In Search of Catholic School Excellence

Thomas Boles: Welcome to In Search of Catholic School Excellence, the show where we spotlight the program's, people, and practices making a real difference in Catholic education today.

If you're a school leader striving to build a community of faith, excellence, and innovation, you've come to the right place.

Each episode brings you ideas that are working, stories that inspire and new possibilities for your school's mission.

Let's explore what's working and what's possible.

Welcome back folks.

This week we're joined by Gustavo Tores of Good Shepherd School in Pacifica, California.

Welcome, Gustavo.

Thanks for joining us.

It's great to be here.

I, we've been following you for a while.

Of course, we work together, but we've been following the success of the school at Good Shepherd and the turnaround.

It seemed like you've probably been there about three years, four years.

Gustavo Torres: So this is roughly about kind of four and a half to year five.

Wow.

Kind of here.

Very part-time in the beginning and then just transitioned in over here from my previous role.

Thomas Boles: Yes.

And so when you took on this school it's always been a happy place.

One of the most beautiful schools in the country because of where it sits.

And one day we'll have to worry about those windows where we wanna let the kids daydream, looking over the, but in the meantime.

It was a school, much like many of the schools in the San Francisco diocese, they've been shrinking over the years due to the population size.

But it seems that over the time that you've been doing this, that you've actually increased enrollment.

And I wanna say that you had like 80 new students this year.

Is that right?

Gustavo Torres: So pretty close.

76. 76 new students.

So yeah, we roughly grew from 143 families to a hundred and.

Seventy a hundred and seventy seven, I believe.

So it's funny 'cause it's 177 and then 76 new students, so it's just, it's all in the seventies.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that was kind of unique in itself.

I would say in the last two to three years just very targeted enrollment.

We've been blessed to be here on the coast that.

There seems to be an influx of young, new families coming down from Pacifica all the way down to Half Moon Bay.

And they all commute over to South City in San Francisco and we're right along that corridor.

And yeah, there the narrative out there is, you know, the school is not closing.

So that there was this long narrative that that Good Shepherd was on its way out.

And and you know, initially when I came on board here, it was to assist the previous principal had some health issues and it was COVID time.

And so, just kind of assisting with day-to-day when people were out.

Of the office and then kind of just things changed and we, you know, the superintendent at the time, Pam Lyons felt that we needed to keep
a presence here and saw, I guess, you know, in her crystal ball, she saw there were families coming in and there was an investment here.

I mean, there was a strong community here, even though the enrollment was quite small.

So, I mean, like when I started.

We were at 153 students enrolled and class sizes were pretty small.

And I know that families love the small class sizes, they love the small class sizes, but when you're paying, you know, eight or $9,000 a year for 12 in a class
and you still need to have a full staff and just regular operating just regular operational expenses, it's not, you know, that's actually quite precarious.

Yeah, you can have.

10 to 15 students at like, you know, $30,000 as a student that could be helpful.

And that's what a lot of the independent schools in San Francisco kind of are geared at.

And so, working with families and then, you know, we had a. There was a really dedicated staff here and the model, the operational model that we introduced was kind of more similar to a high school.

So, you know, my initial role here with site administrator we brought in the retired previous principal because she knew the community very well.

And then we had Melly Mortenson in here as well as the part-time academic administrator because my background was more business and fundraising and development.

Some academic, but my background was more business administration.

And then in, in between, you know, beginning here as site administrator and now being principal, I was lucky enough to receive an
archdiocese and educator incentive grant and got my master's from the University of Notre Dame and theology with an emphasis on Catholic ed.

So, I mean, it kind of all came to fruition.

I mean, Melly is no longer with us.

She's over at Corpus Christi in Piedmont.

Now that's where her children, that's her children's school.

And so she's principal there.

And our amazing Vice principal, who is our middle school science teacher Mrs.

Jill Demmer is now the vice principal and the two of us run the school.

Since I began in 2021 our enrollment has now grown to 239 students.

So, you know, average class size going from 12 to 15 to now 28 to 30.

And I, and you know, and that.

The community.

Has expressed their concern that, you know, they don't necessarily like the bigger class sizes, but they get it because with those larger class sizes, we've brought back every single enrichment program that was here before the pandemic.

So, our language program, we have Spanish, we have Ian Ian Academy that offers a wonderful robotics and technology program to grades four through eight.

And.

We have the mu the music program, we, which is choir and we have other technology.

And so we're really, I'm really excited though that Ian, like you guys have been building up that robotics, so it's it's been fun.

Thomas Boles: Well, I mean, it's been a fun place to be and I think that's one of things that, you know, as you mentioned, you have a different model, so that's number one.

So that already sticks out as being something that.

Maybe is different and maybe it's replicable, maybe it's not.

Yeah.

But also the fact that there's, there seems to be a lot of, as you mentioned, you bring, brought back all the enrichment programs.

We've also brought back, I think some of that spirit that fun.

Gustavo Torres: Yeah.

Thomas Boles: And that you've, you know, it seems like we're always getting these pictures of the school off on one trip or another trip and Yeah.

That comes with the.

The bigger class sizes allows for you to do more things.

How have you like tapped into that, what's the culture been like?

You said you had a strong community to begin with.

How have you built that?

Gustavo Torres: So, and I just think, I think that one, so one thing that I, you know, always repeat and I know I sound cra well, there's two things that I always repeat.

I always say all will be well St. Julian of Norwich.

But also we really try to instill a sense of joy, wonder, and curiosity.

And I think we've just, we've, we.

Gone crazy about that.

So I mean, like in, in a, in the most positive way that we can I think that this with the staff and the parents if we're curious about
something, we really do try to investigate and try to like, try to bring that, and try to manifest this community of law lifelong learners.

Another thing that I, that we were really blessed about here at Good Shepherd is that, so in my previous role at the Department of Catholic Schools, working in development and working with.

Donors and things like that.

I didn't poach, but several heard that I was down here at Good Shepherd and several of these donors already were supporting the school and just kind of,
they asked me questions as to like, what I envision, what I see, and like, you know, we kind of changed the narrative, like we have this long-term plan.

We had to put a lot of money.

I mean, I was very honest.

We had to do a lot of deferred maintenance.

I mean.

It is wonderful.

Like I'm looking at the ocean right now.

There's no fog.

The whales have been swimming Yeah.

The last few days, so it's been really cool.

But there's just a lot of deferred maintenance and it was so wonderful to, when the parents heard that and the donors heard that they, we really like got.

Our heads together, we were able to paint the facility.

We replaced all of the rotting decks.

We have done two bathroom renovations.

We have, oh, working with you on up.

I mean, the infrastructure really needed to be updated.

Moving that around and on, just new hotspots.

Updated Chromebooks.

Last year we, you know, we replaced all of the microscopes and just think, I mean, I think there's just this constant like.

I don't mean to always go out and ask everybody for money, but I don't have a problem doing it because that's what I've always done.

And so, one thing that, one thing that we do a little differently here at Good Shepherd is like, so for example, grandparents' Day is gonna be this Friday and at
many Catholic schools around the country, grandparents' day tends to be a part well at least here in the archdiocese tends to be a part of Catholic Schools Week.

It's like that Friday, or it's one of those days.

So we're actually having Grandparents Day this Friday through the generosity of an amazing donor.

We have what's called Lifelong Learner Day, and that's the Friday of Catholic Schools Week, and that is where the entire school K through eight.

With 65 chaperones and the entire staff, we all go on a field trip together.

Wow.

And mind you it, it is it, and it's educational based.

So the first year we took everybody to the California Academy of Sciences.

The second year we took everybody to the Oakland Zoo.

Last year we took everybody to the tech interactive in San Jose.

And this year it's just now that we've grown so big I've had places tell us, oh, we can't accommodate you because you're team too large.

I wanted to take the whole school to the Chabot Space and Science Center, but they're, they just won't accommodate a group so large.

And so, we're, and we're not, and I mean, 239 is not.

It's not that big, but it's big when you're taking our, when you're like going to one place.

So we are looking at, we're looking at the Lawrence Hall of Science.

We're looking at the Exploratorium.

We were even thinking possibly going to Angel Island, but just like the logistics with that might be a little bit more difficult, might go beyond the sponsorship, but we're just looking at things like that.

And that's another thing too, is that here well being on the coast.

A lot of these field trips have to be very targeted because we are not.

We're not, it's not like being in San Francisco, like, you know, my elementary school, I went to Mission Dolores School.

We were in the middle of the city.

We got on the j we were downtown.

It was different.

We rode the bus.

But here I'm not really into parent drivers and chaperones.

Right.

So I kind of pull from my high school friends and we have a charter bus company that, that is, that, that gives us a pretty good discount.

But of course it's still quite expensive.

Yeah.

So we figured out a way to fundraise and put in the registration fee that every classroom has two free buses.

To go wherever they want.

But it has to be very targeted.

Yeah.

It has to align with what we're doing and with the standards and that particular curriculum.

Like for example, the seventh grade, every because of a great partnership with the San Francisco Giants, the seventh grade homeroom teacher is also our middle school math teacher, miss Lucido.

He takes the students to the, to San Francisco Giants does a wonderful statistic lesson and you learn all about baseball stats and this, that and the other.

They, it's a private tour and then they stay for a ball game, and it's just it's wonderful.

Like, fourth grade, they go down to the Marine Science Institute.

They're on a boat and on the bay learning about all of the animals that come in.

And then we do have some.

We do have some in-school field trips, so like, the Marine Science Institute has also sent like little aquarium field trips that have come here to school.

We we are lucky enough to that same donor to sponsor the triad truck through the Bay Discovery Museum, and it's grades K through five.

It's here at school.

It's basically, it's like they, they recreated this taco truck.

And it's a mobile stem lab.

So it's just, it's a makerspace and they the children tinker and they love it.

And so, that's kind of what we're, that field trip's coming up October the 17th.

It's a Friday.

But little did the children know is that we're having a student appreciation day that that day is well to kind of welcome us to the fall.

And when, whenever we have a special surprise, it's Mr. Softy.

So it's the children.

Oh yeah, officer.

And the reason why we chose Mr. Softy is that in terms of dietary needs they're able to accommodate us and so.

'cause we were trying to do the Hawaiian shaved dice, but then red dye number 40 and all this, that and the other.

It's like, oh no, we're just gonna keep it simple with Mr.

Softie.

But like, again, it's this sense of joy, wonder, and curiosity.

Like we, we have our second annual hoedown coming up next Friday.

We're gonna be in the Fog Festival parade.

Our annual Halloween Fall Fest is coming up October.

I mean, there's just a lot, there's a lot of things that we try to do to really.

Keep the community that we have.

And like, again I basically, you know, being in the Department of Catholic Schools I heard wonderful stories about what schools were doing to kind of create community.

But like, you know, and I also, you know, being in the Department of Catholic Schools, I also learned things that didn't also work out.

So try to stay away from things that that would create, that wouldn't get really good return.

But also like just I. In my role and just in the programs and the people that I've worked with, I just kind of saw things that worked that I remembered as a child.

And then just kind of have replicated it.

So one thing that we do here at Good Shepherd, and again, it's not anything that different than anybody else does, is that I write we do, we, I,
every student gets a postcard every summer and it just like, and it's addressed directly to the student and it just welcomes them to the new year.

And that's what we're really trying to harness here at Good Shepherd, is that we are one shepherd, one flock, whether it's in the classroom or it's on the basketball court or whichever.

So it's just we're doing this.

I mean, and I want.

I want the students to miss and love school so much.

It hurts.

And they do.

So in the summertime, you know, kids were coming over and like, what are you doing here?

They're like, well, we just missed it.

And I'm like, oh, hi.

I mean, it's just, it's things like that.

I mean, and then, and the parent community's been amazing.

We raised.

We raised a lot of money to replace the student playground structure.

It was a $77,000 investment.

There, I mean, I, and I think that's the, I think that's the key is that we really include, so we tried to include all stakeholders on these massive projects.

And again, I, you know, we talk real talk too.

Like, hey, things are gonna cost money and hey, you know, living it, living in the Bay Area is expensive, and we wanna try our hardest to pay our teachers a living wage to, to work and live here.

And then also, I mean, what we're so blessed about here at Good Shepherd too is that.

All of the teachers send their children to the school.

So I think that's a testament to what we kind of have here, because that's not the norm and that's not the usual.

And then we work, I work really hard with the faculty and staff to make sure that like your kids come here, but like also know that if anything were to come up, I'm gonna, I'm gonna work with whatever

happens.

' cause

you know, preferential treatment, this, that and the other, or they're gonna get made fun of this, that, and it.

And there isn't, we don't have that kind of environment here.

At least I don't think that we do.

And I haven't heard that.

We do.

And and again, I just, we want.

Everyone here to thrive and I am not the type of person to just accept a student just for the finances.

We I mean, we.

We our program is not necessarily for everyone.

But we work with every, I mean, like we're, and that's another thing now that we have larger enrollment, we have a resource person on staff that does it's a reading resource and then we have a math resource person on staff.

We we did a big investment to bring algebra back into the eighth grade curriculum.

So all of the eighth graders will take algebra one.

So going into high school they'll have that first year of algebra and hopefully they'll be able to take Algebra two in that first year of high school or go right into geometry.

But those are some inve and that was an expensive investment, but it was an investment that was important because.

Through our high school partners.

We and that's what I love, that's what I love with our Catholic High school partners, is that they invite the principals and the staff over for coffee and talking.

You know, they talk about what is, what do we need to do to prepare our students so that they can thrive successfully at your school?

Sarah High School did this wonderful thing where we just had this back and forth as to like, you know, what should we do?

What should the students be doing?

And that's how we knew.

And also, I mean, the parents.

The parents did ask for it at Good Shepherd, but that's how we knew to switch into that algebra model and that's very cool.

So far it's been successful.

Sacred Heart Cathedral invites over sacred Heart Prep.

Atherton just invited.

You know, all the high schools are starting to really Mercy Burlington always invites like we, our students participate in the middle school Science fair.

San Mateo County does this wonderful county science fair, but our students.

Particularly our female students are more excited about the Mercy Berlin game their science firm.

And it's just like, it's things like that.

They're doing an art, an art contest.

And so our art teacher is working to try to get the, those entries ready so that they can, submit it for the fall so that they, it can show up in, in January like that.

But that's the thing here.

It's like, good shepherd.

There's always something going on.

Like we're, it's very busy.

It's very busy.

Thomas Boles: Well, it's good to hear that the high schools are getting involved.

'cause I think that's one of those things where you know, it's one thing just to invite the kids over.

Like, Hey, come check out how awesome we are.

If you're actually building a partnership and talking, having real discussions about what's gonna be successful, that means the high schools are investing in their elementary schools.

And so that is a great thing, especially when we're starting to see what happened to the high schools, you know, 30 years ago is now potentially happening to the elementary schools.

And so if there's going to be some schools that survive, it's going to be the ones that are working together ideally and building something cool.

I think.

I think you've highlighted a couple things that are really interesting.

One the connection into the community you know, whether you're expanding the audience and just, you know, putting good Shepherd students in the community, but also reaching out a lot of these things.

You know, it sounds like Good Shepherd just writes checks for things, but that's not true.

It's actually using all of the connections.

Yeah.

The parents have that the community has the alumni that you've had from previous lives.

That you can then create an experience that is amazing for the students, but not necessarily 100% coming out of those dollars.

And so, you know, you can save here and there and you can still have a great experience.

I think that's something that's missed.

There's a lot of opportunity with within your own community to build cool things to make relationships happen, to make events happen, and of course, kill you.

Gustavo Torres: We like.

So, something that we, so the athletics program is run directly by the school.

It's not run by the parish.

So something that we always do is we always highlight our eighth graders as they go on to high school.

So there's a lovely ceremony that at one of the last, at the last home game per season.

So this past this past May, our athletic director, Mrs.

AKA.

Partnered with the Valkyries.

So our senior night was at a Valkyrie game.

They did the whole tunnel thing.

They met the team, and then they all got us really affordable tickets.

So they, we had like a group of over a hundred of us from Good Shepherd, and it was a fun Valkyrie night.

Oh.

And they won and it was like one of their first games.

And it was just, it was wonderful because it was also women empowerment as well.

Like, it the students.

I mean, I still hear them talk about it and they're like, well, when is our next one gonna happen?

I'm like, oh my gosh.

I don't know.

Now that they made the playoffs and they're doing well, I'm sure that things are gonna be more costly.

Yeah.

But like, but exactly that's the exact point.

Like the children's choir.

Father Swan expressed, he is like, you know, it'd be great that the kids sing.

So two parents every Wednesday started, Kimberly Kroll started up started and Les when they de Desa, they started meeting every Wednesday and the choir was there.

And then the priest retirement luncheon for the last two years that, you know.

A donor paid for a bus, they all went and they sang and they, you know, you'd think they were at Carnegie Hall or something, like the kid and the kids still talk about it like they love it.

Yeah.

And Father Swan was all excited 'cause they, you know, they were there.

It's they again, it's these experiences and it's experiential.

I mean, mind you.

Academics are going on and they're very strong here, but I'm all, I mean, you work hard and you play hard, and I very much believe in that model.

And I, and it's just that amount of exposure and if you continuously hit that exposure so that by the time you go into high school, you kind of know what you
like and what you don't like, and then when you go to college, you will hopefully have a focus so that you can eventually do what you're passionate about.

I think that's the overall theme of what we're trying to do.

And like, and again, I love it.

I love hearing back from the alums.

This past Sunday we had our family mass and it was packed.

We ran outta communion which was the second time it's ever happened at school.

So fa father was excited, but we had all these alums that were there.

And they were just so happy to be back.

And so like, you know, Father's talking about, like starting a youth group, and I'm like, okay, well, we'll figure that part out next.

I mean, so like, baby steps, but like the community's here and they just want to be fed.

And so it's just making sure that we have enough food to feed everyone.

Thomas Boles: Yeah.

That's important.

That's important.

You gotta listen.

I mean, it's, you know, and oftentimes with administrative.

Administrators you get kind of stuck between you know, what families want and what you're able to provide and what makes sense for the parish and all these different factors.

But when you can get together and you can get on the same page, yeah, it's amazing what can be done.

And it seems like.

That vision is happening, like it's, the families are enjoying, it seems like the faculty is happy to be there.

You know, the parish is happy that you're there and not just looking to get rid of you to, you know, fell off the line.

Exactly.

Yeah.

You know, so it's it seems like it's all kind of working in the right direction.

And that theme remind me, it's joy, curiosity and

Gustavo Torres: joy, wonder and curiosity.

So joy, wonder, and

Thomas Boles: curiosity.

Gustavo Torres: Just that's just, that's what it is.

And like for example, I mean, post COVID.

We start, so a tradition here for like the last 15 or 16 years is the eighth grade class does goes to the East coast.

So they fly into Boston, Salem, New York, spend the day in Philadelphia, and then the rest of the week in Washington DC that's a trip that they do.

It's a longer trip.

So it's a full seven days where it's not five.

Where a lot of the, a lot of our neighboring Catholic schools here on the peninsula, they just go to DC.

They, it's like they, theirs is very much closeup.

This is like living history.

They see a Broadway show.

The company that works, we work with a company called Explor World Stripes.

It's like a $3,000 trip.

So we were trying to figure out different ways and like, okay how are we gonna make this more affordable?

We eliminated our whole Friday lunch option and the eighth grade families, they have to, no.

So it's sponsored.

It's hosted by them.

Wow.

Pizza Fridays last year alone, pizza Fridays brought in $30,000.

So that was able to accommodate all of those students.

So I mean, it didn't pay for their whole trip, but it subsidized a big part of their trip.

Yeah.

So I mean, little things like that.

And I love that the parents are willing to partner with us in doing things.

I mean, I mean, like, 'cause like $30,000 for lunch would be amazing.

Yeah.

If the school did it alone, but like, and it's for the kids, it's again, and at the end of the day whenever we get a grant or whenever we, we run into you know, an amount of money it goes right back into the programming.

Fa fathers subsidies that have come, from the parish have gone right back into the programming for the students so that again, so we can afford enrichment, so that we can afford to get, you know, 25 new Chromebooks because we have so many more students.

But so like, you know,

Thomas Boles: that's great.

That's great.

Okay.

So with this.

All the things that we've heard today.

Let's imagine somebody out here that's listening is, you know, a new principal or in a different situation and looking to step in this path.

Like, I like what I'm hearing.

I wanna build more get our tentacles out into the community and build more of a culture.

Outside of what's already there, what might be some of those baby steps?

First first thing that somebody might be able to do,

Gustavo Torres: I think it'd be the, I, one of the reasons why it really works here at Good Shepherd is that the strong, so the pastor and the principal, we are lockstep.

It's a very strong relationship.

And again, you know, father doesn't always agree with what we do and I don't know, you know, I mean, not that he doesn't agree we're just.

We get it.

And it's just being and allowing yourself to be vulnerable and just saying, you know, father, this is, these are the priorities of the school and this is what we need.

How can we partner with you to assist you in your vision of what you have for the parish?

Because at the end of the day, we are the biggest we are the biggest apostle to the parish.

So, how do we harness.

In, in, in making sure that the parish is alive and well being very much interwoven within that.

And then also, again, secondarily with the faculty I don't think that I'm a dictator.

I have an open door policy.

I meet with all of the faculty members, but I asked them like, so we have like a whole wishlist, like, what do we envision?

What do we want?

Or, you know, what is.

A field trip that you want to do?

What is something that you think we could do?

What is a spirit day that we could focus on or something like that?

Well, I really work with father no, father, not as much as the faculty.

On, on, on what are some things of fun that we can do, because I mean, father loves fun, but like you it's a little bit of a different context when you have mass and what you're doing with that.

I mean, FA father does a wonderful, successful, september Fest that he, you know, he does all the dancing and he father loves to have First Friday karaoke as well as First Friday adoration.

But like, that's something that, that he's harnessed with the community.

He's, he worked with our eighth grade, our grad eighth grade, graduating parents this past year.

They did a whole mission trip to the Philippines.

They went to Sabu and the whole, and they got the whole school involved.

They asked for toiletries.

They asked for clothing.

They, I mean, and it was this whole big thing where the school came together.

Father has this partner with the missionaries of Charity, so during Lent and Advent.

After mass.

So one class will stay in and do the rosary or adoration.

And then the other class will go into the gym and prepare lunches.

So, you know, they prepare sandwiches, bags of chips fruit and a drink.

They put it in a bag, and then the missionaries of charity take it out to the tenderloin.

Or out to their their food service in in the Mission district in San Francisco.

So it's a way to like kind of, of course, incorporate service, but like also make it fun.

Make the children think that it's beyond themselves.

And I, again, it just figure out a way to really empower the faculty to like, what do we want to do?

Or what should we do as a group?

And like everybody has their input.

It is hard because.

You kind of can't do everything that you want to do, but like, of course there's very low hanging fruit that you could really take advantage of.

And especially because people have connections.

It's like, well, I know somebody here and I know somebody that like Grocery Outlet, bargain Market here in Pacifica is a wonderful sponsor.

Former family here at now at Sacred Heart Cathedral.

The chews they do great work with us and they sponsor everything.

And so it's just things like that.

I know that it's hard because a lot, I mean, a lot of principals, you go into the role and Catholic elementary principals in particular, it literally is you.

I mean, you have a support staff and the team, but like in the high school, you have a president, you have a principal, you have an assistant dean, you have an assistant principal, and then there, there's just several departments in several offices.

Whereas as in the elementary school, it really is you.

So I, I think that I am successful in what I do because I have a group of friends that are also principals and we bounce ideas back, all back and forth, and we hang out a lot.

And that's how we kind of, that's how, that's another form of collaboration that I have and that, you know, hey, this worked well, really here.

This didn't work well here.

And so it's just always talking and debrief.

I mean, you know, we debrief and have some fun and it's just like, I think.

I never thought that I would be an elementary school principal.

I always loved school.

Yeah.

But but it, you know, it's been fun.

I, the day it never, it doesn't really feel like a job.

I, you know, I'm just basically like a big kid with Yeah.

Thomas Boles: Well, we can hear, we can see the the value of being on the same page.

It sounds like your whole community is on the same page.

And you guys are working towards something bigger and beautiful, so I appreciate you sharing part of that story with us.

Yeah.

And I'm hoping that folks will reach out to you if they wanted to get ahold of you.

The school's website is

Gustavo Torres: Good, shepherd School.

Us and Shepherd is S-H-E-P-H-E-R-D.

Thomas Boles: Right.

One of the longest, one of the longest school websites that we work with.

My word.

Yes.

Gustavo Torres: And it was, and it was it was redesigned by Ian Academy and it'll go and it'll go through a redesign by Ian Academy quite soon.

Thomas Boles: Those folks are good.

Those

Gustavo Torres: folks are great.

No, I mean, I love it.

I love our partnership and I think.

I think it's great.

I love for the most part, like, I think that, I think like we've been able to really get everything done.

There's like two things that I wanna do for that, Jim, that I know that you guys gave us a good quote and I just gotta find that donor to get that presentation screen.

And those updated that updated audio visual and I think that's gonna really pop in there.

But yeah.

Thomas Boles: Well, great.

Well, when that time comes, we'll be ready.

Gustavo Torres: Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah.

Thomas Boles: Well, thank you guava.

I appreciate your time today.

I know we've we've gone a little bit overboard, but I just feel like we've tapped into the well of what's going on at Good Shepherd, and hopefully folks
will listen to this and find some inspiration to, to do some things at their school but also just to you know, know that it's, the work is worth it.

You're eventually gonna get to the place where you want to be.

Gustavo Torres: Joy, wonder and curiosity.

Thomas Boles: Alright,

Gustavo Torres: thank you.

Thomas Boles: Thanks for joining us on In Search of Catholic School Excellence.

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