An updated version of Benson Polytechnic High School’s Five-year Plan will be available in early September 2015. The update lays out a number of important high-priority action items to improve Benson Tech over the next three school years. The update reflects the progress made since the Plan’s adoption
two years ago, as well as a reasoned assessment as to what is needed and/or is possible in near future.
Benson Tech is one of the few high schools in the country that
has developed a multi-year plan to guide its growth and improvement — implicitly setting priorities for the school and its supporters.
The idea of a Five-year Plan originated in Benson’s Site Council (a
school advisory group made up of Benson’s teachers and staff, parents, students and the alumni).
Significant action items for the 2015-16 school year include introducing AVID for sophomores (an academic support program), expanding the recently developed Tech Algebra-Enterprise and GeoTech classes, laying the foundation for a computer engineering/science major, opening a new health and
wellness center, strengthening parent-school connections, starting an Entrepreneur Club, establishing a Benson Centennial planning committee, rebuilding Benson’s football program and contributing to PPS’s master planning effort to rebuild Benson in the 2017-2020 period.
These and other action items take into account a continued gradual increase in Benson Tech’s enrollment to exceed 1,000 students by 2016-17.
The original Plan and its implementation
in the past two school years led to actions creating a Tech Algebra-Enterprise course, bringing back architecture, creating an architecture/design advisory committee, starting a Freshman Welcome Picnic, allocating resources to computer science and robotics, updating video and other materials provided to eighth graders interested in attending Benson Tech and increasing
the school’s enrollment.