Our Lady of Guadalupe School (Houston)

Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School (Spanish: Escuela de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe) is a Roman Catholic K-8 school in the Second Ward in the East End, Houston, Texas.

[4] Sister Mary Benitia Vermeersch, C.D.P., born in Belgium, began operating the school in 1915, when it had 85 students enrolled; she was assigned there due to her knowledge of Mexican culture and her proficiency in Spanish.

Natalie Garza, author of "The “Mother Church” of Mexican Catholicism in Houston," wrote that [a]s a teacher and principal, Sister Benitia saw it as her duty to personally encourage Mexican American families to send their children to Our Lady of Guadalupe School.

As the Dominican Sisters administered the OLG School, members of the Religious of the Sacred Heart (R.S.C.J.)

The Sisters of the Sacred Heart became full-time teachers there, and in 1983 they began to manage the school on a permanent basis.

Four years prior to 2012, the school opened a covered area which shelters individuals moving between buildings during inclement weather.

[4] In 2010 the archdiocese launched a campaign to stabilize OLG and twelve other inner city Catholic schools so they could stay open.

[4] OLG remained open as other area Catholic schools closed due to low enrollment.

[1] Historically OLG students learned the English language, history, arithmetic, geography, and the Roman Catholic religion.

[8] Historically the school used bazaars, beauty queen pageants, and tamale sales, organized by parents, to gain additional financial support.

St. Martha's Catholic Church in Kingwood, Houston annually gives some funding to the OLG School.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston annually gives $130,000 in tuition assistance to OLG students.

[7] In addition, in Garza's article, alumnus Vincent Santiago recalled that the "Sisters of Divine Providence were very concerned about us because we were young and they knew way back in the 1940s [that] jobs were hard to get.