Development Plan – old
Development Plan 2016
John Paul Secondary School continues to grow and so do our plans for its future.
Last year was exceptionally exciting! We were finally able to get a bore hole on the school property….something we had been trying to do for several years! We now have enough water to support our growth plan for John Paul School and able to supply water to the local community as well.
Now that we have water, we are turning our attention to electricity. In fact, our first project for 2016 is to provide
a complete solar system for the Science and Learning Center. This process is actually in its initial stage and we anticipate the system will be fully operational in the next few months.
After the solar system is operational, our next project is to outfit the Computer lab with computers, a few printers and all the attendant software. We have a beautiful lab ……..now we just need to equip it.
We have been able to attract several new teachers to JPSS this year but there is no place for them to live on the school campus. In order to keep these skillful teachers, we must provide housing. Therefore teacher housing is a major priority for 2016.
The enrollment is growing but we’re severely constrained since presently there is only one girl’s dormitory on campus. We must have another dormitory in order to provide housing for male students also. God willing, we will try to get the dormitory started this year!
As you can see, we have a very ambitious development plan for 2016. We are excited and confident that it will be a fantastic year and with your help, we know we will succeed!
Development Plan 2015
We are so excited to announce that John Paul Secondary School now has its own well! Prior to this, students had to make the 20 minute trip (each way) multiples times a day to retrieve water for the school. After many attempts to dig a well through the very rocky soil with many boulders, this year we were able to hire heavy machinery to dig the well and the operation was a success! Thank you to all our wonderful supporters who helped make this possible for the kids at JPSS!
Development Plan 2012
Recently I returned from a very busy and exciting, albeit, short trip to Uganda. In the space of two very full days I was able to meet with all the individuals involved in the founding and ongoing stewardship of John Paul School as well as spend time at the school and greet the newly enrolled students.
Msgr. John Kauta, Cissy Kagimu, a member of the Board of Governors, and I conducted a series of very formal business meetings with all of these individuals. We had a meeting with Archbishop James Odongo, retired Archbishop of Tororo, and the person most responsible for John Paul School. It was his vision that brought a school to this very remote and underserved part of Uganda. He has a special place in his heart for the school and is deeply invested in assuring that it is successful. During our meeting he agreed to become a member of the Board of Governors and to take a much more active role in leading the continued development of the school. We are very grateful for his dedication and commitment of time. Also present was Bishop Paul Buyela, Vicar General of Tororo and the Archdiocesan Education Secretary, a very strong advocate for the school since its inception. We also met with Archbishop Denis Kiwanuka Lote, the current Archbishop of the Diocese of Tororo, who is unwavering in his support. In the short time he has been Archbishop of Tororo, he solved a critical issue by acquiring a large tract of land, adjacent to our current property, for the school. We were severely land-locked and would not have been able to expand without his patronage. These meetings also had the benefit of valuable input from our Headmaster Fr. Deogratius Syambi.
The first order of business during these meetings was to determine the type of learning institution John Paul School will become. Would the focus of the school be the education of the masses to a basic level, or would we limit the number of students but provide the opportunity and instruction that would allow those students to excel? Unanimously, it was determined that we would strive to make John Paul the premier institute of learning in the area, with a special focus on the Sciences. To that end, we want the physical buildings to be premier, the teaching staff to excel and to attract students dedicated to excelling in their studies. With the completion of the new Science and Learning Center we will take a first giant step in that direction.
We also put in place and formulated a strategic plan for the long term development of the campus that included a priority ranking of the facilities needed to achieve our stated objective of the premier institution. A master plan is being developed that will eventually include a primary school that will have the same high standards of education so it can act as a feeder school to John Paul Secondary School. A second dormitory is a high priority that when constructed will immediately provide a significant increase in attendance. The local community is slow to develop but there are a few places where students can stay off campus. The travel distance to the school is a hindrance for many who want to attend.
Some of the other highlights of the plan are the building of staff housing and the eventual inclusion of a group of religious sisters to assist as teachers and to manage a planned clinic in the future.
