Alumni and friends of La Salle: I have been blessed to meet many hundreds of you this

La Salle Academy
year. You are the heart and soul of La Salle, and always have been. Conducted by the Brothers of the Christian Schools

REAL alumni relations has been a key priority for me over this first year. Our annual
Staten Island Yankees Game last July was standing room only, and we are doing this event again
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
this summer! Our First Annual Alumni Day this past November at the old school was a wild
success with over 250 alumni and their families attending. We had more than 100 alumni show up
June 2015
at our Alumni Basketball Night in January when we honored Coach Buckley and Coach Aberer
with the announcement of a new scholarship in their name. We had over 50 alumni at an open
Dear Lasallian Family,
reception on St. Patrick’s Day, and we capped off a great year with a capacity crowd at our
Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner in May. We decided to “take the show on the road” this year and
The school President walks the 15-minute hike up to the top of Arlington Cemetery with her
visit alumni around the country, as we hosted receptions for Brothers’ Boys in South Florida, in
Senior Class at La Salle. The boys were unusually quiet, still lost in the splendor of witnessing the
Southern California, and in Denver. Next year, we are going to repeat these trips, but add a few
Changing of the Guard just moments ago at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They were on their
more – including a reception in the Baltimore / DC area. If you would like to help host or drive a
Senior Class Trip to Washington D.C., and this was a long walk to the top to see the Eternal Flame at
La Salle Alumni event, please reach out. We would be happy to come in to see you! With more
the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy. It was April, and it was cherry blossom time, and she had
alumni events this year than EVER in years’ past, we are proud to say our priorities are back in
been their President just under a year. While she walked, she thought – this is not getting easier, but
place, and YOU are it. Thank you for your support every step of the way.
harder. She was thinking about the walk up the hill, but also about this job she took to be President of
this historical school. It was getting really hard. The thought creeped up, “Can I do this?”
But the need is still great. The Brothers’ Boys will continue to depend on your steadfast
support to move our beloved school forward.
Just then, a small, quiet boy sidled up to her, snapping her out of her thinking. He leaned in a
bit and whispered, “Dr. Guerriero, I dreamed about this.” She said, whispering back, “You dreamed
My Grandmother, little Catherine Ritaleato, my namesake was a tough Italian lady who
about what?”
grew up a few blocks from La Salle on James Street back in the 1920s. She was a mother of six
and a short-order cook at Shraffts. She loved me dearly and wanted me to be a Rockette … a
He said, “This – all of it. This trip. La Salle Academy. This was in my dreams.”
Rockette, she said, because I had “a good high kick and a great presence.” Well, Gran – now I
She caught her breath. It’s not about you, silly girl, she thought. It’s about them. You’re in
dance for La Salle, and I love to kick up the dust for the greatest school in New York City!
the dream-making business. As the character so famously said in Moonstruck, she thought, “Snap out
of it.”
Let’s all reach high and kick higher for La Salle Academy. I am not going away, and I ask
you to continue the journey with me.
I pen you this letter upon the completion of exactly one year since I walked through the bright
red doors at La Salle Academy as its first female President. It has been quite a year. I have written to
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.
you twice before – once with my vision for the year in September, another with our “State of the
School” in January, and now, and with a “Year-End Address.” I will continue to write to you three
Warmest personal regards,
times a year. This letter will outline our progress this year, where we are and where we still need to
go. And as you know, I really need your help to finish out the year with a bang. At the end of this
letter, I will be asking for your help on something. But for now, let’s talk.
Dr. Catherine Guerriero, President
Financial Stability: After many years of difficult financial times, La Salle is beginning to peak its
P.S. There is a lot happening on our new website—check us out at www.lasalleacademy.org. To
head out of the depths of hard times. This year, many of you had a role in helping us raise more
get updates on La Salle regularly, send your email address to zsonberg@lasalleacademy.org.
money in one year than ever before. By July 1st, we are on a pace to raise $1.8 million, which is twice
what we generated last year. This money will have been raised with a one-time shot in the arm from
my Presidential Installation in November, when we collected more than $700,000 in pledges. Those
Installation dollars have specifically gone to back-fill years of academic,

(over, please)
4 1

44 East Second Street • New York, NY 10003-9269 • (212) 475-8940 • FAX (212) 529-3598
programmatic and deferred maintenance needs. You will see the fruits of this fundraising
peppered throughout this letter in programs and activities. We continue to go strong with our
fundraising efforts. In fact, our Spring Gala and Scholarship Dinner brought in more than double
the amount that was generated from this annual event the previous year. We also began the
righteous process of chipping down the debt incurred over the last several years as we struggled to
stay afloat.
The additional monies still being raised right now, in real time, are needed to feed the
increasing financial needs of our growing student population. Simply put, most schools equate
bigger student numbers with increased financial stability. For La Salle and our singular mission, as
the numbers of students grow, so grows exponentially their need for financial aid, and not our
bottom line. The overall outlook is clearly a good one. Last year, we had the biggest freshman
class in years, and this coming September, we are on a pace to top that number. We are over-
capacity at our present home on 6th Street, and increasingly so. La Salle begins to turn its eyes
back toward our home at 2nd Street. With space at a premium, and nine years left on our leases, we
begin to ask the earnest question: Are we coming back home? And what is the plan to do so?
The Coed Conversation: As you all know, our Trustees voted in November in agreement of a
Coeducational school. However, there is no definitive timetable on this yet. We do not have the
space for the boys we do have – and for the many that we turn away. This conversation continues
to be a live one, and we will keep you abreast of the progress as it happens. Our strategic planning
process begun this spring has started to answer these questions.
Academic Rigor: In September, I established a set of promises that La Salle has begun to keep.
Our Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum has been stimulated. We
have expanded our hydroponics growing labs and computer labs. This spring, we started our
rooftop sustainability garden, where we will grow vegetables and plants as part of our science
curriculum. Our partnership with Cooper Union continues to put polish on our flourishing STEM
program with our students in seats at its prestigious Summer Art and Engineering Institutes, plans
for a “Maker Space” (inventor track initiative) at La Salle in September, and so much more.
We will be bringing back some much-needed project-based learning next year, with plans
in September for both a school-wide Science Fair and a History Fair.
Beginning this summer, La Salle will add an aggressive Distance Learning Component to
its curriculum, in which students can take online coursework to supplement the classes we have on
campus. Whether it be remedial coursework, or a bountiful menu of specialty courses, our
academic offerings have just multiplied. And it is good.
Technology in the curriculum has exploded at La Salle. In addition to Smartboards in
every classroom this past fall, our “La Salle Tablet Project” is a go for Fall 2015. Every freshman
will receive a Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet that will be embedded in the curriculum. Inside of
2 3
four years, every single student will have a tablet as part of their academic experience at La Salle.
Specialty Programming: For the first time in a long time, La Salle will have an Office of
Campus Ministry, which will accompany students and faculty in their spiritual journey. Beginning
in September 2015, this program will provide opportunities for prayer, retreats and a much-
expanded menu of required service opportunities.
Our “LaSalleWorks” internship program continues to fulfill its objective that every upper
classman at La Salle will have the opportunity to experience the “world of work.” We have dozens
of students in internships and apprenticeships around NYC and we are beginning to see very
positive results from these partnerships for the boys and the reputation of La Salle.
Our much vaunted “LaSalle in the City” program has taken off, and it’s quite exciting
(happens to be a personal favorite of mine!). Built on an action-based model of learning, our
faculty truly took the show on the road this year. Our juniors spent the weekend in Salem,
Massachusetts, after reading the Crucible. Our French Club spent a week in New Orleans. Our
seniors just returned from D.C., where they visited eight national memorials, seven museums, the
Capitol and White House—they had the time of their lives! Our math classes visited the
Metropolitan Opera and had a private tour of Yankee Stadium. Our sophomores visited the floor
of the New York Stock Exchange, and our juniors visited the NBA Headquarters. Our freshmen
history classes toured the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We marched our entire student
body up 5th Avenue in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, as well as the African American Day Parade
in Harlem. And so much more.
Our afterschool programs – a very key part of the growth at La Salle – have expanded
significantly. We added an afterschool mentoring program (Mentoring USA), a Mock Trial team,
and increased the number of language clubs. We are going to begin to compete in debate this
coming September and pick up where we left off as perennial champions in this field.
Our athletic prowess is back in full swing! Our basketball program – Varsity, Junior
Varsity and Freshman Teams – all made the playoffs after a long hiatus. Our Freshman Team lost
in the City Championships in a nail biter. Our Varsity Coach, Jerome Pannell, received CHSAA
Coach of the Year honors. We are back!!
Both our Varsity AND JV Baseball teams are having an incredible baseball season. Varsity
has locked into the division first place honors and second place in the overall CHSAA All League
rankings, and JV has clinched first place in the regular season standings. Both teams rank first in
their respective CHSAA A Division Intersectional Baseball standings, a feat the Cardinals have
been waiting close to 20 years to duplicate! Our Junior Varsity BOWLING team won back-to-
back City Championships, and we couldn’t be prouder. Our soccer team also made the playoffs
this year, and we are growing back our handball and track teams. The storied “School of
Champions” is making them stand and take notice yet again. And we like it!
(over, please)
programmatic and deferred maintenance needs. You will see the fruits of this fundraising
peppered throughout this letter in programs and activities. We continue to go strong with our
fundraising efforts. In fact, our Spring Gala and Scholarship Dinner brought in more than double
the amount that was generated from this annual event the previous year. We also began the
righteous process of chipping down the debt incurred over the last several years as we struggled to
stay afloat.
The additional monies still being raised right now, in real time, are needed to feed the
increasing financial needs of our growing student population. Simply put, most schools equate
bigger student numbers with increased financial stability. For La Salle and our singular mission, as
the numbers of students grow, so grows exponentially their need for financial aid, and not our
bottom line. The overall outlook is clearly a good one. Last year, we had the biggest freshman
class in years, and this coming September, we are on a pace to top that number. We are over-
capacity at our present home on 6th Street, and increasingly so. La Salle begins to turn its eyes
back toward our home at 2nd Street. With space at a premium, and nine years left on our leases, we
begin to ask the earnest question: Are we coming back home? And what is the plan to do so?
The Coed Conversation: As you all know, our Trustees voted in November in agreement of a
Coeducational school. However, there is no definitive timetable on this yet. We do not have the
space for the boys we do have – and for the many that we turn away. This conversation continues
to be a live one, and we will continue to keep you abreast of the progress as it happens. Our
strategic planning process begun this spring has started to answer these questions.
Academic Rigor: In September, I established a set of promises that La Salle has begun to keep.
Our Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum has been stimulated. We
have expanded our hydroponics growing labs and computer labs. This spring, we started our
rooftop sustainability garden, where we will grow vegetables and plants as part of our science
curriculum. Our partnership with Cooper Union continues to put polish on our flourishing STEM
program with our students in seats at its prestigious Summer Art and Engineering Institutes, plans
for a “Maker Space” (inventor track initiative) at La Salle in September, and so much more.
We will be bringing back some much-needed project-based learning next year, with plans
in September for both a school-wide Science Fair and a History Fair.
Beginning this summer, La Salle will add an aggressive Distance Learning Component to
its curriculum, in which students can take online coursework to supplement the classes we have on
campus. Whether it be remedial coursework, or a bountiful menu of specialty courses, our
academic offerings have just multiplied. And it is good.
Technology in the curriculum has exploded at La Salle. In addition to Smartboards in
every classroom this past fall, our “La Salle Tablet Project” is a go in fall 2015. Every freshman
will receive a Microsoft Surface Pro Tablet that will be embedded in the curriculum. Inside of
2 3
four years, every single student will have a tablet as part of their academic experience at La Salle.
Specialty Programming: For the first time in a long time, La Salle will have an Office of
Campus Ministry, which will accompany students and faculty in their spiritual journey. Beginning
in September 2015, this program will provide opportunities for prayer, retreats and a much-
expanded menu of required service opportunities.
Our “LaSalleWorks” internship program continues to fulfill its objective that every upper
classman at La Salle will have the opportunity to experience the “world of work.” We have dozens
of students in internships and apprenticeships around NYC and we are beginning to see very
positive results from these partnerships for the boys and the reputation of La Salle.
Our much vaunted “LaSalle in the City” program has taken off, and it’s quite exciting
(happens to be a personal favorite of mine!). Built on an action-based model of learning, our
faculty truly took the show on the road this year. Our juniors spent the weekend in Salem,
Massachusetts, after reading the Crucible. Our French Club spent a week in New Orleans. Our
seniors just returned from D.C., where they visited eight national memorials, seven museums, the
Capitol and White House—they had the time of their lives! Our math classes visited the
Metropolitan Opera and had a private tour of Yankee Stadium. Our sophomores visited the floor
of the New York Stock Exchange, and our juniors visited the NBA Headquarters. Our freshmen
history classes toured the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We marched our entire student
body up 5th Avenue in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, as well as the African American Day Parade
in Harlem. And so much more.
Our afterschool programs – a very key part of the growth at La Salle – have expanded
significantly. We added an afterschool mentoring program (Mentoring USA), a Mock Trial team,
and increased the number of language clubs. We are going to begin to compete in debate this
coming September and pick up where we left off as perennial champions in this field.
Our athletic prowess is back in full swing! Our basketball program – Varsity, Junior
Varsity and Freshman Teams – all made the playoffs after a long hiatus. Our Freshman Team lost
in the City Championships in a nail biter. Our Varsity Coach, Jerome Pannell, received CHSAA
Coach of the Year honors. We are back!!
Both our Varsity AND JV Baseball teams are having an incredible baseball season. Varsity
has locked into the division first place honors and second place in the overall CHSAA All League
rankings, and JV has clinched first place in the regular season standings. Both teams rank first in
their respective CHSAA A Division Intersectional Baseball standings, a feat the Cardinals have
been waiting close to 20 years to duplicate! Our Junior Varsity BOWLING team won back-to-
back City Championships, and we couldn’t be prouder. Our soccer team also made the playoffs
this year, and we are growing back our handball and track teams. The storied “School of
Champions” is making them stand and take notice yet again. And we like it!
(over, please)
 Alumni and friends of La Salle: I have been blessed to meet many hundreds of you this
La Salle Academy
year. You are the heart and soul of La Salle, and always have been. Conducted by the Brothers of the Christian Schools

REAL alumni relations has been a key priority for me over this first year. Our annual
Staten Island Yankees Game last July was standing room only, and we are doing this event again
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
this summer! Our First Annual Alumni Day this past November at the old school was a wild
success with over 250 alumni and their families attending. We had more than 100 alumni show up
June 2015
at our Alumni Basketball Night in January when we honored Coach Buckley and Coach Aberer
with the announcement of a new scholarship in their name. We had over 50 alumni at an open
Dear Lasallian Family,
reception on St. Patrick’s Day, and we capped off a great year with a capacity crowd at our
Athletic Hall of Fame Dinner in May. We decided to “take the show on the road” this year and
The school President walks the 15-minute hike up to the top of Arlington Cemetery with her
visit alumni around the country, as we hosted receptions for Brothers’ Boys in South Florida, in
Senior Class at La Salle. The boys were unusually quiet, still lost in the splendor of witnessing the
Southern California, and in Denver. Next year, we are going to repeat these trips, but add a few
Changing of the Guard just moments ago at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They were on their
more – including a reception in the Baltimore / DC area. If you would like to help host or drive a
Senior Class Trip to Washington D.C., and this was a long walk to the top to see the Eternal Flame at
La Salle Alumni event, please reach out. We would be happy to come in to see you! With more
the gravesite of President John F. Kennedy. It was April, and it was cherry blossom time, and she had
alumni events this year than EVER in years’ past, we are proud to say our priorities are back in
been their President just under a year. While she walked, she thought – this is not getting easier, but
place, and YOU are it. Thank you for your support every step of the way.
harder. She was thinking about the walk up the hill, but also about this job she took to be President of
this historical school. It was getting really hard. The thought creeped up, “Can I do this?”
But the need is still great. The Brothers’ Boys will continue to depend on your steadfast
support to move our beloved school forward.
Just then, a small, quiet boy sidled up to her, snapping her out of her thinking. He leaned in a
bit and whispered, “Dr. Guerriero, I dreamed about this.” She said, whispering back, “You dreamed
My Grandmother, little Catherine Ritaleato, my namesake was a tough Italian lady who
about what?”
grew up a few blocks from La Salle on James Street back in the 1920s. She was a mother of six
and a short-order cook at Shraffts. She loved me dearly and wanted me to be a Rockette … a
He said, “This – all of it. This trip. La Salle Academy. This was in my dreams.”
Rockette, she said, because I had “a good high kick and a great presence.” Well, Gran – now I
She caught her breath. It’s not about you, silly girl, she thought. It’s about them. You’re in
dance for La Salle, and I love to kick up the dust for the greatest school in New York City!
the dream-making business. As the character so famously said in Moonstruck, she thought, “Snap out
of it.”
Let’s all reach high and kick higher for La Salle Academy. I am not going away, and I ask
you to continue the journey with me.
I pen you this letter upon the completion of exactly one year since I walked through the bright
red doors at La Salle Academy as its first female President. It has been quite a year. I have written to
Live Jesus in our hearts forever.
you twice before – once with my vision for the year in September, another with our “State of the
School” in January, and now, and with a “Year-End Address.” I will continue to write to you three
Warmest personal regards,
times a year. This letter will outline our progress this year, where we are and where we still need to
go. And as you know, I really need your help to finish out the year with a bang. At the end of this
letter, I will be asking for your help on something. But for now, let’s talk.

Financial Stability: After many years of difficult financial times, La Salle is beginning to peak its
Dr. Catherine Guerriero, President
head out of the depths of hard times. This year, many of you had a role in helping us raise more
money in one year than ever before. By July 1st, we are on a pace to raise $1.8 million, which is twice
P.S. There is a lot happening on our new website—check us out at www.lasalleacademy.org. To
what we generated last year. This money will have been raised with a one-time shot in the arm from
get updates on La Salle regularly, send your email address to zsonberg@lasalleacademy.org.
my Presidential Installation in November, when we collected more than $700,000 in pledges. Those
Installation dollars have specifically gone to back-fill years of academic,

(over, please)
4 1

44 East Second Street • New York, NY 10003-9269 • (212) 475-8940 • FAX (212) 529-3598