With a target groundbreaking date of the spring of 2017, board members overseeing the development of a Catholic High School in the Permian Basin continue to remain optimistic at the incremental steps being taken — steps that are necessary, even vital, to the process.

Board president Wendy Holland said volunteers are currently working on a five-year plan while awaiting the arrival of a donation deed from Fasken Oil & Ranch, which donated the land needed for the high school. The as-yet unnamed school will be located at the intersection of Texas Highway 349 (Tom & Nadine Craddick Highway) and Holiday Hill Road, in far northwest Midland.

“We’re also working on funding our start-up expenses,” Holland said. “We need money to operate and so are developing a core group of people who share our ideals and have a love for Catholic education and a desire to see the Body of Christ at work.”

Holland said that with a Catholic high school in Midland — physically situated where it can also serve students in Andrews and Odessa — it will help the Church to offer the complete package, from preschool and elementary Catholic educations to Catholic ministries available at local colleges and universities.

Midlander Roy Ramirez, a parishioner at Our Lady of Guadalupe, says the work of bringing a Catholic school to the area is not easy, but needed.

“It will be well worth the sacrifice,” he said. “The benefits will not just be for my kids but for the entire area. It is time consuming, arduous and not an easy task, but I am committed to see this through.”

Other board members are Bishop Michael J. Sis, Fr. Michael Rodriguez, Sister Elizabeth Swartz, Albert Casias, Jim Cox, Mary Jaramillo, Jaime Ramos, Elias Reyes, and Gorge Salinas.

For more information or to make a financial contribution, visit the web site at permianbasincatholic.org.