October 2024 - Dr. Heather Alumbaugh, VP for Academic Life

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

It is hard to believe that Friday, October 4, will mark the end of Quarter 1, even if the weather certainly does not want to let go of summer. As we transition to the second quarter, the thriving school life both on and beyond Winton Drive continues. Kairos #153 began yesterday; we simply could not hold this culminating spiritual experience for our seniors without our student leaders. Our varsity football team flies to London tonight to play the NFL Academy at the Tottenham Hotspurs Stadium on Tuesday, October 8. This upcoming Monday, October 7, we will be offering an at-school SAT for seniors. Our Professional Day on Tuesday, October 15, will witness the faculty and staff continuing to work on our DLS & CHS Shared Community Commitments, Lasallian formation, and various Professional Learning Communities. In addition, a group of faculty and staff will visit Riordan in San Francisco to evaluate how its House System operates. As a reminder, on Wednesday, October 16, all freshmen will be attending their retreat on campus, and all sophomores and juniors will be taking the PSAT on campus. Our school counselors will be in all of our Biology and Chemistry classes next week to make sure every student has downloaded the software necessary for them to take the PSAT. Please check in with your son and make sure his computer is ready to go (and charged)!

As always, there are a number of things to celebrate in our students’ and faculty’s academic journeys. We announced on September 27 our four National Merit Scholarship (NMSC) Commended Students. Please join me in congratulating Martin Gomez de la Vega, Hudson Hilal, Joshua Huang, and Marcus Kauffman. 

Additionally, the school is currently implementing Phase 2 of our Curriculum Innovation Plan, which would not have found such successful fruition if it were not for our high-quality, Lasallian educators who care deeply about not only what students learn, but also how they learn and what they can create as servant leaders. Linked here is a visual of Phase 2. In Phase 1 of the plan (2023-2024), all freshmen and sophomores registered across all seven periods, and we increased additional sections of some classes (such as Sports Medicine, Fundamentals of Art, and Leadership) as well as added new courses on both sides of Winton Drive (namely, AP European History, AP Human Geography, Study Halls, and targeted Study Skills). This year has likewise been a flurry of academic activity. Our new Freshmen STEM course – a year-long, integrated science course that is linked to NASA’s JPL Mission to Mars education program – is in full swing, and students have already designed their own experiments and pitched a group-designed space project to win a billion-dollar check from their teachers, Ms. Davisson and Mrs. Thomas. See a picture I took of the winners of Period 5 below! Additionally, we have implemented our Technical Arts Program (housed in the Visual and Performing Arts department) that links visual arts, architecture, engineering, robotics, and computer science. 

Our OnBoard! Professional Learning Community is working furiously to lay the groundwork for the building of the first DLS House System. Finally, our students will be participating in international travel to Japan in the spring for an educational tour that focuses on “Robotics, Engineering, and the Future of Cities in Japan.” As always, we continue to evaluate with CHS the creation of sophomore, junior, and senior selectives, which led this year to Mr. Trinidad’s class on “Spirituality and the Arts” and last year to Ms. Stevenson’s and Mrs. Talmadge’s interdisciplinary course“She Said.”

Before I sign off, I wanted to share with you a highly recommended read for all parents of adolescents, Dr. Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation. Mr. David Holquin and I, with the other chief administrators of our SFNO Lasallian District, attended a webinar and facilitated a discussion regarding Haidt’s findings. As “Two Schools, One Community,” we continue with our partners at CHS to actively evaluate the interface between technology – in particular smartphones and social media – and the learning/social-emotional needs of the young people entrusted to our care.

As always, thank you for your partnership and for sharing your children with us.

Sincerely,

Dr. Heather Alumbaugh
Vice President for Academic Life