Dear St. Rose Community,

 It is with great excitement that I write this letter of introduction as the newly appointed principal for St. Rose High School. As a proud St. Rose Grammar School and St. Rose High School alumnus, I have a familiarity with the uniqueness of culture, commitment to faith, and high standard of excellence that St. Rose High School requires.  I am thrilled to be rejoining our special community and look forward to our collective efforts in continuing a tradition of excellence for the Purple Roses.

My professional journey began at Lacey Township High School where I spent 5 years as a teacher and coach, then advanced to administrative positions of school supervisor and principal at Mill Pond Elementary School, all within the Lacey Township School District.  My passion for Catholic education opened my heart to embracing a new challenge at St. Catharine School, located in Spring Lake, New Jersey, where I served as principal for the past 6 years.  During my time at St. Catharine School, I was fortunate to serve with an incredible team of educators that worked together to implement several academic initiatives which led to St. Catharine School being recognized as a 2018 Exemplary High Performing National Blue Ribbon School.  I will dedicate my efforts to be a driving force of the collective vision of our St. Rose community and build upon the high-quality educational experience that we currently provide while helping our school reach new heights.

As a Catholic educator, I find myself responsible to foster and develop our students’ relationship with God and guide them on their own unique journey in faith.  The opportunity at SRHS excites me to have the chance to positively impact the lives of young men and women at such a critical moment within their lives while also embracing a new challenge where I can drive even further positive growth for Catholic education.  

Although this is a return to my home of St. Rose, I have much to learn from our network of stakeholders to best serve our community.  There will be many opportunities ahead throughout the start of our school year in which I look forward to engaging with each of you, but I hope for now you will take a moment to complete a very brief survey to give me further insight on all of the strengths and opportunities for growth and improvement within St. Rose High School.

TAKE THE SURVEY

Joining me to lead St. Rose High School into its second century is a team of seasoned professionals all of whom have demonstrated their commitment to engaging students with a challenging and supporting environment that fosters academic, spiritual, and personal growth.

I look forward to introducing the entire leadership team at our Back to School Night for parents on September 22nd.  In the meantime, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce two new members of our senior administrative team.  At the beginning of the summer, Mr. Dennis Carey joined Allentown High School as their Athletic Director.  We thank him for his years of service to our school and for all the work he did to make our school a safe place to work, learn, pray, and compete.  After looking at the data we decided to split his roles as Vice Principal and Athletic Director back into two separate positions and are blessed to have found two extraordinary leaders who each bring a unique set of skills and experiences to our team.

Assuming the role of Vice Principal of Student Affairs is fellow Class of 2005 alumni, Mrs. Crystal Ganley.  After graduating, Mrs. Ganley attended Rowan University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Health and Exercise Science from Rowan University. After six years of experience in public education, Mrs. Ganley found her way back to our community where she has been teaching and leading the Physical Education/Health department while completing a Masters of Arts in Educational Leadership from Montclair State University.  Mrs. Ganley is looking forward to building onto the foundational relationships she has begun to foster with staff, families, and students as she serves our school community in her new role overseeing student affairs and facilities including school safety and security.

The next name may not be as familiar to you as Mrs. Ganley, but in the world of athletics, Mr. Louis "Del" Dal Pra, our new Supervisor of Athletics, is a well-known fixture in the world of Jersey Shore High School sports.  Mr. Dal Pra grew up in Rumson where he was an All-Shore football and baseball player and in 2005 was inducted into his high school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.  He went on to play at Glassboro State College, and just like Mrs. Ganley and I, he returned to his alma mater to begin teaching and coaching.  Mr. Dal Pra’s curriculum vitae is not only impressive but quite extensive and I would like to list just a few that stood out to me:

• Asbury Park Press Baseball Coach of the Year x2
• Ocean County College’s Head Coach
• Ocean Township High School’s Head Coach led the Spartans to 4 Shore Conference Division Titles, a Shore Conference Championship, 2 NJSIAA Central Jersey sectionals titles, & more.  
• Athletic Director of the Year in 2016 and 2020
• In 2021, Mr. Dal Pra was inducted into the New Jersey State Coaches Hall of Fame

Mr. Dal Pra earned his Masters degree in School Administration from Kean University and in 2008 joined Red Bank Regional High School as their Athletic Director where he served until his retirement in 2020.  In the role of Supervisor of Athletics, he is looking forward to building off the successes of our coaches and athletes to further elevate our athletic programs and our student clubs and activities which also fall under his leadership.  Visit our website to read more about Mr. Dal Pra.

Mr. O’Halloran who selflessly served as our Interim Principal is excited to get back to focusing on Academics in his role as Vice Principal of Academics. Mr. Bruce Peragallo will continue in his second year as Supervisor of Learning Innovations working directly with teachers to ensure our strong commitment to delivering high quality 21st century teaching and learning.

Over the past few months Mr. O’Halloran and the leadership team have done a tremendous job preparing for the transition from one school year to the next.  I am proud to say that we are ready to release student schedules and open the Powerschool Parent/Student Portal for the 2022-2023 school year.  The Technology Department has sent all parents and students a separate email with your login credentials to access Powerschool.  New parents (or current parents without an account) should follow the instructions in the email to create their own account and then connect your account to your high schooler using a unique Parent Access ID and Access PW.  Current parents should continue to use the same credentials from prior years.  All student credentials have been updated.  Student Usernames are now the beginning part of their email.  For example, senior Michael Rose’s username would be 23mrose.

Student passwords are their five digit student ID.  Again, please check your email for more information on accessing Powerschool.  

We recommend downloading the Powerschool mobile app to have student attendance, grades, and schedules at your fingertips.  Our district code is: LJPK 

The Guidance team has spent hours reviewing each student’s schedule and they did their best to accommodate each and every scheduling request.  Please reach out to them after August 8th with any questions or concerns after reviewing their schedule.  We encourage students to make a copy of our updated Drop Schedule Template and manually fill in their courses.  Many students will print a few copies and have them in an easily accessible location like in their backpack, on the inside of their locker, and in their school binder.  We are also printing copies of the bell schedule for students to affix to the opposite side of their student ID.

The 2022-2023 school calendars are also complete.  A print friendly version of our “Key Dates” calendar is included in this welcome back package.  We are finalizing the summary calendar which organizes events and happenings by category and will have that ready by the end of the month. Our hope is that you will print, display, and reference these calendars often.

We do not plan on making any changes but please remember that dates and events are subject to change. Therefore, we recommend adding our school-wide Calendar to your mobile device OR using our website or new mobile app for the latest events.

The Communications team is aggregating important information for Back to School on a single page on our website. After August 5th, you can bookmark and visit www.srhsnj.com/welcomeback for one stop access to Back to School Forms, school calendars, email history, school uniforms, lunch menu/accounts, athletics, technology, communications, and answers to your frequently asked questions. As September approaches, members of the leadership team will be sending out additional information which will be added to the Welcome Back page on our website.

Tuition doesn't cover the full cost to educate a student at St. Rose High School. Indeed, philanthropy at St. Rose High School through our annual giving program, the St. Rose Fund, provides a significant contribution towards the academic and extracurricular programming we offer. Your gifts support the people and programs that will propel, challenge, and

ground our school as an educational leader. We are embarking on a special moment within our school’s history as we prepare to celebrate our Centennial Anniversary.  For almost 100 years, St. Rose High School has produced responsible leaders, creative innovators, and committed public leaders who have used the gift of education wisely. I look forward to our work together to commemorate this incredible milestone and build a future for St. Rose High School to guide us into the next 100 years!

The faculty and staff of St. Rose High School are your partners in the education and formation of your sons and daughters. There is no more powerful team than St. Rose High School and our parents working together for the good of our students. Together, our young people will be challenged rigorously in a highly supportive environment, and with this careful preparation, year after year, they will head out into the world with the confidence to thrive and the convictions to make a difference. So let us welcome you to St. Rose High School for the 2022-2023 school year, walk the pathways with us, get involved, and get to know the warmth and strength of our community first hand. That feeling is real — that’s St. Rose High School! Go Roses!

Yours in faith and education, 

Robert J. Dougherty ‘05
SRHS Principal