Prospects brighter for Holy Name

Holy Name School isn't out of the woods yet, but its future looks brighter today than it did a few days ago.

Donors have given $60,000 since parish and school leaders went public with the Catholic grade school's financial difficulties, the Rev. Frank Baumert, Holy Name's pastor, said Thursday.

Also Thursday, an Archdiocese of Omaha official announced that the archdiocese is helping the parish and school resolve budget problems and plan for a more stable future.

The Rev. Joseph Taphorn, chancellor of the archdiocese, said officials are helping Holy Name find potential funding sources. He said Holy Name will tap into parish and school endowment funds that it had hoped to preserve for the future. And Archbishop George Lucas instructed Baumert to work with the archdiocese's Catholic Schools Office and Catholic Outreach for Education Board to “develop a plan that will position the school more favorably in the future.”

Taphorn noted that the archdiocese had given the school more than $135,000 in the past three years.

Baumert had said last week that the 93-year-old Holy Name School, at 2901 Fontenelle Blvd., might have to close this year if it can't raise $300,000 by March 15 to cover a budget shortfall.

In telephone interviews Thursday, Baumert and Taphorn stopped short of saying the danger of closing is gone.

“We're hopeful,” Taphorn said. “We're putting a plan in place. ... It's a serious situation, but it's one that we think is manageable.”

Baumert said the archdiocese has been helping all along, and the additional help will make a difference. Of the donations, Baumert said, “The broader community has really stepped up and said ‘We want this to last.'”

Contact the writer:

444-1057, christopher.burbach@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share