DeLaSalle High School (Minneapolis)
| DeLaSalle High School | |
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New main entrance and offices of the school
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| Address | |
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One DeLaSalle Drive Nicollet Island Minneapolis, Minnesota, (Hennepin County) 55401-1500 United States |
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| Coordinates | 44°59′12″N 93°15′47″W / 44.98667°N 93.26306°WCoordinates: 44°59′12″N 93°15′47″W / 44.98667°N 93.26306°W |
| Information | |
| Type | Private, Coeducational |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Established | 1900 |
| President | Barry Lieske, AFSC |
| Principal | Jim Benson |
| Grades | 9–12 |
| Enrollment | 760 (2014–15) |
| Campus | Urban |
| Color(s) | Black and Gold |
| Athletics conference | Tri-Metro |
| Team name | Islanders |
| Accreditation | AdvancED / North Central Association of Colleges and Schools |
| Yearbook | The Delta |
| Admissions Director | Patrick Felicetta |
| Student Activities Director | Adam Pribyl |
| Website | http://www.delasalle.com |
DeLaSalle High School is a Catholic, college preparatory high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is located on Nicollet Island.
DeLaSalle opened in 1900 and has been administered by the Christian Brothers throughout its history. The school's current president is Barry Lieske, AFSC. Lieske has been an administrator at DeLaSalle since 1982 and has served as principal (chief operations officer) from 1993–2012. Enrollment peaked at 1654 boys in 1964, dropped to the range of 400–500 by the early 1970s despite the 1971–72 advent of co-education, and continued to decline to a 70-year low of 306 in 1991. Over the past two decades DeLaSalle's enrollment has climbed, and the school now receives an average of 400 applications each year for ninth grade admission. Strategic plans from 2000, 2007 and 2012 are based upon an optimum overall enrollment of 750–800 students.
Then-Archbishop John Ireland helped raise money in the late 1800s to build the new Catholic secondary school in Minneapolis. Ireland's goal was to provide education to sons of immigrants who were moving into Minneapolis neighborhoods from many European countries. Only a few months after groundbreaking, the "DeLaSalle Institute" building was ready for occupancy. Fifty boys joined three teaching Christian Brothers in the new school in October of 1900. The number of pupils rapidly expanded, and by spring, a fourth Brother had arrived to handle the overcrowding. By 1907, an addition had been added to the original building, and in 1914, the Archdiocese, at Archbishop Ireland's direction, purchased the adjoining King property to provide space for eventual expansion. Enrollment stood at 352 boys.
In those early days, DeLaSalle was a commercial school. Through the work of Brother Heraclian, the first graduating class, 13 members strong in 1903, all received positions with the leading business firms of Minneapolis before graduating.
By 1920, parents were calling for a high school that was primarily college preparatory. So Archbishop Dowling, Ireland’s successor, went to all Minneapolis parishes to raise the $200,000 needed to build a new high school on the former King property, adjacent to the existing commercial building. Construction began in May 1922, and within a year, the new DeLaSalle High School building (today known as the "B Building") had opened. Within six years, DeLaSalle was accredited as college preparatory by both the University of Minnesota and the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools. (More than eight decades later, the school is still accredited by AdvancEd, the successor to North Central.)
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