Education
On the Lower East Side, introducing
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
When Brother Thomas Casey
first arrived last June as the
new president at the college
preparatory boy’s Catholic high school
La Salle Academy on East 6th Street,
he looked at the diversity of its student
body in astonishment. “This looks like
New York!” he said.
Brother Thomas has worked with
many varied populations but even still
the difference was striking.
Furthering his interest in exactly who
were his students, he soon received a
60% return to a survey he sent the parents
asking where they were from.
The wall on the fourth floor now illustrates
— through a depiction of country
flags— that there are (at least) 43 country
homelands represented in La Salle’s
student body. “From Albania to Vietnam,”
Brother Thomas proudly reports.
Most New Yorkers have probably
walked by La Salle’s buildings (previously
on E. 2nd St., now on E. 6th St.)
without realizing its long, proud past and
the population it serves.
“It’s a small school where the 307
students don’t get lost, and 90 percent
get some financial aid,” says Brother
Thomas. The goal is to get every student
prepared for college and 100 percent are
accepted at one or more school,” he adds,
further emphasizing that, “We teach values
like respect and working toward the
common good.”
Started in 1848 — a 171-year history
— La Salle Academy continues its
original mission to educate immigrant
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
The students that helped make the
evening happen with Joan Mac-
Naughton and Brother Thomas.
students or the children of immigrants.
It is the oldest continuously operating
Lasallian school (De La Salle Christian
Brothers) and is one of the over 80 Lasallian
education institutions within the
United States, including six colleges and
universities.
Located in the Lower East Side for decades,
La Salle, grades 9-12, now shares
a building—two floors—with St. George
Ukrainian Catholic School on East 6 St.,
maintaining its own identity.
Junior Andy Rosario takes advanced music classes and hopes to be a
performing musician. As guests exited the elevator they were greeted
to a medley of classical music with Andy on keyboard.
Heartfelt sentiments of the value of his education and La Salle from senior Carlos Flores.
18 December 26, 2019 Schneps Media