Published Thursday | April 24, 2008
Rural-to-urban population shift leads to closing of some parochial schools
BY MICHAELA SAUNDERS
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2 ... d=10318021

Enjoying recess on the St. Michael schoolyard are, from left, Alec Cromer, Patrick and Joy Ondrak and Paul Mach. The school will close for good next month.
But those sacraments weren't happening often enough to suggest that the parish school would grow or even sustain its enrollment. St. Michael will close its school in May.

Rural to urban migration throughout the Midlands means change for hundreds of communities — and their nonpublic schools. School officials say smaller families also have contributed to their enrollment declines.

Last fall, a Catholic high school opened in Omaha and a Catholic elementary sprouted in nearby Fremont, thanks to urban and suburban growth. As those schools finish their first year, two others in the rural communities of Fairbury, Neb., and Missouri Valley, Iowa, are finishing their last.

All schools, of course, have fewer students than during the height of the baby boom. More recently, the number of school-age children statewide increased again in the mid-1990s, was down in the 2001-02 school year and has been climbing since.

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St. Michael School student Alec Cromer, left, gets help from paraprofessional Carolyn Osborne while the Rev. Kenneth Hoesing talks with Patrick Ondrak. Other students in the Fairbury, Neb., classroom are Neal Ehler, in background, Jacob Johnson and Paul Mach.
Nebraska's public school enrollment increased each of the past six years, while nonpublic school enrollment declined each of the past seven years.

Rural Nebraska has lost more than 3,000 people per year since 2000, according to U.S. Census estimates released last month. Now, just 13 of the state's 93 counties are home to nearly three of every four Nebraskans.

Fairbury's St. Michael is the first school in the Lincoln Diocese to close in at least 25 years.

"We tried to come up with every idea that we could," said the Rev. Kenneth Hoesing, who serves as St. Michael's priest and principal. "We're a small school and very close knit. The last day is going to be miserable."

That day in mid-May, when Hoesing shares the last Mass with the school's 17 students, is one no one is looking forward to. The daily services already are getting emotional.

But, in a county that's seen a nearly 10 percent drop in population since 2000, there isn't much choice. "It comes down to an urban-rural situation," said the Rev. John Perkinton, superintendent of the Lincoln Diocese schools.

The Diocese of Des Moines, which recently decided to close St. Patrick school in Missouri Valley, is experiencing similar population shifts.

"Rural areas are decreasing because of the decrease in population," said Luvern Gubbels, superintendent for that diocese. "Here in the city we've actually held our own or increased a bit."

Gubbels said he's hopeful that some St. Patrick students will attend St. Albert Schools in Council Bluffs. But, he said, he understands that the current economy may make that difficult for some families.

The Rev. Thomas Ryan, superintendent of schools for the Grand Island Diocese, has seen the effects of population drain for many years. In some cases over the years, he said, a Catholic school closing and public school consolidation have happened about the same time.

Ryan said that as parishioners head to Omaha or Lincoln in search of work, the eight schools left in the Grand Island Diocese have had to adjust.

Omaha-area schools are adjusting as well.

"There are fewer children, especially in rural communities," said the Rev. James Gilg, superintendent for the Archdiocese of Omaha.

In Omaha, a dozen Catholic schools have consolidated or closed since the 1970s — nearly all of them in the older, eastern part. In the same period, seven schools have opened — six of them in the rapidly growing suburban areas of Omaha.

Both the rural and urban parts of the 23-county Omaha Archdiocese have grown since their lowest enrollment years, bolstered in part by the addition of pre-kindergarten programs.

The economy may cause many families to look at their options, Gilg said, but scholarships help, and if parents believe religious education is important, "they're going to make a sacrifice for that."

Some non-Catholic private schools have lost enrollment since 1999-2000: Omaha Christian Academy now has 288 compared to 339 then, and Trinity Christian School in Omaha has 527 students compared to 644.

Some private schools are thriving or are making moves to ensure survival.

Gilg said the Omaha Archdiocese is committed to maintaining its presence in the central city. He said schools in largely non-Catholic areas are reaching out to neighborhood families as a faith-centered and disciplined alternative to the public schools. He said schools also are marketing to new immigrant populations.

Officials at Brownell-Talbot, an independent private school in midtown Omaha, say enrollment has nearly doubled since 1989 to this year's 465.

The Omaha-based Wider Omaha Lutheran Schools Association decided to consolidate its two elementary schools into one space last fall.

Answering the question — "What do we need to do to . . . maintain excellence and see further growth?" — drove the decision, said the Rev. James Rasmussen, executive director of the association.

The decade-old system — which now includes 427 students in one junior-senior high school and one elementary school in Omaha — had its first high school graduates in 2005. Rasmussen is hopeful that a growing alumni base and continuing to get their message out will mean growth in coming years.

In Fremont, Bergan Elementary opened last fall with 34 students in pre-kindergarten through first grade. Next year's enrollment — through third grade — is already more than 100 students. The community had a Catholic elementary school from the early 1900s until 1975.

Katherine Griffen, principal of Bergan Elementary, said growth in the community and the desire families had for a choice led to the school's opening. Fremont also has a Lutheran school.

But Fairbury, a small community that isn't on the Interstate and is about a 70-minute drive from Lincoln, is no suburb. Mary Mach, who sent four of her five children to St. Michael in Fairbury, said she knew closing the school was a possibility, but it still caught her and other families off guard.

Mach, who moved to Fairbury 15 years ago in large part because of the school choice, said her family is sad the youngest child, who starts kindergarten in the fall, won't go to school at St. Michael.

"I understand the economics of it," Mach said. But it's hard to see it go.

"You put your heart and soul into something like that. It will never come back. You know this town is not going to get a bunch of kids and open up a Catholic school."