San Mateo's Junípero Serra launches capital campaign

The campaign is meant to help the institution achieve its vision set out in its five-year strategic plan titled Transforming Lives. Students, faculty, community members, parents, alumni and board members spent a year and a half crafting the plan as other campus renovations to four classrooms, a department office, seismic upgrades and the installation of heating, cooling and ventilation systems of 10 classrooms were done concurrently.

“There’s a lot of people involved in defining that vision who are excited to help ensure that that vision is executed,” Thornton said. “We had a significant goal because we had a lot of priorities we wanted to hit but we also had supporters who wanted to help achieve that vision.”

More than $27 million in contributions have already been made to the campaign during a silent fundraising period that started in 2021, leaving the school just $10 million short of its goal. Large donations contributed to the school’s early success in fundraising 71% of its overall goal.

Alumnus Ken Stinson, class of 1960, and his wife, Ann, contributed $7.5 million to the campaign and a $2.9 million grant came from the Carl Gellert and Celia Berta Gellert Foundation.

Since opening the campaign to the public in October, Thornton said an additional $1 million has been raised, bringing the current total to about $28.5 million. He said he hopes to see the funding gap closed by June of 2024, giving the school about 18 months to seek out donations.

“I’m very deeply grateful and humbled by the support,” Thornton said. “It fills my heart with gratitude over peoples’ willingness to support the education of others and that’s really what it comes down to.”

The school has already put use to a large chunk of the campaign funds by investing $17 million into the Stinson Center for Learning and Innovation. Crews broke ground on the 13,000-square-foot space, formally the Zoph Library, in June and plan to have the structure complete on time by March 2023. Once complete, Thornton said the building will become the new home for the school’s design-led thinking lab and global connections program, featuring collaboration rooms, presentation facilities, video screens, offices and upgraded adult and staff bathrooms, among other infrastructure improvements.

Thornton credited his development team and the city’s planning staff for helping to move the project along so quickly, noting “it was a team effort to get it where it is today.”

“I’m so excited for the students. This is really a transformative facility. It’s really something very different,” Thornton said.

The second largest portion of the campaign goal, $12 million, will fund endowments and scholarships. About 40% of students receive some amount of financial support to help pay the school’s $25,660 annual tuition fee, Thornton said.

“It’s an expensive area to live in and so it’s a needs-based program to provide financial aid support and very dependent on one’s financial situation,” Thornton said. “When we think of expanding the endowment, what that really does is allow us to serve anyone who needs it and makes sure we have funds for those who need it.”

Another $4 million will go toward renovating the school’s academic wing to bring state-of-the-art facilities to students while $2 million will be used to fund the installation of turf at the baseball field, a facility used by nearly all athletic programs and students, Thornton said.

Improvements to campus facilities will go on to benefit students beyond Junípero Serra’s campus, Thornton said, noting those who attend Mercy High School in Burlingame and Notre Dame Belmont High School, thanks to a tri-school consortium.

Visit serrahs.com/support-serra/forward to learn more about Always Forward, the Campaign for Junípero Serra High School.