March 2025 - Dr. Heather Alumbaugh, VP for Academic Life

Dear Parents, Guardians, Students, and Friends of De La Salle,

Mr. Holquin and I meet about once a month via Zoom with the SFNO District Leaders and the chief administrators from our partner Lasallian district schools. It was both spiritually nourishing and timely on the eve of the Lenten season to spend this previous Monday’s meeting focusing on faith formation as Lasallian leaders. Yesterday, as you know, we held our Ash Wednesday Liturgy. It was also the day we launched as a community our annual Spartan Charity Challenge as a community. This year, we challenge our students to donate over the Lenten period to organizations that are crucial to bringing fruition to the Lasallian Catholic mission: the DLS Brotherhood Fund; the Monument Crisis Center; the De La Salle Blackfeet School in Montana (host of our most recent VENAVER); and Lasallian Study Centers in Africa. Parents of Juniors are already aware that this year the “FSC: Faith, Service, Community” immersion is at Monument Crisis Center, which is more radically local and offers students the opportunity to perform service with their immediate community. 

This week, the Bring Change to Mind Club, school counselors, and both leadership classes hosted Wellness Week, which culminates on Friday with our annual Laps for Life event. Laps for Life is a positive, community event held every year at De La Salle to increase awareness around teen mental health. It is typically hosted on a Saturday morning, but this year it will be held during the school week with the hope that more students can participate and learn about this very important cause. 

All parents recently received this communication from Mr. Spencer Shively that provides an overview of next week’s CHS/DLS Student Assembly and Parent Education Night. Specifically, on Tuesday, March 11 (B-Day Mass/Assembly Schedule), we will have joint assemblies with Carondelet titled Connecting the Real + Digital You that will take place in multiple locations. All assemblies will cover similar topics such as managing toxic group chats, spotting and dealing with AI Deep Fakes, sextortion, and the permanence and potentially harmful consequences of digital communication. Kim Karr from Digital4Good and #ICANHELP will be leading the presentation to DLS and CHS Juniors and Seniors in the Hofmann Center as well as the Parent Education Night. De La Salle and Carondelet Freshmen will gather in the Garaventa Center and Sophomores (both CHS and DLS) will be in the Carondelet Gym. 

Here are some additional and important reminders:

• Quarter 3 ends on Friday, March 7. How did that happen so fast?
• Course registration: Every student has already met with his counselor to fill out course requests for next year and secured appropriate teacher signatures for AP and Honors level work. As always, we encourage students and families to consider interest, reach, and balance during course selection. Our Academic Life team builds courses per student requests, and we actively work to appropriately place students at all levels. Schedules will be sent out by mid-June.
• Many AP Biology students will compete in the Contra Costa Science & Engineering Fair next week. Good luck Spartans!
• The National Honor Society is teaming up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to host a poker fundraiser for fellow students on Thursday, March 13; all proceeds are donated to Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Area. All De La Salle students are eligible to participate. There are jotforms to sign up all over campus. 
• Spring Break: Just a quick reminder that Winton Drive decided to split Spring Break (March 24-28) from Easter Break (April 17-21), given the liturgical calendar is so late this year. 

With the beginning of Lent, winter playoffs and spring sports are in full swing, the band is performing in multiple competitions, Company is working furiously on the spring musical, it’s Wellness Week, the end of Quarter 3 (and the list literally goes on and on). Our students are actively engaging in all aspects of community life in a Lasallian Catholic school. We are so grateful to be in partnership with them and to witness their individual and communal leadership as men of faith, integrity, and scholarship.

Thank you, as always, for your partnership, and we wish you a blessed Lenten season.

Sincerely,

Dr. Heather Alumbaugh
Vice President for Academic Life