Patrick O’Sullivan, right, serves as president while Lisa Bosco is the principal at Christ the King Catholic School.
By David Sedeño
The Texas Catholic
Christ the King Catholic School is the latest in the Diocese of Dallas to implement a president-principal administrative model and the faces are familiar ones to the Park Cities area school.
Patrick O’Sullivan, the longtime principal is now the president, and Lisa Bosco, the veteran teacher and assistant principal, is now the principal. The administrators’ new roles were announced last fall and the two have spent the last year defining and refining goals and operations over the past year, including the latest renovation of the campus.
They are committed to adhering to the National Standards for Catholic Schools and how it divides responsibilities and accountability among top administrators:
• Mission and identity
• Governance and leadership
• Academic excellence
• Operational vitality
O’Sullivan’s mission is to ensure that the school is focused on ensuring that the community is living out the mission and infusing Catholic identity into everything. The two share the standard of governance and leadership to ensure a strong synergy among the school, church, and parents.
Academic excellence will be the responsibility of Bosco as the chief administrator to oversee the integration and implementation of programs that “safeguard” academic excellence. The two work together for operational vitality in the school’s financial and facilities planning, strategic planning, personnel management, admissions and advancement, and communications and marketing.
Earlier this year, the two traveled to the northeast on a presentation to a national organization and over the summer oversaw the renovation of several areas of the school to create a better environment for students and staff. That was in addition to last year’s renovation of the cafeteria and other areas.
“It is a really exciting time,” O’Sullivan said.
Over the summer, renovations included the repurposing of space to include a new reception area, an admissions area, two new full restrooms for faculty, a new teacher workroom, a multi-use conference room for teachers, counseling or parent-teacher meetings, plus a rework of administrative offices.
“It’s exciting that it happened in so many phases over the last several years, where we renovated the student restrooms and added new modular furniture in the classrooms, down to the colors of the accent walls in each classroom that really are specific to the needs of the age level,” Bosco said, “We brought in more natural light into the classrooms, LED lights, all reflective of the research that really has an impact on student learning.
“It’s been fun to do that in phases with this being something that is going to benefit the students and the families in many ways,” she said.
There also is new signage throughout the campus, plus added security enhancements for the protection of students, staff, and families, O’Sullivan said.
“If we can create a warm, positive environment in the classroom, then the students brains are going to be able to get what they were designed to do, which is to focus on learning,” O’Sullivan said. “With safety and security, we want people to know when they drop their kid off that they are safe and that when the kids come home they’re closer to God and they will have learned some academics.”
Not only are O’Sullivan and Bosco administrators at the school, they also are parents of students at the school.
“The strongest aspects of our school are the sense of catholic identity and sense of community. It is an intimate environment,” she said. “The faculty is here because they feel it is a choice to be a part of a catholic community where they want to meet the students’ needs. Everyone truly cares for one another and everyone does what is best for the students.”
O’Sullivan said that the entire community is important in the molding of an entire student for the future.
“When they finish, we know that they are ‘Crusaders Who Care’, who are in formation and are still able to take what they learn through their sacramental preparation, the traditions of the church and apply it to real-world situations,” he said.
Find more stories about Dallas Catholic schools as they begin the 2019-2020 school year in the Aug. 23 print edition of The Texas Catholic.
