Pete Ricketts' interest in Holy Name School started while standing in line at fish fries and serving as a guest reader at the school.
He remembers an orderly and purposeful classroom and his tie-wearing escort, a third-grader named Nick who really liked his school.
Now the Omaha businessman is leading a group of benefactors who announced a plan Wednesday to form a community foundation to keep the school open for years to come.
Ricketts said the group, still in its early stages, is focusing on Holy Name because of the great work it does in the north Omaha community in helping kids break the cycle of poverty.
That, he said, is important to the entire city.
"Holy Name is doing things right," he said. "They bring the kids into an environment where they're safe, where they can learn, where expectations are high, and they provide the tools and support to be successful."
Holy Name, 2901 Fontenelle Blvd., is one of six Catholic grade schools largely east of 72nd Street listed for possible closure in a first draft of a consultant's report. The report was prepared as part of a strategic planning effort the Omaha Archdiocese launched last summer.
Archdiocesan officials have stressed that the plan is a first draft that is "highly subject to change" and that their intent is to get community members to talk and bring back options before another round of meetings in March. A final report is expected to go to Archbishop George Lucas in April.
Deacon Tim McNeil, the archdiocese's chancellor, said Wednesday that the process is designed to work the way the Holy Name group is proceeding.
"We're grateful that Holy Name has accepted the spirit" of the process, he said. "This plan will get its due consideration, along with those we hope to get from other schools."
Sofia Kock, Holy Name's principal, said the school is "humbled" that someone is taking notice of what it's accomplishing in northeast Omaha. The school has been working on plans for the future, although the consultant's report caused them to speed up their efforts.
Ricketts said Holy Name serves a diverse community.
And it is succeeding, he said. Ninety-eight percent of the school's eighth-grade graduates between 1998 and 2007 went on to graduate from high school on time. Of those students, 82 percent reported plans to seek education beyond high school.
Ricketts ticked off a list of community partners that bring in support services for students, including Creighton University, the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Alegent Health and the TeamMates Mentoring Program.
"Kids from low-income (homes) do need additional help, whether it's nutrition or counseling or mentoring, and Holy Name has put together a program to help these low-income kids," he said.
The advisory group, in fact, has been working with Holy Name for more than a year, Ricketts said. Group members asked the parish to separate its budget from that of the school. That effort determined that the school's development program has to raise $300,000 a year to enable the parish to financially sustain the school, a figure that was included in the consultant's report.
The consultant's report also indicated that the school building will need extensive repairs and renovations within the next decade at an estimated cost of $5 million.
Ricketts said the school has a capital campaign under way and has raised $1.9 million for capital improvements since 2000.
Kock said the school gradually has been making upgrades thanks to that effort and will continue with additional funding.
Ricketts said the latest effort won't be just a handout for the school. Holy Name will have to continue to raise money and to market itself to bring in more students.
Current enrollment in kindergarten through eighth grade is 147 students. Ricketts said the school could go to 180 to 200 students without adding staff. Adding more students will help cover some of the school's costs.
Part of marketing the school will include making sure parents know that scholarships are available through sources such as the Children's Scholarship Fund.
Kock said the school already is working with a Creighton business professor and two graduate students to develop business and marketing plans for the school to get the word out about what it offers.
Meantime, Ricketts said the advisory group, which includes four other Omaha businessmen, expects to add members and broaden fundraising to a network of Catholic and non-Catholic donors. The group helped with a benefit dinner for Holy Name at St. Robert Bellarmine Church near 120th and Pacific Streets last spring and will repeat it this year.
The goal is to secure support outside the parish and school, a model Sacred Heart School near 22nd and Binney Streets pioneered decades ago.
"One of our hopes is if we can demonstrate success for Holy Name, this is a model that could be expanded to cover more inner-city schools, perhaps all of them," Ricketts said.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
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