(From left) Brother Visitors Nick Gonzalez (SFNO), Bob Schaefer (DENA) and Michael Fehrenbach (Midwest) talk about the 46th General Chapter during a panel discussion.
The 2023 Lasallian Association of Secondary School Chief Administrators (LASSCA) brought Lasallians back to the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando, Florida, to celebrate the theme “Navigating Our New Pathway.” The gathering took place February 26 through March 1, 2023, with more than 100 attendees. Over four days, keynote speakers, panelists, forums, discussions and breakout sessions provided Lasallian leaders with the opportunity to connect more deeply with the mission, build community and return to their ministries inspired.
In Monday’s keynote address, Dr. Lauren Casella, assistant clinical professor in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University and director of the Catholic School Leadership Academy, spoke about holistic approaches to Lasallian education, fueled by faith, fraternity and ingenuity. In Tuesday’s panel discussion, Brother Visitors Michael Fehrenbach (Midwest District), Nick Gonzalez (District of San Francisco New Orleans) and Robert Schaefer (District of Eastern North America) shared their experiences of the 46th General Chapter and some of the pathways of transformation that emerged. Wednesday allowed for focus group, facilitated by LASSCA members Dr. Crystal LeRoy, president of Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, California, and Alanna O’Brien, principal of La Salle Catholic College Preparatory in Milwaukie, Oregon. (Scroll to the end of this story to read some of their reflections.)
Introducing LASSCA 2023-2024 leadership with Dr. Melinda Lawlor Skrade (left) as immediate past president, Matthew Keough (center) as president and Mona Passman (right) as vice president.
The conference schedule allowed time for community building and connections, including the “Wine and Wisdom” session on Sunday evening, socials, forums for presidents, principals and board members, District gatherings and more.
Following Mass on opening night, the counseling department at Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee, was awarded the Brother Michael Collins Award of Excellence. President Brother David Poos, FSC, accepted the award on behalf of the school.
LASSCA President Dr. Melinda Lawlor Skrade (right) presents Brother David Poos, FSC (left), president of Christian Brothers High School in Memphis, Tennessee, with the Brother Michael Collins Award of Excellence honoring his school’s counseling department.
The conference was generously supported in part by the following sponsors: Catholic Virtual, Christian Brothers Services, Christian Brothers University, FACTS Management, Habeeb & Associates, La Salle University, Manhattan College, Partners in Mission, Ray Dass, Ruotolo Associates/Meitler, Saint Mary’s Press, Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, Springtide Research Institute and Unbound 360.
The 2024 LASSCA conference will return to the Rosen Plaza Hotel in Orlando February 25-28, 2024.
See more pictures from #LASSCA2023 >
Reflections from secondary school leaders on the focus group questions presented at the end of the conference
Anne Marie Tirpak
President
De La Salle Institute
Chicago, Illinois
Buttimer 1 classmates (left to right) Paul Gasparini (Christian Brothers Academy, Syracuse), Abby Michels (Midwest District), Anne Marie Tirpak (De La Salle Institute, Chicago), Dr. Crystal LeRoy (Christian Brothers High School, Sacramento) and Larry Rancilio (De La Salle Collegiate High School, Warren) reunite during the closing social.
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
Good governance and board practices and a board matrix for recruiting new board members and committee members, really using committee members as a farm team to come to the board. But assessing in all ways what we need at the board level as far as skill set for service to the mission, including representing our student body.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
Well, I’m eight months in my role. There are a lot of new pathways. It’s just really deciding what is most essential to move [forward], and I’m very systems and process oriented and creating those structures. So, foundations like job descriptions, employee handbooks, onboarding to mission and service for board members. It’s at the employee level as well as the board service level. For me, it’s really creating those frameworks and guidelines, and that’s where everything can launch.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
I am really forever grateful for opportunities like this conference. The Buttimer Institute, as a new president and new to Lasallian education, was invaluable. To meet other people and to be immersed in the life of Saint John Baptist de La Salle and the founding of the schools. As a president, it’s a lonely job, and there’s really no one you can talk to other than your board chair. So, to be able to bounce things off of peers in other schools is extremely helpful to me. That is what I’m most grateful for. These continued opportunities to do that, to network and support, is what I need.
Jamal Adams
Principal (outgoing)
La Salle College Preparatory
Pasadena, California
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
I think the first thing that I would say that I would take away is from Dr. Lauren [Casella]’s conversation, just how vital the school and the community is for our young people’s development of the whole person, and how great Catholic education has been coming out of the pandemic. The second thing I would take away is just the marvel at the depth of wisdom and knowledge that when you get into a gathering like this. Just people from all these different places and spaces being together, and so it feels like you’re just really blessed to great drink from this really great well of ideas and circumstances and contexts.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
We have what we call our mentor period where we do a lot of our SEL, social, emotional, learning work, and to tap into some of the great ideas that I’ve heard from people at breakfast or in presentations for the benefit of our school is something I’m excited about bringing back to our campus.
Dr. Lauren Casella, professor at Loyola Marymount University, speaks to holistic approaches to Lasallian education in her keynote address.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
I would say principal sometimes is a very lonely space. So, it’s just the opportunity to be with other people that are in the same position as you that talk about all the stressors, but also the triumphs, to celebrate those triumphs. I’m so glad to be in a network where there’s other people that I can reach out to who can understand what I’m going through. That gives me great comfort and also inspires me to do great things.
Nick Catre
Board Member
De La Salle College “Oaklands”
Toronto, Ontario
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
The big thing that I’ve taken from these couple of days is the need for us to remind ourselves of the shared relationships that the board has with our community, with the Brothers and the covenant and as well with the people that we serve. I think that’s an area that we’re lacking, having this been brought to my attention here, and that I think that is a focus that I have going forward.
(From left) Stephanie Nitchals (Benilde-St. Margaret’s School), Kelly Harrington (Hill-Murray School), Kerry Conroy (La Salle Academy, New York), Dr. James Schlegel (Christian Brothers Academy, Albany), Steven Sgambelluri (La Salle Institute, Troy) and Dr. Sue Skinner (Hill-Murray School) gather at the conference’s closing social.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
I think one of the things that all our Lasallian schools have been doing—everyone’s been participating in your Buttimers and your Huethers—but one of the things, from the board perspective, is to have a lot more participation in this area of networking and shared knowledge that we have. I think just sitting and listening actually was quite educational for me because these are a lot of concepts that may have been in the periphery but now certainly brought to the forefront for me. So, I am going back with a significant report for our next board meeting this month.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
I think the one of the advantages, and I guess this is something I like to tell people, is that we’re sort of the “Canadian branch office” of a global movement. One of the things we have—and all the other Lasallian schools have—that no other independent school has is this access to information that other institutions may have. So, if we have an issue, how do we deal with this? Let’s call around, and I know so-and-so at this school and so-and-so in that District. It’s this availability of information that I think we need to draw on far better than we have been already. We have been doing so, but I think it could be done a lot more efficiently.
Brother Mike Andrejko, FSC
Principal
Central Catholic High School
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(From left) President Dr. Crystal LeRoy and interim principal Julian Elorduy of Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento, California, catch up with Charles Lengendre (District of San Francisco New Orleans) during the “Wine and Wisdom” session.
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
I just think the mental health of students and where that’s at and how important that is, especially given the fact that we’ve come out of COVID. In my own milieu, it’s enrollment, enrollment, enrollment. Trying to keep those numbers up. So, I found those two breakout sessions most helpful to me.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
As go into the 21st century, one of the things we’re looking at is a health and wellness center for our students and how have the needs of students changed and what’s involved really in trying to create that space—not just for athletics, but for mind, body and soul.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
I’m always amazed at the leveling field, I call it, when we come together and gather. Having Lasallians around. Knowing there’s people there, having the same issues, and being able to reach out to them. In my vocations work, it afforded me even a greater opportunity to get around to our ministries. And now that I’m back in a school, being a school administrator, I think it’s just a nice way to reach out and connect, to get ideas and to know that you’re supported. I think that’s really important.
Zury Zapata
Principal
Colegio De La Salle
Bayamón, Puerto Rico
(From left) President Pedro Hernandez and principal Zury Zapata from Colegio De La Salle in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, listen during a breakout session.
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
There’s a few. I like the fact that they had space for everybody to speak and to expose what their ministries are. And I also like the way that the breakout sessions were. The last one that I took was about governance of the board, and that was so interesting [because] we are starting with this type of leadership in our ministry. So, I got a lot of information that I think is useful to understand how it works.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
I think that in admissions and working together so our ministry is a space of life. That’s what we want is to keep the mission with our students, with our faculty, with their parents, and with ourselves also.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
To keep doing this type of activity and in our in our ministry, we have to work on some type of project that we can give this chance [formation opportunities] to other members of our faculty so they keep [learning] and keep the mission alive.
John Dols
Principal
Holy Family Catholic High School
Victoria, Minnesota
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
Somebody talked about linking charism into their teacher evaluation, so I think that we will add that piece to the teacher evals. And then exposing our students to the Declaration on the Lasallian Educational Mission. So, we’re going to embed that into one of their theology classes.
(From left) Dr. Andrew Kuffner (District of San Francisco New Orleans), Dr. Gary Cannon (Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory), Joe Dickens (Saint Paul’s School, Covington), Lee Pierre (Saint Paul’s School, Covington) and Alanna O’Brien (La Salle Catholic College Preparatory) share in focus group discussions on the final day of the conference.
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
I think we’re all in a great time in our history to find a new pathway. After COVID, George Floyd, kids are different, and they think differently. So, there’s this real come together, like all these paths in the woods coming together, and now they’re going to have to navigate how—even though they’re coming from different areas—how are they going to walk that same road. So, I think that’s a new path that we have to learn how to navigate with our students. When we talk about accompaniment, that’s where we have to accompany them. They’re not always going to agree with where they’re at, but they have to at least have the conversation.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
To continue to hold the conferences like this, continue to offer formation—for both our teachers and for our students. To continue having Brothers visit. With the less and less Brothers in the world, we need them to continue to come and visit our schools.
John Huelskamp
President
La Salle Catholic College Preparatory
Milwaukie, Oregon
(From left) John Huelskamp (La Salle Catholic College Preparatory, Milwaukie) visits with Brother Visitor Nick Gonzalez, FSC, during the conference’s ”Wine and Wisdom“ session.
What are one to two concrete ideas you will take with you as you return to your ministry?
The first that comes to mind is just the power, the grace and the wisdom of having our three Brother Visitors together in one space and amidst all of the very real and pressing challenges of tuition and development and enrollment, they really went above the fray, and I leave with the inspiration from their clarity around who we are as Lasallians and where we need to focus and grow and the incredible opportunities in front of us. In particular, it really resonated with me, the way Brother Nick put it, what are the needs of our world that our students can help resolve today? When we have that as our starting point, a lot of the other pressing and real issues come into focus in a different way around that reality because if our kids are charged, challenged and supported to address real and relevant issues of the day, I can’t help but think that that is going to have an impact on our community around us. So that instead of us trying to promote our schools, the reality of what and how our kids live their lives speaks far louder and will draw in far more of those future students, those community members, those alums, those benefactors to say, hey, I want to be a part of that because clearly they get it. They’re not on their heels. They’re not being reactionary. They’re being proactive and living gospel values and empowering our kids to know and live gospel values in a way that is so uncommon. I feel like that just can’t help but be contagious. So, I leave inspired by the wisdom of our Brother Visitors to say, okay, how can we revisit and reframe things in ways that keep our priorities straight?
Where, specifically, do you see opportunities to define “a new pathway” for your school or ministry?
For one, it’s just a continuation of that answer. To give our kids more real and relevant opportunities to live out the gospel values in their immediate community. We all have service programs, but to allow that to animate itself more completely with all students, I think it’s a great opportunity. Another is just the partnerships that are developed here and throughout our Lasallian world. In particular at La Salle, we are expanding our partnership with Saint Mary’s [College of California in] Moraga. So, when it comes to some of our online course offerings, we’re looking to go into a dual credit relationship with Saint Mary’s so that our juniors and seniors can have access to criminology, to sociology, to some upper level college course work that wouldn’t be realistic for any individual high school to offer, but because we benefit from being part of a world much larger, I think it’s just a win win.
What support do you need from outside of your building, from your District, LASSCA or Christian Brothers Conference?
In some ways, more of the same of continuing to capture the wisdom of the universal Lasallian family. It’s no accident that the Brother Visitors spoke with such humility and wisdom. The Brothers know how to elevate the best of who they are. I think for the association to better facilitate gathering, capturing that wisdom and sharing it out.