Feature
Kenneth Boller, SJ
Fordham Prep is in Fr. Ken Boller’s blood – his father was a
1936 Prep graduate, and his uncle and godfather was a
1934 Prep graduate. Fr. Boller had formerly served as a
math teacher, Dean of Co-Curriculars, Headmaster and
President at rival Xavier High School, as well as Principal at
Canisus High School in Buffalo. At the time the president’s
position opened at Fordham Prep, he was the pastor of St.
Aloysius in Harlem. “I had been at St. Aloysius since I left
Xavier in 1997. When the Provincial asked me to apply for
the President’s position at Fordham Prep, my previous
experience as a president was a major factor as to why I
was asked and considered.”
Fr. Boller assumed the reins of President at the Prep on
September 1, 2004. “When I came in, Joe Parkes had
stabilized finances and enrollment was strong, but we
needed to continue the work he had started.”
One of the first areas Fr. Boller addressed was plant
maintenance. “Our plant maintenance had been deferred
over the years, so I conferred with Jim Pollard, the Director
of Physical Plant, as to what were some of the immediate
and long-term plant needs. One of the more immediate
needs was boiler replacement, so we made that a priority,
as well as establishing a plant fund to address future
needs. The school ended up replacing three oil-fired
boilers with two dual-fuel boilers, which netted the school
tens of thousands of dollars in energy savings.
Another area of improvement was professional
development for faculty members. “In order to better
support teachers, we needed to increase the budget for
professional development. The principal, Bob Gomprecht
’65, had some strong professional development ideas that
we implemented, one of which was adding the position of
Assistant Principal for Professional Development &
Supervision to support non-tenured faculty members
through their first years at Fordham Prep. Dennis Ahern
’63 moved into that role and it was a tremendous help for
new faculty members.”
Fr. Boller remembers that the Prep went through a Middle
States Evaluation in 2004 and 2005, which gave the school
an agenda of recommendations for the following five
years: Ignatian identity, technology literacy, financial
planning and general planning that included strategic
planning, faculty supervision, and development planning
and student assessment planning. The recommendations
served as the framework for Fordham Prep 2021 – a
strategic plan approved by the Prep’s Board of Trustees in
2006. “The plan deliberately chose to look out beyond five
years. The greater challenge was to consider the needs of
students ten to fifteen years out.”
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One of the biggest challenges for the Prep to meet the
needs of its students was to enhance its facilities
(particularly in science and art), add a fitness center for
athletics, and increase the budget for technology
upgrades.
“When I started as president, we only had three science
labs which had not been updated since the building
opened in 1972. If we were going to be serious about
updating facilities and upholding academic excellence,
then we needed to have multiple labs for biology,
chemistry and physics.”
In order to complete the goals set out in the strategic plan,
Fr. Boller initiated a capital campaign in the summer of
2006, which aimed to raise $23 million over five years -
$12 million for endowment and physical plant
improvements and $11 million to supplement the annual
operating budget through annual giving. Within the first
year of the campaign, Fordham Prep raised $7.35 million
in capital gifts and pledges and over $1.98 million for the
Annual Fund. By the end of year two, over $9.8 million was
raised in gifts and pledges toward the endowment and the
physical plant, and over $4.1 million was raised in annual
giving. This was enough to start construction in Spring
2008 of what is now the Boller Science Center on the
school’s fourth floor. “Not only did the fourth floor add
20% more space to the school building, it actually made
the building more energy efficient since it required us to
update our heating and cooling systems,” quipped Fr. Boller.
Just as things seemed to be going well for Fordham Prep
and the campaign, however, the economic meltdown of
2008-2009 struck. The economic collapse forced Fordham
Prep to put tuition increases toward the school’s