De La Salle Blackfeet School in Browning, on the Blackfeet Reservation, is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Ten years ago, Brother Paul Ackerman and Father Ed Kohler started the school with one class, consisting of 12 fifth-graders. Now the school enrolls 70 students in grades 4-8. DLSBS strives for a personal educational experience and limits class size to 15.

The goal of DLSBS is to provide an alternative to public education for parents wanting their children to receive an education that is both rigorous and based on the Catholic faith. Browning’s Little Flower Parish and its pastor, Father Ed Kohler, support the school, as do the many donors throughout the world.

The school participates in the community in various ways. They include joining nursing home patients for Mass, participating in weekly Mass with the community and doing neighborhood and road cleanups.

For the past two years, the valedictorian at Browning High School has been a DLSBS graduate. Among last year’s high school graduates, most who are DLSBS alumni have advanced to post-secondary education. Browning High School’s 2010 valedictorian, Riel LaPlante, attends Stanford University on a full scholarship.


Published in The Montana Catholic Online, Volume 26, No. 9, September 17, 2010.