April 2024 - Chris Garavaglia, VP for Finance

Dear De La Salle Community,

I hope you enjoyed a blessed Holy Week and a relaxing and joyful Easter break. It is hard to believe how quickly this school year has flown by! Just around the corner, we will have our Founder’s Liturgy, AP Exams, Teacher Appreciation Week, Student Recognition Assembly, final exam preparation, a multitude of co-curricular activities, and our Baccalaureate Mass and Graduation. What a year it has been so far, and I am so excited to be wrapping up my first full year at De La Salle after officially starting mid-year last year! I am honored and thrilled to be a part of this incredible community and feel blessed to call De La Salle my home.

My primary job is to ensure the financial stability and viability of De La Salle High School by safeguarding our resources so we can fulfill our mission. Our financial condition is strong; our upcoming 2024-25 budget is balanced, and we continue to ensure the Christian Brothers’ mission to be accessible is met. With an operating budget in the $27m range, we work diligently to provide over $4.5m in financial aid to over one-third of our student body while conscientiously continuing our ongoing commitment to support our most important resource, our incredible faculty, staff, and coaches. They are dedicated daily to forming Men of Faith, Integrity, and Scholarship. I am in awe of and humbled by the commitment, dedication, and care these men and women invest in our students to ensure they receive the instructional programming, co-curricular opportunities, and individualized care and support they need to succeed. What a testament to our Mission Statement – Love!

Our endowment continues to increase and remains a focus, given its critical role in supporting our mission. In addition, Annual Giving has doubled in the past three years thanks to the many donors who see the value of a De La Salle education. 

In short, we are positioned well for the future. As we continue to roll out the Strategic Plan and the next chapter of De La Salle begins, I only see promise and potential, and I say that as I “internally focus” on the financial security of our future. There is hard work ahead, but there is joy, there is love, there is dedication, and there is a joyful commitment from this incredible community we are a part of.

Live Jesus in our Hearts. Forever,

Chris Garavaglia
Vice President for Finance