John Baptist de La Salle:
The Living Legacy

Profiles of Educational Communities in the District of San Francisco indicating how each continues the Legacy

Today there are about 7,000 De La Salle
Christian Brothers (also called Brothers of
the Christian Schools, De La Salle Brothers,
or Christian Brothers in different parts of the world) and 65,000 Partners who work with
nearly 800,000 students in some 960
educational institutions and programs in more
than 80 countries around the world. Since its
founding in 1868, the District of San Francisco
has brought the mission of the Brothers to the
west coast of the United States. In this
province, the Brothers conduct seventeen educational works – ranging from elementary
education through high school, college and
adult education – that served over 9,000
students during the 1999-2000 school year.
In 2001, De Marillac Middle School will open
in San Francisco, and De La Salle North
Catholic High School will open in
Portland, Oregon.

The educational policies of Lasallian institutions are centered on the young, adapted to the times in which they live, and designed to prepare them to take their place in society. These institutions are characterized by the determination to make the means of salvation available to young people through a quality education and by an explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ. (The Rule of the Brothers)

De La Salle saw education as a primary saving factor in the lives of the young. His teachers instilled Christian beliefs and practices along with the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, and politeness. What was called a "Christian School"in the time of De La Salle is today called a "Lasallian School,"in recognition of De La Salle's development of a new educational approach that after three centuries continues to inspire and motivate successful teachers, administrators, and students. Faith, community, and service are at the heart of every Lasallian educational ministry.

The Lasallian school is a Catholic school where students are loved and educated by teachers who are inspired by the tradition of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The Lasallian school is a place of quality human and Christian education where administrators and faculty associate zealously as ministers in a faith-filled educational community animated by the Brothers of the Christian Schools and the Founder, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, Patron of All Teachers of Youth. The school recognizes the dignity of each student in a caring, moral environment, gives special attention to the poor, is dedicated to service, and is unambiguously Catholic. (District of San Francisco Mission Statement)

Years of expansion throughout France and the rest of the world have shown that De La Salle's inspiration and insights into education have endured and are capable of universal application. Today, in many schools across the world, a small community of Brothers work with a far larger staff of Partners, many of whom may be of various religious faiths. Yet in these environments, too, the educational priorities of a Lasallian school are appreciated and accepted, and De La Salle is recognized as a great spiritual leader devoted to improving the lot of poor children and giving them a sense of their inherent dignity as members of the human family. In one case, a Buddhist foundation near one of the Lasallian schools in Thailand requested and received permission to name their new building De La Salle Pagoda.

There are many characteristics that highlight what a Lasallian school looks like today. Some of the significant features are that it is attuned to God's living presence, trusts God's Providence, operates with creativity and fortitude, strives to be practical, is devoted to providing accessible and comprehensive education, is committed to the poor, and advances the role of the laity in the church. It is the kind of place where the miracle of touching the hearts of students occurs daily, across the board and at all levels. In a Lasallian school, indeed among all Lasallian educators, every human activity is part of God's creative work, and the Gospel is never more than a word, a gesture, or an action away from being lived out, from being incarnated anew.

Profiles of educational communities in the District of San Francisco follow along with short statements indicating how each community continues De La Salle's legacy in a special way. A complete chronology of Brothers' institutions in the District since its founding in 1868 is available in the "History of the District of San Francisco"on the District web site at www.delasalle.org.

A List of Our Works

Cathedral High School
Los Angeles, California
Founded 1925

In a community where a 50% dropout rate is all too common, 99% of Cathedral graduates, most of whom are Latino, go on to college. "Cathedral High School really is a special place. It's a place where dreams are realized. It's a place where young people are taught they can be anything they want to be." – Antonio Villaraigosa, former Speaker of the California State Assembly and former Cathedral student and honorary alumnus.

The De La Salle Christian Brothers have
operated Cathedral High School since its
founding in 1925 by the Archdiocese of
Los Angeles as its first high school to educate
young men of the Los Angeles area. In 1996,
the school was established as a private Catholic
high school operated by a board of trustees,
through an operating agreement between the
Brothers and the Archdiocese.

Cathedral is located just northeast of the
Los Angeles Civic Center and in the shadow
of Dodger Stadium. It was built on the site of Calvary Cemetery, and its teams are known as
"the Phantoms", as a nod to the location's
history. The school has traditionally served
young men from the oldest and poorest neighborhoods of Los Angeles, with most
students coming from the Latino and African-
American neighborhoods of the South Central
and Eastside areas of the city.

Centro La Salle
Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico
Founded 1978

Centro La Salle models the heart of the
Lasallian mission in the Tijuana community –
to provideeducational opportunities for those without, so that they might free themselves
from both ignorance and poverty by enhancing
their lives through education.

In this joint work of the Districts of San Francisco
and North Mexico, Brothers collaborate with
Partners from the Tijuana community to offer
a broad range of free educational programs to
an average of over 3,000students annually. Students themselves – youngsters and adults
– often serve as tutors, and with volunteer
teachers, instruct classes ranging from formation
of catechists and lay ministers for local Catholic parishes, to basic literacy, college-prep science
and math, cooking, decorative arts, cosmetology, public speaking, and computer skills. The Centro
community gathers often for recreational and
liturgical activities. Students are encouraged to
live out the Lasallian tradition by using the knowledge and skills gained at Centro to help
those in need in the Church or in their own
neighborhoods.

Christian Brothers High School
Sacramento, California
Founded 1876

"Our one-on-one tutoring program with Oak Ridge Elementary School next door involved fifty Christian Brothers High School students serving as tutors for these youngsters – poor students, many of whom are recent immigrants to the area. Our goal is to have two hundred CBHS tutors participating next fall." – Christian Brothers High School Local Action Plan, 2000

Christian Brothers High School is the second oldest high school in Sacramento, opened by the Brothers at 12th and K Streets in 1876 as Saint Patrick Institute. Today, Christian Brothers serves,
in part, one of the poorest neighborhoods of the city. The school became coeducational in 1990,
and continues to serve a diverse student body
of young men and women from all social and economic levels of the Sacramento community.
Since its founding, the school has relocated
several times, and has variously been known as
Sacramento Institute, Christian Brothers College, Christian Brothers School, and Bishop Armstrong
High School. The school settled at its present site
on Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard (formerly
Sacramento Boulevard) and became known as
Christian Brothers High School in 1969.

De La Salle Chapel
San Jose, California
Founded 1981

Not speaking their newly adopted language, and missing their parents who are away at work, many Vietnamese students are alone during the day in an English-speaking school system where they struggle to learn both a new culture and a new language. Their parents are grateful that their children can come to De La Salle Chapel, a safe place to study after school with people who not only treat them with the utmost respect, but who can speak to them in their own language.

San Jose, California, has the largest
Vietnamese population in the United States.
In one of the city's busy residential areas,
volunteer staff join Lasallian Sisters and
De La Salle Christian Brothers from Viet Nam
in providing educational programs for the local
Vietnamese Catholic community. Participants
of every age, from small children to senior
citizens, are offered programs including day
care, after-school tutoring, catechetics,
Vietnamese culture and history, social activities,
prayer groups, liturgical celebrations,
job placement, and more. School-age
youngsters are assisted in learning English
and in learning about the American culture
new to many of them and their families.

De La Salle Chapel was created as part of the
Diocesan office of Catholic Charities and the
Vietnamese Catholic Mission in San Jose, and
has been directed by the Lasallian Sisters since
1981. In 1990, De La Salle Christian Brothers
who had come to the United States from Viet Nam
in 1975 to serve in refugee camps throughout
the country joined the Lasallian Sisters. Together,
they share in a common apostolate in service
of Vietnamese youth, especially the poor.

De La Salle High School
Concord, California
Founded 1965

Through service programs, students are discovering that the poor are real, the Gospel is real, prayer is real. Kevin Meenan of De La Salle High School, who worked the cafeteria line at St. Anthony's Dining Room in San Francisco's Tenderloin District, came away struck by the graciousness of the homeless people he had served. "I've always been told that we're all the same under the skin. At St. Anthony's, I really saw it. We are just the same."

De La Salle High School celebrates its 35th
year in 2000, having been founded in Concord
in 1965 to serve young men from Contra Costa
and eastern Alameda counties. Cities in this part
of the Bay Area grew rapidly during the 1960s as families moved away from crowded urban areas, increasing the need for Catholic secondary
education in the developing suburbs. The
nearest Catholic high schools were in Oakland, Berkeley, and Vallejo. The De La Salle Christian Brothers responded by opening De La Salle High School for boys, and Carondelet High School for
girls was opened on the adjoining property by
the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet that
same year. De La Salle enjoys a unique
relationship with Carondelet, sharing facilities,
classes, faculty members, and a wide variety
of academic and co-curricular programs.

Journey House
Pasadena, California
Founded 1983

"When I came to Journey House, I was addicted to drugs and one step away from suicide. I didn't care about the future because I was convinced by the people in control of my life that I had no future and didn't deserve one. I am extremely lucky, because many others never made it, and some died never knowing anything else. Isn't that sad? The point is that we're not losers. We are the future." – Gabriel Arosemena

Six young men, ages 14 to 18, all wards of
the court, reside at Journey House, referred to
the program by the Department of Children's
Services and the Probation Department of
Los Angeles County and those of neighboring
counties. Journey House was founded in 1983
as an educational apostolate of the De La Salle
Christian Brothers, and provides troubled
youngsters the opportunity for a college-
preparatory education in partnership with
nearby La Salle, Cathedral, and Pasadena
High Schools. Residents remain between one
and four years, depending on their age and
their ability to adapt to the program. Many who
leave the program before graduation from high
school stay in contact with Journey House for
support. The after-care program at Journey
House is designed to help its graduates stay
in college by means of continued contact,
counseling, and financial assistance. Care
and commitment from the Journey House staff
have been catalysts in the lives of many
young men.

Justin-Siena High School
Napa, California
Founded 1966

"The Brothers are reaching out into more communities. For us, our primary focus now is going to be looking at bringing the Latino poor in Napa Valley [into our school community]." – Greg Schmitz, Principal, Justin-Siena High School

Located at the southern end of the Napa
Valley, Justin-Siena High School is part of the
Santa Rosa Diocese and serves a diverse coeducational student population from the
largely agricultural Napa and Sonoma valleys
and Solano County.

Justin High School for boys, founded in 1966
by the Christian Brothers, and Siena High
School for girls, founded the same year in Napa
by the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael,
merged in 1972 to form Justin-Siena High
School. The school was jointly operated by
the Brothers and Sisters until 1993, when the
Justin-Siena High School Corporation was
established. Today the school is governed
by a board of trustees, and carries out its
educational mission in the spirit of its two
founders, John Baptist de La Salle and
Catherine of Siena, a saint of 14th-century
Italy and a Doctor of the Church.

La Salle High School - Milwaukie
Milwaukie, Oregon
Founded 1966

When asked how teaching in a Lasallian school differs from her teaching experience in public schools, Loreva Bromley, math teacher and department chair at La Salle, answered, "On the surface, things are the same, but deep down they are radically different. Those of us who work at La Salle share a love for God and a love for our students. That is our binding force."

In 1966, La Salle High School became part
of the Christian Brothers' educational heritage
in the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon, where
the Brothers had previously served for over 40
years, beginning in 1886, at Christian Brothers
Business College. Founded in response to an
acute lack of Catholic secondary education in
the Archdiocese, La Salle was established as a
co-instructional school. In separate classes,
boys were taught by the Brothers and girls were
taught by the Sisters of Saint Mary of Oregon.
Today, fully coeducational and staffed by a lay
administration and faculty, La Salle serves a
student population from the six counties
surrounding the greater Portland and Vancouver
metropolitan areas.

La Salle High School - Pasadena
Pasadena, California
Founded 1956

"There was a parent in my office just recently who'd suffered a terrible family loss. She came to La Salle for comfort, and said that it was because we are part of her family. You'll hear that word over and over again about a Lasallian school – it's a family." – Richard Gray, President, La Salle High School

A contract was signed in 1955 between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the San Francisco District for the construction and operation of a Catholic boys' high school in the Pasadena area. Catholic secondary education had previously been unavailable in East Pasadena, and no such school for boys was located in the entire city of Pasadena. Original plans for the Irish Christian Brothers to open the school were unsuccessful, and in September 1956, the De La Salle Christian Brothers officially opened La Salle High School. La Salle has graduated over 3,000 students and has doubled in size since its first graduating class in 1960. In 1991, La Salle became a coeducational high school and in 1994 became separately incorporated and is governed by a board of trustees that works to ensure that the school maintains its Lasallian identity and purpose while looking toward its future.

La Salle High School - Yakima
Yakima, Washington
Founded 1998

"In this empty field we see another piece of our dream about to be realized. Together we have bridged the significant gaps in the Catholic educational opportunities available to families throughout the Yakima Valley. What a remarkable achievement! This dream began with the community here in Yakima. It is your dream for your children that we see fulfilled." – Groundbreaking for the new La Salle campus, Union Gap, Washington, November 1999

In 1998, the District of San Francisco opened
La Salle High School in response to a request
made four years earlier by the Bishop of Yakima
to help establish a Catholic high school for the
Yakima Valley, an area that had been without
Catholic secondary education since 1986.
La Salle brings together students from local
Catholic grammar schools, from varied cultural
and economic backgrounds, and from families
separated by the geography of the upper and
lower Yakima Valleys. Instruction began with
50 students in coeducational freshman and
sophomore classes, and will expand to all
four grades in the 2000-2001 school year.
La Salle eventually plans to serve 600 students
from all over Yakima County.

Classes have been held in rented space in
the former Holy Family School in Yakima. Construction began in March 2000 on the first
phase of the school's new campus in Union Gap
– six classrooms, administrative offices, and a
student commons; a new gymnasium will follow.
La Salle has already become the largest private
high school in Yakima County.

Lasallian Educational Opportunities
Oakland, California
Founded 1994

"I believe this place to be sacred ground, because God is present here in ways that are astonishing. What goes on at the LEO Center is transformational. No one gets out unchanged. Students discover that what seemed to be immovable obstacles are in fact entirely movable. Our students prevail in spite of every social evil and injustice that routinely kills hope in this city." – Brother Dan Fenton, FSC, teacher, LEO Center

The establishment of the LEO Center in 1994
to provide educational opportunities to inner-city
youthbrought the De La Salle Christian Brothers
back to Oakland neighborhoods and parishes in
which they had taught in the early days of the
San Francisco District. The LEO Center now serves
grammar and high school students from the
area's Catholic and public schools, as well as
adults. LEO students come from neighborhoods
in Oakland, Emeryville, and South Berkeley,
and are primarily African-American and Latino.

More than 80 volunteers from area colleges –
most from Saint Mary's College – and from
localbusinesses staff the Center, along with
Brothers, Lasallian Volunteers, and Partners.
Students participate in after-school homework
programs and academic enrichment activities
during the week. In summer sessions, students
explore areas of interest not normally covered in
a regular school curriculum. LEO's adult education
classes provide learning opportunities that
include GED (high school equivalency) test
preparation and computer skills.

Latino Adult Institute
(Instituto Latino de Adultos)
Napa, California
Founded 1998

The founding of the Latino Adult Institute (LAI)
resulted from a 1997 study to determine the
needsof Napa's growing Latino community and
the prospects for educational programs sponsored
by the De La Salle Christian Brothers to meet
those needs. The Institute provides Latino adults
in Napa a place to develop a cultural and religious
community, offering its services – basic education,
classes in parenting, English, and self-
improvement – at no cost to participants.

At the heart of LAI's mission is the assistance of
Latino youth and their families through parent
education. Students at LAI receive instruction
about various government and social agencies,
as well as referrals to other area organizations
with programs not available at the Institute.
The isolation experienced by the Latino
community, separated by language and cultural
barriers, is greatly diminished through the work
of LAI, offering Latinos a sense of unity and pride
within the Napa community.

Mont La Salle
Napa, California
Founded 1930

"Our approach is not so much to say 'Join us' as to say 'Join us in what we do.' The spirituality of the Christian Brothers is incarnational. God is not at a distance. We meet God in the lives of those with whom we live and serve." – Brother James Joost, FSC, Director of Vocations

Mont La Salle, home to the Brothers of the
San Francisco District since 1930, consists of 504
acres some seven miles northwest of the city of Napa. Mont La Salle is the current site of De La
Salle Institute's District administrative offices,
the Brothers' Provincialate, Novitiate, and Holy
Family Communities, Christian Brothers Retreat
and Conference Center, and the Brothers'
cemetery. Over the years, the property has
also been home to the Christian Brothers Winery,
Junior Novitiate, and Saint Mary's Residence
School for Boys, which closed in 1986. The winery
operations were sold in 1989, and the winery
buildings and acreage, including vineyards, are
now leased to The Hess Collection Winery.
At Mont La Salle, Brothers and Partners serving
in virtually every aspect of school life attend
District-sponsored meetings and workshops
that provide for exchanges and ongoing Lasallian
formation. Many retired Brothers continue
active lives at Mont La Salle, and men in the
Novitiate pursue a year-long program of studies
in their initial formation as De La Salle Christian
Brothers.

Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
San Francisco, California
Founded 1852/1874

"Part of the wisdom of Saint La Salle is that he was concerned to teach students the skills that would let them take part more fully in the society of their time. In every age, even the Information Age, more is needed than the training of minds. There is also the touching of hearts." – Judy Scudder, Librarian, Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory

Sacred Heart Cathedral, like Justin-Siena,
is blessed by a dual religious charism, achieved
in 1987 with the merging of Sacred Heart High
School for boys (founded 1874) and Cathedral
High School for girls (founded 1852). The school
is owned by the Archdiocese of San Francisco and
conducted by the De La Salle Christian Brothers
and the Daughters of Charity. In merging –
following twenty years of active cooperation,
shared facilities, and shared academic programs
– Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep became the first
high school in San Francisco to offer Catholic coeducation.

The Daughters of Charity arrived in San Francisco
in 1852 to establish Saint Vincent's orphanage
and dayschool for the children of cholera victims.
The Brothers arrived in San Francisco in 1868,
and in 1874 founded Sacred Heart College, their
third school in the Bay Area. From these humble
beginnings, their educational work in California
began to flourish.

Saint Joseph School
Sunnyside, Washington
Founded 1963

An elderly Sister sitting in a wheelchair, crying, said, "I want you to know that I am personally responsible for you coming here. I prayed you here. I am a member of the founding community of Sisters who started Saint Joseph's 35 years ago. When we heard the announcement that the school would be closed, we prayed and prayed for a miracle. When we heard during breakfast this morning that the Christian Brothers were going to re-open the school, we danced!"

In 1998, the District of San Francisco
re-opened Saint Joseph School as a new
member of the District's Lasallian family,
marking the De La Salle Christian Brothers'
return to Catholic elementary education.
The re-opening of Saint Joseph School was
a media event in the small, largely Hispanic
community of Sunnyside, and followed an
earlier decision by the District to open
La Salle High School in Yakima, 35 miles away.
The District's decision to sponsor the school
provided a continuation of the area's important
Catholic educational tradition for families in
Sunnyside.

Saint Mary's College of California
Moraga, California
Founded 1863

"The High Potential Program at Saint Mary's College is at the heart of the Lasallian mission to offer "a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor." Based on faith and love, the program gives disadvantaged young people a reason to hope and be optimistic about themselves and their futures.

Founded in 1863 by the Archdiocese of
San Francisco and conducted by the
De La Salle Christian Brothers since 1868,
Saint Mary's College is one of the oldest
and most distinguished colleges in the West.
In 1927, Saint Mary's became the first Catholic
men's college to join the Western Association
of Schools and Colleges. The College moved
from San Francisco to "The Brickpile"at 30th
and Broadway in Oakland in 1889, and finally
to Moraga in 1928. During the Second World
War, Saint Mary's was home to the Naval
Preflight School. The College became
coeducational in 1970, and in 1974 established
its graduate and extended education divisions.
The College has earned a reputation for
excellence, innovation, and responsiveness
in education, a reputation built upon its
heritage as a Catholic, Lasallian, liberal arts
institution, and offers a unique, personalized,
student-centered learning environment.
Saint Mary's is one of seven colleges and universities conducted by the De La Salle
Christian Brothers in the Institute's United States/
Toronto Region.

Saint Mary's College High School
Berkeley, California
Founded 1863

"Throughout the District of San Francisco and the world of the International Institute, I see at work the growing power of a new movement of Lasallian educators – Brothers, lay women and men and other religious and priests – who have already stepped into the shoes of the great teachers of my youth and my generation." – Thomas M. Brady, AFSC, Saint Mary's College High School Class of 1954

Saint Mary's College High School was
founded in San Francisco in 1863 as the
high school department of Saint Mary's College.
At the urging of Archbishop Alemany, the
De La Salle Christian Brothers brought their
educational expertise to San Francisco from
the East Coast in 1868 to take over the failing
school, and established the new District of
San Francisco. Growth and expansion followed,
and the college and high school were relocated
to Oakland in 1889. In 1927, the high school
moved to the Peralta Park campus in Berkeley,
while the college moved the following year to
its present location in Moraga.

Saint Mary's shared the Berkeley campus with
Saint Joseph's Academy grammar school for
boys (later Saint Mary's Grammar School),
conducted by the Brothers at Peralta Park from
1903 until its relocation to Mont La Salle in Napa
in 1969. As both a day and residence school for
many years, Saint Mary's provided young men
in the Bay Area and international students with
a Catholic, college-preparatory program of
studies. Saint Mary's became a coeducational
school in 1995, and now has the first woman
principal in the history of the District.

Vaugirard
San Francisco, California
Founded 1982

Named for one of Saint La Salle's early
foundations, Vaugirard provides a residence
where men have an opportunity to recover
from substance abuse through spiritual
awareness. Residents pay a nominal fee for
program provisions, hold an outside job, and
live in accordance with guidelines that provide structure, encourage self-reliance, and require responsibility to the community.

Vaugirard can serve up to nine residents,
men of all religious denominations, who are
referred to the program by area hospitals and
rehabilitation information services, or who
learn about it by word of mouth. Residents may
remain in the programindefinitely; program
veterans provide assistance to the staff and
to fellow residents, offering added stability
and the benefits of their personal experience.
Over 200 men have been served at Vaugirard
since its founding. The Paris Street home is
also open to frequent use by the neighboring
Catholic parish community for its programs
and activities.

Editor's Letter | Brother Visitor's Letter | John Baptist de La Salle: His Life and Times
John Baptist de La Salle: The Educator and Visionary | John Baptist de La Salle: A Saint For Teachers
General Chapter | The District Today

Web Services by: TDG Digital -- Signs of Faith site designed by Studio North
Copyright 1999-2002. All Rights Reserved De La Salle Institute