Education in
Omaha, Nebraska
is provided by many private and public institutions. The first high school graduates in the Omaha area came from
Brownell-Talbot School
, which was founded in the town of
Saratoga
in 1863.
[1]
The oldest school building in continuous usage is
Omaha Central High School
.
History
[
edit
]
In the mid-19th century, Omaha joined other progressive cities in establishing schools for girls. The
Episcopal Church
founded Brownell Hall, an all-girls
secondary
boarding school
in
Saratoga
. It officially opened on September 15, 1863. Located at present-day 24th and Grand Avenue, this private religious school was named after an Episcopal bishop of New York, and was first located in the Saratoga Springs Hotel, a defunct resort. Students came to the school from
Nebraska City
,
Bellevue
,
Florence
,
Fontanelle
,
Decatur
and Omaha.
[2]
The school moved to
downtown Omaha
in 1868, and in the 1920s it moved to a
central Omaha
location. Today it known as
Brownell-Talbot School
,
[3]
and is the oldest continuing school in Nebraska.
[4]
Saratoga School at Meridith Avenue and North 25th Street was started in 1866 by local citizens. The
one room schoolhouse
was one of the first public schools in Nebraska, and perhaps the first in the Omaha area.
[5]
In 1927, businessmen formed the North Omaha Activities Association to re-develop Saratoga School's playing field into a college football field for
Omaha University's
football team. At that time the university was located immediately south in the
Redick Mansion
at the affluent
Kountze Place
suburb. With new bleachers built to accommodate a crowd of a thousand, the Saratoga Field was home to O.U.'s team until 1951.
[6]
The community was also home to the
Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary
, which closed in 1943.
The
Academy of the Sacred Heart
was opened in 1882 to provide
college preparatory
education to young women in the
Near North Side
and
Kountze Park
neighborhoods; later, the school specifically served women in the
Gold Coast
and
Bemis Park
neighborhoods.
Technical High School
was the third high school built in Omaha. The city's largest public school building was a five-winged building with a large athletic field that occupied three square city blocks between Burt and Cuming Streets from 30th to 33rd Streets. By 1940, enrollment had reached 3,684.
[7]
The school was closed in 1984, and the building was completely renovated for use as the
Omaha Public Schools
central office. Today, it also serves as a home for the Career Center and Adult Education programs, serving 700-plus students daily.
[8]
Omaha North High School
at 36th Street and Ames Avenue occupies a hilltop view covering four square blocks. Constructed like a capital E and first occupied in September 1924, the building has 49 rooms, a cafeteria, a gymnasium and an auditorium.
[9]
Segregated schools
[
edit
]
From the 1880s through the beginning of
desegregation busing
in
Omaha Public Schools
in the early 1970s, several
segregated
schools in North Omaha served the city's African American students. They included
Howard Kennedy School
,
Lake School
,
Kellom School
,
Lothrop School
, and
Long School
. Other schools in the area with large
African American
populations into the 1980s included
Tech High
,
North High
and
Central High School
. Into the 1970s, these were widely regarded as the city's "black schools", with de facto
segregation
based on residential housing patterns. African American students and teachers felt they were kept from achieving
equity
with schools across the city that
white students
attended.
[10]
A different type of segregation affected the students at the
Nebraska School for the Deaf
. The School, started in 1870 on 23 acres (93,000 m
2
) between Bedford Avenue and Wirt Street, between 42nd and 44th Streets, served thousands of
hearing-impaired
students.
[11]
LB 1024
[
edit
]
As early as 2005, Nebraska State Senator
Ernie Chambers
proposed that North Omaha become responsible for educating its own students. Because of a proposal he made, on April 13, 2006, the
Nebraska Legislature
passed Legislative Bill 1024 that would create three separate school districts out of Omaha Public Schools, including one specifically for North Omaha.
[12]
The
governor
of
Nebraska
signed the bill into law later that day.
[13]
Among other things, LB 1024 calls for Omaha Public Schools to be broken into three separate school districts. LB 1024 requires that each new district consist of contiguous high school attendance areas and include either two or three of the seven existing high schools. That allows about 20 ways to group the seven schools, depending on which adjacent high school attendance areas are grouped with the geographically most central area.
The three-district plan for OPS was proposed in amendment AM3142, introduced on the day the legislature first took up LB 1024. The suburban school districts reluctantly supported the three-district plan, seeing it as the most favorable of the bills proposed. The OPS leadership vehemently opposed the plan. AM3142 was approved on the day it was introduced by a counted vote of 33 to 6 with 10 senators not voting.
[14]
Five days later a motion to reconsider AM3142 failed in a
roll-call vote
of 9 to 31 with 9 senators not voting.
[15]
It is suspected that OPS may file a
suit
challenging the new
law
. On May 16, 2006, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) filed a suit against the governor and other Nebraska
state
officials charging that LB 1024, originally proposed by state senator
Ernie Chambers
, "intentionally furthers
racial segregation
." The NAACP lawsuit argues that because Omaha has racially segregated residential patterns, subdivided school districts will also be racially segregated,
[16]
contrary to
United States
law
. However the schools appear to be already segregated because of the neighborhoods, and children would have the option of going to any school in the district.
Public school districts
[
edit
]
Primary and secondary public schools in the
Omaha metro area
is served by almost a dozen districts.
Portions of the Omaha city limits are in the following school districts: Omaha Public Schools, Westside Community Schools, Ralston Public Schools, Millard Public Schools, and Elkhorn Public Schools.
[18]
Other public schools
[
edit
]
Private schools
[
edit
]
There are dozens of
private schools
in Omaha, including parochial and other types of schools.
Private schools in the Omaha area
|
School name
|
Brownell-Talbot School
|
Legacy School
|
Gethsemane Lutheran School
|
Good Shepherd Lutheran School
|
Montessori Learning Center Of Dundee
|
Omaha Private Instruction Institute
|
Montessori Children's House
|
Zion Peace Lutheran School
|
Friedel Jewish Academy
|
Omaha Christian Academy
|
Omaha Memorial SDA School
|
Phoenix Academy of Learning
|
Omaha Baptist Academy
|
The Children's Room, Inc.
|
Omaha Hearing School for Children
|
Catholic schools
[
edit
]
All
Catholic schools
in Omaha are operated by the
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Omaha
.
Weekend complementary education institutions
[
edit
]
The Omaha Japanese School (オマハ日本語補習授業校
Omaha Nihongo Hosh? Jugy? K?
), a
Japanese weekend educational program
approved by the
Japanese Ministry of Education
,
[19]
holds its classes at the St. Mark Lutheran Church in Omaha.
[20]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
(1993).
From Pony Express to Wireless: Brownell-Talbot College Preparatory School 140 Years of History
Archived
2008-09-07 at the
Wayback Machine
.
Brownell-Talbot Quarterly
. Fall/Winter 1993-94. Retrieved 8/16/07.
- ^
Morton and Watkins. (1916)
History of Nebraska.
p 515.
- ^
(1993).
From Pony Express to Wireless: Brownell-Talbot College Preparatory School: 140 Years of History
Archived
2008-09-07 at the
Wayback Machine
. Fall/Winter 1993-94
Brownell-Talbot Quarterly
.
- ^
Morton and Watkins. (1916) p 515.
- ^
(n.d.)
"Saratoga History."
Saratoga Elementary School website.
- ^
(n.d.)
Saratoga Field
Archived
2007-09-29 at the
Wayback Machine
University of Nebraska at Omaha website.
- ^
(n.d.)
History of Tech High.
Gifford Park Neighborhood Association.
- ^
(n.d.)
About Technical High School
- ^
(nd)
Historical photo
Omaha Public Library. Retrieved 6/4/07.
- ^
(n.d.)
Excerpts from Interviews - Evelyn Montgomery
Archived
2007-12-11 at the
Wayback Machine
Crestridge School of International/Global Studies, Omaha Public Schools. Retrieved 9/11/07.
- ^
Omaha from the Air
HistoricOmaha.com - Taken from the
Omaha World-Herald
. Retrieved 9/11/07.
- ^
"Legislative Bill 1024: An act relating to schools"
(PDF)
. State of Nebraska. 2006. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 2006-09-28
. Retrieved
2008-07-27
.
- ^
Sam Dillon (April 15, 2006).
"Law to Segregate Omaha Schools Divides Nebraska"
.
New York Times
. Retrieved
May 1,
2010
.
- ^
"Legislative Journal"
(PDF)
. State of Nebraska. Apr 6, 2006. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on September 28, 2006
. Retrieved
July 27,
2008
.
- ^
"Legislative Journal"
(PDF)
. State of Nebraska. Apr 11, 2006. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on September 28, 2006
. Retrieved
July 27,
2008
.
- ^
Sam Dillon (May 17, 2006).
"Schools Plan in Nebraska Is Challenged"
.
New York Times
.
- ^
"About Us"
.
Ralston Public Schools
. Retrieved
2019-11-20
.
- ^
"2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: Douglas County, NE"
(PDF)
.
U.S. Census Bureau
. Retrieved
2022-11-27
.
- ^
"
日本人?校及び日本語補習授業校のご案?
" (
Archive
).
Consulate General of Japan in Chicago
. Retrieved on April 8, 2015.
- ^
"
所在地
." Omaha Japanese School. Retrieved on April 1, 2015. "Omaha Japanese School St. Mark Lutheran Church 1821 N 90th St Omaha, NE 68114"
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Ordinaries
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Auxiliary bishops
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Churches
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Education
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- Higher education
- Creighton University
- College of Saint Mary
- High schools
- Archbishop Bergan High School, Fremont
- Cedar Catholic High School, Hartington
- Central Catholic High School, West Point
- Creighton Preparatory School, Omaha
- Daniel J. Gross Catholic High School, Bellevue
- Duchesne Academy, Omaha
- Holy Family High School, Lindsay
- Marian High School, Omaha
- Mercy High School, Omaha
- Mount Michael Benedictine School, Omaha
- Norfolk Catholic High School, Norfolk
- Pope John XXIII Central Catholic High School, Elgin
- Roncalli Catholic High School, Omaha
- St. Francis High School, Humphrey
- St. Mary's High School, O'Neill
- Scotus Central Catholic High School, Columbus
- V. J. and Angela Skutt Catholic High School, Omaha
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Priests
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Other
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Education in the United States by city
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