January 3, 1927, Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic School opened in a mission church at Tyler and "I" Streets with four grades and two teachers, Sister M Ursula Straessle and Sister M Gabriel Koechner, Olivetan Benedictine
Sisters from Jonesboro. Forty students were registered the first year. The first two grades were taught in the small sacristy, the other grades were taught in the main part of the church. The church was divided lengthwise through the center with an old army curtain to make two classrooms. For four and a half years school was taught in the church. Six students made their First Communion May 1, 1927. The school had eight grades in 1944 with its first kindergarten. That same year the pastor, Monsignor Francis A. Allen, added three additional classrooms with cloakrooms, library, kitchen, office and an auditorium that served as the cafeteria. In 1946, Monsignor Allen presented diplomas to the first eighth grade graduates.
Holy Souls now has 23 classrooms for students Pre-K through 8th grade. The campus also includes a cafeteria, gymnasium, library, art room, music room, computer lab, and science lab. For more than 90 years, Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic School has been educating young people providing them with a strong spiritual and academic foundation to build on.
Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic School is dedicated to providing an education that is built on the Gospel message. Students are helped to build a foundation of faith, hope, love and respect to support all areas of their lives. Students are instructed to strive for academic excellence and self-discipline. Students are encouraged to use their gifts of time, talent, and treasure in service of Christ.
The educational philosophy of Our Lady of the Holy Souls Catholic School is to provide an environment that will ensure the development of each student intellectually, physically, socially, spiritually, and morally within the values and traditions of Catholic Christianity.
Working together the administration, faculty, staff and students strive to develop a faith community where individuals can grow in the knowledge of God, life, the universe, and culture. We strive to teach the students self-control and responsibility. These two aspects are necessary for producing students who will be responsible members of society who respect the rights of others. We believe that these goals can be accomplished by nurturing the child’s natural desire to learn, experiment, and discover for himself as well as by the use of activities that are teacher-oriented.
A continuing dialogue with parents exists to maintain the continuity of values shared by the school and the home. We ultimately hope to develop attitudes in the students that make them aware of their duties to be followers of Jesus on a daily basis.
