Since signing a 50-year lease with the Way Retreat Center in 2021, Holy Cross Catholic High School has been getting its name out there, shown growth and garnered support.
A competitive-size gym is now being built that Head of School Carolyn Gonzalez hopes will be ready in August when school starts.
Onyx is the contractor and Jason S. Dean Architects is the architect. It will be 14,735 square feet and have a 450-person capacity. The cost is $3.7 million, according to information from Development Director Stephanie Hill.
The Tomlin Gymnasium will host volleyball, basketball and powerlifting, among other sports. The school competes under the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAAPS).
The gym is named for Don Tomlin, who is one of the school’s donors, Gonzalez said.
“Last month, in May, he came in, gave each one of our seniors a $500 scholarship. It’s a paid forward scholarship where he gave them each that much money to pay it forward, go to school, come back to your community and pay it forward. He is a generous man, but he’s such a godly man; just truly believes that God has blessed him, so he needs to bless others,” Gonzalez said.
There were 68 students at Holy Cross this past school year, including 17 graduates. They primarily stayed in Texas going to Texas Christian University, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Midland College for the engineering program, Odessa College and University of Texas Permian Basin.
“Bigger than the three we had last year,” Gonzalez said.
She is expecting more students in the fall.
“We have got 30 already enrolling, so that’s a good start for us,” Gonzalez said.
“We had our largest freshman class this year. There were 27 freshmen this year. It looks like we’ll have that many as a new freshman class coming up. (There’s) a lot of interest. We’re doing a lot of tours. We offer tours to any family that wants to come, Catholic or not. They just call the office. They set it up and then I give them a tour of the building,” Gonzalez said.
This is nice for families who want their children to continue their Catholic education.
“We’ve been very blessed by St. Ann’s here in Midland and St. Mary’s in Odessa sending their kids here. We actually had them come as a whole grade level, that eighth grade, and they came and toured and stayed with our kids for half a day and then had lunch with us and went back to campus. It’s good for them to see what the high school looks like,” Gonzalez said.
She added that the students were excited because they already know people at Holy Cross.
“A lot of their former classmates are now our kids, so they know the people here and they I think they felt like this could be home for them and it is small,” Gonzalez said.
Campus size can be a factor when choosing a school.
“We’re just one of many options for Midland and Odessa. We just hope they can see us as one of their best options,” Gonzalez said.
She noted that Holy Cross is welcoming non-Catholic students, as well.
“They come in and they’re fine. They do well with us. They just have to be accepting that we’re going to introduce them to our faith,” Gonzalez said.
Sports have come online. Football and volleyball had already started strength and conditioning.
“We’re adding sports next year. Looks like we’re going to add baseball and golf, cross-country and powerlifting. I’m excited about that. …In the gym we actually can have a full-blown weight room. Now we’re going to add powerlifting to it. It’s really popular right now for both boys and girls,” Gonzalez said.
“I think kids are very interested in building their bodies … and not bulking up, but actually trying to see how much they can lift,” she added.
Gonzalez said the gym is not just for volleyball or basketball.
“We can have speakers come out and speak to the community. We can have events for our young people and not have to worry about where can we host it. (If) we have an overflow with a mass, we can actually have mass over there. It opens up doors that we didn’t have open before because of the generosity of our donors,” she added.
Also next year, Holy Cross plans to add a horticulture class, a coding class and clubs. The largest club right now would be chess “because everybody wants to play chess right now.”
“We’re trying to find a way to organize it, have time for it; does it happen during lunch or right afterwards. We have a lot of people interested in chess. We’re not really sure about the others. It’ll depend on what our kids want. We want philanthropy club because it really helps us to organize our events. What are we going to fundraise for? Who are we going to give to this month? Every month we pick an organization or someone to help, so with that kind of club, we can actually have a group of young people focused on that; on how how do we better help our community,” Gonzalez said.
It would operate on its own, but as a club, it would not have to have a class period.
“They can make it before class, or after school, or during lunch, but their focus would be on how we’re going to help the community,” Gonzalez said.
All Holy Cross students have to have 25 hours of community service a year.
“They have to help our community; give back. This will just help us focus and give some of our kids who don’t know where to go, how do you help, a place to help. A lot of our kids will help different organizations that their parents know about. This will help us for some of them,” Gonzalez said.
And they could add new opportunities to give back because there is so much need in the community.
“Everybody is giving to Holy Cross in some way, whether it’s in money, or time, or prayer, we want to give back to them,” she added. “I’m excited to see what happens in our fifth year.”
Gonzalez said the five years since Holy Cross started have gone by fast.
“A senior came by today to visit and I told her I feel like it was a flash, just the blink of the eye and they’re from ninth grade to 12th grade and we’re graduating them,” she added.
God provided in every way along the way.
“We learned so much from every class that’s come through. I told her I feel like the seniors really helped us to build a better school because every year they told us you need to think about adding this, or can we do away with this, or can we change this. Listening to them, I think we created a better school,” Gonzalez said.
Because Holy Cross is small, they are able to hear the student when they talk to the staff or when they do surveys.
“It’s not as easy when you have 4,000 kids,” Gonzalez said.
Convocation, featuring Bishop Michael Sis, is 7 p.m. Aug. 12 at St. Stephen’s Catholic Church, 4601 Neeley Ave., in Midland.
“We’ll have a parent day where we’ll bring all the parents and students together and celebrate the beginning of the year, and then of course we’ll have a convocation mass with Bishop (Michael Sis) to start the school year,” Gonzalez said.
Bishop Sis said he is thrilled at how well Holy Cross has done.
“The success of Holy Cross shows what can happen. You allow yourselves to dream, you are willing to sacrifice for the sake of your vision and you trust in the grace of Jesus Christ. The leadership team is very capable and they work together with a tremendous spirit of collaboration. Holy Cross has become an integral part of our local Catholic faith life,” Sis said.
Board President Bradley Gibson said the increase in enrollment has proven that there is a need for a high-quality academic institution that also gives students the opportunity to encounter Christ.
”In 2019, we started with 19 brave students and for the upcoming school year we will have greater than 70 students matriculating through Holy Cross. The growth has truly been an affirmation and a blessing,” Gibson said.
“The success of our school has come from our staff and students. They grow every day; academically, spiritually and physically. We now have had two graduating classes to show the world what an excellent high school education can produce. All are graduated with college credit (primarily from OC). All of our graduates are entering college or university this fall. We also have a youngster that is joining the military,” he added.
He added that their fifth year of operations is right around the corner, and they are looking forward to the “many blessings it will bring.”
School starts Aug. 9 for the freshmen and Aug. 10 for everyone else.
“Having freshmen and new students on one day, having that orientation, going through everything because we’re one-to- one so the laptops and understanding how do you log in and how do you access your classes; all of those things … before we bring everybody else in helps so much when we do culture week and building culture. We don’t have to train,” Gonzalez said.
“We just believe it’s important. We have to build the culture. They have to understand why we are Holy Cross; what does that mean? How does that look? What are those processes and procedures that are unique to us as a high school, as opposed to a high school somewhere else,” she added.
