Holy Name School may close

Those with any interest in the future of Holy Name School might want to attend a meeting at the church on Sunday.

The school is in serious financial trouble, the parish's pastor said Thursday night. Unless the school can raise $300,000 by March 15 — one month and one day after the meeting — the venerable 93-year-old institution at Maple Street and Fontenelle Boulevard could close.

“It is a pillar, a mainstay in a neighborhood that needs all the help it can get,” said the Rev. Frank Baumert, pastor of Holy Name Church. “This school has a tremendous impact on north Omaha.”

The 4 p.m. Sunday meeting, open to the public, will focus on coming up with ways to raise the funds. It will take place in the cafeteria in the church basement.

At this point, Holy Name Church is not in jeopardy, Baumert said.

But the school normally enters contracts with its teachers for the next school year by March 15. If school leaders cannot raise the needed money by then, he said, those contracts will not be signed and the school is likely to close.

Baumert said the school has operated at a loss the past three years. Some of that has to do with unexpected maintenance costs from heating and cooling system repairs, he said, but more has to do with decreased endowments and fewer donations to a school that caters to many impoverished students.

“Being an inner-city school, we are dealing with a fair number of families that cannot pay anything near full tuition,” Baumert said.

The school serves non-Catholic as well as Catholic families.

Baumert said the school may need to raise $450,000 to meet all its needs for the coming school year. First, though, it needs to raise the $300,000.

“We are hopeful that will happen,” Baumert said. “But it is a scary time.”

Contact the writer:

444-3106, andrew.nelson@owh.com

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