parents and the faculty and staff. Led by an energetic, visionary and effective fund raiser, the head of school for twelve years put Bosque on the map as a place where students can not only get a solid preparation for college and university but also where they can experience a cohesive community that cares deeply about those who are part of the school family.
Visitors from outside the school often remark on what they see that seems different from other schools and were I to sum it up in the one catch all phrase, it would be a sense of a cohesive community. For the most part, student behavior and performance are exemplary and the issues around discipline are practically non-existent. We still have good work to do around being more diverse and inclusive, finding more resources for financial aid, future building projects and continuing to hire outstanding teachers.
I am fortunate to have been able to return and experience first hand what we started some seventeen years ago. The school is like a lot of seventeen year olds about to launch into a future that is unknown, somewhat unpredictable and yet with a sense of excitement about the future. And, like a sixteen or seventeen year old adolescent whose developmental task is establishing a clear sense of identity, we are right on schedule, having evolved through the earlier stages of growth rather successfully.
You have heard it said that “you can’t go home again”, based on the novel by Thomas Wolfe with that very title, and when I arrived as the interim head at the beginning of this year, I assured people that we were not going back but only forward with our mission and vision being realized every day in all that we do. As I have tried to keep people focused on our good work together and as we prepare for the arrival of a new head of school, suffice to say there has been more than enough to do.
What I can say, without reservation, is that I have had the privilege of serving a school that I helped create, of helping it get ready for the next chapter in its history and having the satisfying and rewarding experience of working in a place that is doing such good work. It has been a little bit like seeing one of your children grow up and become eminently effective and quietly celebrating that success knowing you had a significant role in making it all possible. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Gary R. Gruber, Ph.D., can be reached by email at [email protected].
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