O'Connell College Preparatory School (formerly O'Connell Consolidated High School) is a 4-year coeducational parochial/private high school in

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Ga ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

that offers university-preparatory programs. It was founded in 1968 as a consolidation of

Galveston Island Galveston Island ( ) is a barrier island on the Texas Gulf Coast in the United States, about southeast of Houston. The entire island, with the exception of Jamaica Beach, is within the city limits of the City of Galveston in Galveston County. T ...

's three existing Catholic high schools: Kirwin High School (Boys, founded in 1927) and Dominican High School (Girls, founded in 1882) and Ursuline Academy (Girls, founded in 1847) and is the only Roman Catholic high school in

Galveston County Galveston County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas, located along the Gulf Coast adjacent to Galveston Bay. As of the 2020 census, the population was 350,682. The county was founded in 1838. The county seat is the City of Galveston, ...

.Taylor, Heber.
O'Connell seeks to redefine itself
" ''Galveston County Daily News''. September 23, 2007.

History

In the fall of 1968, the religious orders operating the three schools agreed on consolidation as a means of continuing Catholic secondary education in Galveston, offering a broader curriculum than was possible in any of the three smaller high schools. Bishop John Morkovsky, S.T.D., approved the plan and appointed a Board of Trustees composed of laymen and priests representing all the parishes in Galveston County. The Board named the newly consolidated school after the Right Rev. Monsignor Daniel P. O’Connell, P.A., pastor of St. Mary’s Cathedral in Galveston from 1933 until his death in 1966, and a longtime supporter of Catholic education. In 2003, after incurring many years of financial debt, Archbishop Joseph Fiorenza announced O’Connell High School would close at the end of the 2003-2004 school year. Archbishop Fiorenza offered to allow the school to remain open, if funding could be secured that would enable the school to operate without any subsidy from the archdiocese. In the spring of 2004 a plan was presented to the Archbishop in which a private foundation, the O’Connell Foundation, would be established with funds from alumni and others in the community. The foundation would offset any expenses previously covered by the archdiocese, as well as provide for the lease of the campus, which the Archbishop wanted to sell. Archbishop Fiorenza approved the plan and on July 1, 2004 the school was reopened as O’Connell ''Consolidated'' High School. In the spring of 2007, the school's board of trustees decided to rename the school O'Connell College Preparatory School, to help distinguish it from other local public and private schools of secondary education. In 2013 O'Connell was awarded a 5 million dollar grant by the Moody Foundation. as reported in the Texas Catholic Herald on February 26, 2013. In 2018 O'Connell's graduating class received over 1.6 million dollars in scholarship funding, breaking their current record.

References

External links

O'Connell College Preparatory School

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston–Houston
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconnell College Preparatory School Education in Galveston, Texas High schools in Galveston County, Texas Private schools in Greater Houston Catholic secondary schools in Texas Educational institutions established in 1968

History

See also

References

External links