Letter from the Principal - November 2025

November 12, 2025

Dear Parents and Guardians, 

Happy November — the month of gratitude. 

Last night, God blessed us with a rare and spectacular light show across North America.  If you didn’t get the chance to view it, we may have another opportunity to see the Northern Lights tonight. I encourage you to watch the Aurora forecast and try to catch a glimpse of this phenomenon. 

Our community celebrated this special month of Thanksgiving with an Ecumenical Prayer Service on November 3. The theme was Gratitude and Thanksgiving for the God who made us, watches over us, and shepherds us each day (Psalm 100). 

We welcomed our chaplain, Fr. Pat Kennedy ‘69, CDH Parent, Rev. Melvin Miller (Progressive Baptist Church in St. Paul, MN), CDH student Rhema Edomaruseh '27, and alum Rev. Elizabeth Gleich, ‘08 (The Congregational Church of Middlebury, VT).  They all preached and shared the Word of God with us.  

We were also blessed with the musical gifts of Ms. Delilah Schuster and the CDH Choir, Yolanda Xu '26 (performing J.S. Bach’s Cello Suite #1 Prelude), Mr. Jerry Steele (vocalist) for Opening and Closing Gospel songs,  and Mr. Thomas West (accompanist) for Opening and Closing Gospel songs. Our students and staff responded enthusiastically to their messages. We thank them for opening our hearts and spirits to the God who made us. 

Finally, as we head into Thanksgiving, we recognize with gratitude the gifts we receive at CDH. 

We are grateful for our shared commitment to an excellent educational experience for your students through continual improvement.  

We appreciate your partnership and the feedback you are providing through the Parent Pulse Survey.  I want you to know that we read each and every response.  The last surveys will be emailed this week.  We plan to close survey responses early next week and use your feedback to inform our uniform decisions. We will also share results from the survey with you.  

We are grateful for the opportunity to teach, counsel, and coach your children. We also appreciate you, our parents and guardians, for the continued trust you place in us.  

We are grateful for all the blessings this community has to offer. On behalf of our school community, we wish you and your families a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Sincerely,

Mona Passman