Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.In the basement of Holy Ghost Catholic Church, children clad in polos and khakis prayed a collective "Hail Mary."
No surprise there.
But then the crowd of students, wearing joker hats, baseball caps and homemade paper headgear, erupted into discordant chants. Some shouted names of teachers. Others rooted for classmates.
In Holy Ghost's rendition of NBC's "Minute to Win It," students challenged teachers and relatives to bizarre 60-second contests. They tried to mummify themselves in toilet paper and to stack apples, lip balm tubes and dice.
The game show was one of several activities held to mark National Catholic Schools Week at Holy Ghost.
From the smiles, laughs and high-fives, you wouldn't guess Holy Ghost is one of five K-8 schools pegged for closing by 2013 under the Omaha Archdiocese's tentative restructuring plan, revealed last month.
"We have lots of hope," Holy Ghost Principal Dana Martin said.
The Holy Ghost community started hatching a plan mere days after the archdiocesan's draft proposal was released. A committee of parents, grandparents and even friends of the grandparents crafted an alternative to the archdiocese's plan and submitted a blueprint of it last week to the archdiocese.
They propose merging Holy Ghost with nearby St. Stanislaus and Sts. Peter and Paul Schools to form a new school, with a new name and mascot but with the same South Omaha identity that they say distinguishes these schools from the city's other Catholic schools.
"We've looked at (the plan) from not only an emotional perspective but also from a business perspective," Martin said. "We just feel like it would be a bad thing for South Omaha schools to lose their identity and close completely."
The archdiocese hired Wisconsin firm Meitler Consultants last summer to study how the city's Catholic elementary schools could be more viable. Omaha is growing westward, leaving a number of urban Catholic K-8 schools with more than 1,700 open seats and few students in the area to fill them.
As a result of the study, the archdiocese has proposed closing six schools, while an additional six would be consolidated into a system with one governing board and an executive director.
All Saints, St. Joan of Arc, Sts. Peter and Paul, and St. Stanislaus are the others targeted for potential shutdowns next year. Holy Name also would close under the initial draft, although a time frame wasn't set.
Omaha businessman Pete Ricketts is leading an effort to establish a community foundation to keep Holy Name open.
The archdiocese has encouraged parishioners of the affected schools to respond to the draft with alternatives and other models for moving forward.
Under the archdiocesan draft plan, students — and teachers, as much as possible — from the shuttered schools would be accommodated in the schools participating in the new system.
The draft lists two options for the makeup of that system. Holy Cross, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Bernadette (in Bellevue), St. Gerald (in Ralston) and St. Thomas More are included under both versions. One option includes Assumption-Guadalupe School and the other St. Mary School.
Martin, at Holy Ghost, said the school's diversity should be considered.
"We have lots and lots of kids who are ethnically diverse, and we don't think those other buildings give us that feel," Martin said. "We have African-American children, Latinos, Filipinos, Sudanese."
Holy Ghost's students are 71 percent white, 14 percent black, 10 percent Latino, 4 percent Asian-American-Pacific Islander and 1 percent American Indian.
Omaha Catholic elementary schools as a whole are 75 percent white.
Bob Rosman, a third-grader, said he wants to stay at Holy Ghost. The 9-year-old has made good friends there. He loves his teachers, his small classes and the great lunches, especially Macho Nachos.
"I just really like going to school here," he said.
But at least for now, compromise is likely in order for Holy Ghost, although the archdiocese has emphasized that its proposal is subject to change.
"We may not be able to save our school, per se, but we may be able to keep some school in South Omaha, and that's our fight," said Veronica Rosman, Bob's mother. Her daughter, Kenzie, is a sixth-grader at Holy Ghost.
Rosman said her children "cried and cried and cried" when they heard their school might close. Bob wrote a letter to the archdiocese and taped to it a photo of him and his best friend, Gabe.
Deacon Tim McNeil, the archdiocese's chancellor, said Holy Ghost's consolidation plan is "going to get consideration. This is what we have asked for."
Holy Ghost has 100 K-8 students.
St. Stanislaus and Sts. Peter and Paul together have 214 students, according to the study, which says a school needs an enrollment of at least 200 to be cost-effective.
The Holy Ghost committee's plan doesn't specify a location for its proposed merger. Martin said there's plenty of space at Holy Ghost, the original parts of which were built by some students' relatives 89 years ago.
But Martin said she'd be fine with moving students to the St. Stanislaus or Sts. Peter and Paul facilities as well.
St. Stanislaus principal Gary Davis said he hadn't seen Holy Ghost's proposal and declined to discuss his own school's ideas.
Rich Leimbach, principal at Sts. Peter and Paul, said he, Davis and Martin had briefly talked about the plan, but he deferred to the Rev. Frank Jindra for more information. Jindra, the pastor, had no comment.
In March, the archdiocese will release a second draft plan. A final report is expected to go to Archbishop George Lucas in April.
In the meantime, Holy Ghost parents are praying they won't be hunting for new schools for their children come next summer.
"We're hoping it doesn't come to that," said Diana Christensen, whose 10-year-old grandson, Caleb, is a fifth-grader.
"From Day 1 they've all known all of the kids and teachers. It's a home away from home here. I don't want to have to start over."
Contact the writer:
teresa.lostroh@owh.com
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