Local school named for Blessed Oscar Romero was trailblazer

Some thought this day would never arrive. Others hoped and some always knew it would. On May 23, the Catholic Church beatified Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez of El Salvador, who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass, just a day after pleading and ordering soldiers to stop killing innocent civilians.

“I think it’s awesome that Archbishop Oscar Romero is becoming a saint because he embodied what I think a saint is, he spoke for those who would not have any kind of voice and he never waivered in his faith,” said Mari Valdez, who attended Archbishop Oscar Romero Middle School in Corpus Christi in 1993.

In 1986, a year after becoming a diocesan funded school, Bishop Rene H. Gracida renamed St. Joseph Junior High School the Archbishop Oscar Romero Junior High. Not every one agreed with this name change; some considered the new name a bit odd. All other Catholic schools had “holy” names, such as Incarnate Word, Holy Family, Christ the King and Ss. Cyril & Methodius. It did not seem right for a Catholic school to be named after an ordinary person; just another priest killed during time of war.

Former ninth grade students from Archbishop Oscar Romero Junior High School prepare to take a field trip to San Antonio in 1987. Contributed photo

In a prescient moment, Bishop Gracida saw something in this man that related to this school and the community it served. The small, accredited school was located on Corpus Christi’s Westside, and was considered the “poor kids” school. The students may have come from low-income homes, but they and their parents were good people, rich in heart, who helped their school and community build a strong and proud family atmosphere, much like Archbishop Romero had done in his native El Salvador.

“We, the student council that year, also with our 9th grade class of 1987, were the steering committee with our teachers, that discussed and debated and prayed then finally voted to rename the school Archbishop Oscar Romero,” said Jeannie Leos, student council president that year. Ramos posted her comment in a 2009 Facebook group page where former school students and staff still keep in touch. The page is named “St. Joseph Jr. High School SAINTS A.K.A. Archbishop Oscar Romero.”

“Tessa Marie Perez, Debbie Montez and I wrote a rap song about AOR and the changing of the name, and performed it at a surprise presentation for Sr. Barbara Netek at the end of that year,” Leos posted.

Archbishop Romero was known as a man who served the marginalized in society. This inspired the school. Ultimately, the school’s new name was accepted and embraced by students and the community alike; as the bishop had anticipated, it was a perfect fit.

Sister Barbara Netek, a sister of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, who was principal at St. Joseph Junior High School when it was renamed was happy for the name change. She had followed Archbishop Romero closely in the news when the war broke out in El Salvador and considered him to be in likeness with St. Francis and now to Pope Francis.

Sister Barbara Netek, IWBS was principal of St. Joseph and Archbishop Oscar Romero Junior High Schools from 1978-1988.

“They are religious men of justice and unafraid to speak the truth,” Sister Netek said. “They all spoke the Gospel and lived the Gospel, and that is what we taught the kids at Archbishop Oscar Romero; you must read the Gospel, speak the Gospel and live the Gospel. Archbishop Romero truly was a model for all people.”

Though the students and staff were proud of their new name, they did not change their mascot—the Saints. Sister Netek recalls students and staff jokingly saying at the time, “our mascot, the little guy with the halo over his head became known to us as Archbishop Romero. He’s been a saint long before now, in my book.”

Beginning with the 1989-1990 school year, Archbishop Oscar Romero Junior High was thrust into the media spotlight, as it became the first Catholic school in Texas to start year-round classes. It adopted the slogan “The year round school: where learning never stops.”

Soon after the school board’s unanimous decision for the junior high’s calendar change, Holy Family Elementary followed its lead. By 1995, 11 of the diocesan schools had moved to a year-round calendar.

In 1991, in response to the Corpus Christi Independent School District restructuring their schools, Archbishop Oscar Romero Junior High was granted permission from the Diocesan School Board to become AOR Middle School, serving grades six through eight, with special permission to maintain their ninth grade class for that year as well.

The school started a Fair Share Tuition Program in 1986; the first of it’s kind in the diocese. Through this program there was no “set tuition” but instead each family was privately evaluated to determine what they could contribute through money and service to the school. The Fair Share Tuition Program was designed with the understanding that anyone who wanted a Catholic education was deserving of one.

The school and its community greatly benefited from this program because it committed families to investing in their school. All parents became members of the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) and their services to help maintain the school ranged from helping in the school library to weekend bingo games or performing electrical work, carpentry or plumbing. It became a community that took care of itself but would not keep to itself.

Each year students reached out to the needy close to home and in places they had never visited. Funds were raised and divided among Catholic Charities, the needy in Mexico and the poor and homeless in the city. In 1986 students also adopted the Casa Oscar Romero in San Benito and all of their collections for food and clothing were sent to the people of the halfway house.

Through all the changes and growing pains, the students and faculty never lost pride in their school and their mission to be “strong Catholic leaders with spiritual global perspectives.” Students claimed trophies and recognition in National Junior Honor Society, essay contests, school choir and basketball. On one occasion, they were recognized for saving two elderly men from a burning house behind the school.

“There was this overwhelming push from our teachers to really excel and do our best,” Tessa Marie Perez posted on Facebook.

In 1996, due to diocesan financial constraints, Bishop Gracida approved the new budget changes prepared by the diocesan budget committee to have Archbishop Oscar Romero Middle School merge with Corpus Christi Middle School, retaining the latter’s name. Eventually it morphed with Bishop Garriga Middle School.

In difficult times, Archbishop Romero “guided, defended and protected his flock, remaining loyal to the Gospel, in communion with the church,” Pope Francis said. His ministry, the pope said, was distinguished for particular attention to the poorest and marginalized. And so did the school named for him in the Diocese of Corpus Christi.

Those who have Archbishop Romero “as a friend in faith, who invoke him in as protector and intercessor, who admire him, should find in him strength and energy to build the kingdom of God,” and should work for a more equitable and dignified social order, the pope said.

(The Catholic News Service contributed to this article.)