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

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

David Holquin and I attended our annual fall convening of the SFNO District’s Chief Administrators in Denver from September 22-24. As always, the group gathers to share best practices in Lasallian formation for our communities, school protocol, curriculum and learning, and more. The first session was particularly pragmatic and forward-thinking, as it focused on “Industry Voices on AI: Implications for Today and Tomorrow.” The panel discussion was moderated by Dr. Corinne Lengsfeld (the Senior Vice Provost for Research & Graduate Education at Denver University), and she deftly asked the panelists to consider various topics, ranging from: 

• the importance of understanding the current and future AI industrial landscape;  
• student “Readiness” and training for the jobs of the future; 
• ethics and responsibilities within the AI landscape.

The panelists uniformly agreed that our students, and the adults who educate them, should double down on developing the “human skills” that are critical for effective leadership across all industries. These skills include interpersonal acutities, empathy, the ability to work with other systems and people as well as across teams, strong problem-solving capabilities, metacognitive awareness as well as “knowing how to learn,” and self-direction. One systems engineer from Oracle communicated that as humans, “we live and breathe and have souls,” and the various things that nourish us as spiritual humans are those things that will ultimately make us “smarter than AI.” We share our takeaways here to underscore not only the value of DLS and CHS educations – in our mission-driven focus on the dignity of each person – but also the types of conversations school leaders have consistently to ensure we are agile and responsive to our students’ and families’ needs as learners, thinkers, and leaders.

October seems to be a particularly packed month for our Spartan students and adults alike, with so many academic and co-curricular activities happening. By the time we send this letter, we will have already announced our National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, Heath Salter, and our multiple NMSC Commended Students: Rocco Brinton, Matthew Dwinell, Chase Lewis, DC Mims, Kenz Mogannam, Jonah Ribando, Joshua Truman, George Tsagaris, and Lee Vaouli. We are currently cruising through our DLS/CHS Homecoming week, and we announced the Homecoming Court on Monday during lunch. In case you did not hear, our Spartan faculty and staff took home the Dodgeball win with a 3-0 sweep on Wednesday. The celebrations will continue throughout the week and weekend, which culminates with our Hall of Fame inductions.

Here are some important reminders, which we will also place in our “Week at a Glance”:

• Quarter 1 ends on this Friday, October 3;
• Please make sure to pay special attention to the schedules for the next two weeks as we have our senior, on-campus SAT on Monday, October 6; Winton Drive will be closed on 10/13, and both schools will have Professional Days (no students) on October 14; on October 15, we will have our Freshman retreat and mandatory PSAT testing for all sophomores and juniors (we give the seniors an additional day on this Wedsnesday to provide them with extended time for college visits).

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

Sincerely,

Dr. Heather Alumbaugh
Vice President for Academic Life