By Jay Sorgi
for the Register
For some students, the new shuttle services to Pius X High School in Lincoln provide a way through heavy morning rush-hour traffic for them to more easily attend the city’s only Catholic high school.
And for others, the shuttles will eventually provide the future bridging of the “final mile” to bring them to Pius X.
“We really feel strongly about our mission to make Catholic education accessible to everyone,” said Jeremy Ekeler, Pius X High School’s chief administrative officer.
“That looks like a lot of things. That looks like course offerings for a diverse population, that looks like affordable education for families, but also looks like accessibility through transportation.”
The school is piloting the program by running a fleet of vans from the areas of some of the parishes with the farthest distance from the school, including North American Martyrs Parish to the northwest and St. Michael Parish from the southeast.
“We’re also offering this opportunity to families who, because of their work situation, the shuttle is necessary in order for their child to be able to get to Pius,” Ekeler said. “That could be a single parent. That could be a parent in a situation where they work night shifts.”
The program began through longtime Catholic education supporter Bob Munguia, who had young people from Cristo Rey Parish, which offers liturgies and sacraments in Spanish, in the Witherbee neighborhood east of downtown Lincoln in mind.
He said the goal was to find ways to make it easier for kids to attend.
“I attended one of the meetings (in February) and I came up with the idea, ‘How about if we were to provide some kind of transportation? Would that work?’ We got things moving and we wanted to kind of try an experimental version at the end of the first quarter of this year.”
He shared that the school had to recruit drivers who would be willing to do an extra round of State of Nebraska-required safety training.
“How are we going to find drivers to do a one-hour block every day? That was not the issue,” Ekeler said. “We found three incredible gentlemen.”
The school worked with Catholic elementary and middle schools through a QR code on a flyer and email contact to sign students up at a nominal cost.
“Bob Munguia’s family’s generosity comes into play. We’re able to keep the costs so low for families. It’s only $30 a month, and that basically helps us offset the cost of gas. That’s all paneled through our tuition management system,” said Ekeler. “Once we opened this, it went so smoothly, and I think we’re poised for growth as a result now that we’ve piloted.”
Ekeler added that the shuttle program, which launched after the beginning of the 2026-27 school year, currently involves helping a dozen students, since many families had already made their plans for transportation. He said they are working to get families at Cristo Rey to sign up for the 2027-28 academic year.
He explained that the shuttle program is exclusively held during the mornings, since many kids are involved in post-school activities which end at different times.
Part of the advantage of the program involves the ways it helps students and families overcome a loss of time during the morning. They avoid two-way commutes of 90 minutes from the north and south due to traffic – time estimates which are exacerbated by the “orange-barrel season” caused by road construction.
Ekeler explained that many parents work near where they live.
“They’re not going across town, and they’re not crossing paths with Pius. They’re actually working on that side of town,” Ekeler said. He illustrated a parent who might commute from home to Pius, from Pius to work, then later to Pius again, to home, effectively making the long trip four times.
“So we take all that into account with the program,” he said.
Munguia also sees the program as a way that will not only help recruit students for the future, but retain students in the present.
“The idea [is] to knock down these barriers because of the economics that are out there with the price of fuel and other things, to make it a little easier to be able to send your kids to school,” he said.
“I think with time, this will grow legs.”
Ekeler said that some current eighth-grade families have already signed up for 2027-28. Munguia added that the program will take a while to come to full fruition, but they expect families to take advantage of the program in future years.
They especially hope to grow it for Cristo Rey students and for students from disadvantaged backgrounds in the future, his original intent for a project that is helping students traverse not only miles of traffic, but obstacles to receiving a Catholic education.
“What we’re trying to do,” Munguia said ultimately, “is eliminate any barriers out there for kids and parents to go to Pius.”
