Better Together

Hard decisions lead to renewal in Grand Island, Nebraska

Tucked in central Nebraska, in an area known as the “heartland,” the diverse and growing city of Grand Island is home to the vibrant, Christ-centered Central Nebraska Lutheran School. Students come from more than 20 different area congregations, and it’s a “school of kids and teachers made up of imperfect people who serve a perfect God,” said Andy Rathe, executive director of Central Nebraska Lutheran.

With two connected campuses and one strong mission, this pre-K through 12th grade school is thriving. But it hasn’t always been this way.

A tale of two schools

Prior to 2022, Grand Island’s only LCMS high school—then named Heartland Lutheran High School—was struggling.

The school had been in decline for years, and it was difficult to get past the financial and leadership issues that seemed to threaten the school’s viability for the future.

“Heartland was weary,” recalled Tim Kurth, vice president of Ministry Solutions for Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF). “They had renegotiated their debt with LCEF but still were not out of the woods. Their donors were burned out, and there were conflicts within the board and leadership.”

With the high school weakening, donor confidence was dwindling along with it. The school was stuck in a painful spiral, with no end in sight. But with Heartland struggling to get above water, it seemed that Lutheran high school education in Grand Island was in jeopardy.

Although LCEF continued to patiently support Heartland, what additional options did they have?

Meanwhile, not far away, Trinity Lutheran School was growing and flourishing under the strong leadership of Andy Rathe, executive director of Central Nebraska Lutheran School, who was Trinity’s principal at that time. The elementary and middle school were reaching capacity and needed overflow space, and they wanted to see students continue in Lutheran education through high school.

Starting the discussion

It all started with a conversation. “We started wondering what it could look like if we merged or combined Trinity with Heartland Lutheran High School,” explained Nate Meier, LCEF district vice president for the LCMS Nebraska District. “We also had this new LCEF Real Estate Solutions (RES) group that could be an excellent opportunity to advise them, so we set up an introduction in 2023.”

There were several voices at the table: both schools, LCEF’s district vice president, the LCMS Nebraska District and LCEF’s Ministry Solutions and Real Estate Solutions teams. But most important of all was everyone’s agreement: it was worth it to continue pursuing a full preschool–12th
grade Lutheran education option in Grand Island.

“We got LCEF in conversation with Andy [Rathe],” said Kurth, “We were able to help Trinity understand both the risk and reward of taking over the high school. We knew it would have to be a new organizational structure to allow for the current school association to dissolve, and this new entity could effectively shed the negative history that was holding back the future of Heartland.”

Jeremiah Slough (left), principal at Grand Island Lutheran High School and Andy Rathe (right), executive director of Central Nebraska Lutheran School and principal of Trinity Lutheran School.

Making hard decisions

It wasn’t easy. Heartland held a special place in the hearts of many in Grand Island for a number of years, and everyone knew that change would be difficult.

But the schools didn’t have to do it alone. “LCEF walked alongside us and did a feasibility study with us,” said Rathe. “We decided the process was worth it to consolidate for the future of Lutheran education in Nebraska. The kids are worth it.”

“The challenge was,” said Rathe, “the question of how financially feasible this plan would be.”

“How could we come together in a way that makes ministry sense and is financially doable?” Rathe asked. “We would be inheriting Heartland’s debt and the challenges they’d been facing.”

Again, LCEF provided the expertise—and the encouragement—that these leaders in Grand Island needed to make the bold move that would secure Lutheran education in the city.

“It took courage,” said Kurth. “They met the moment and made the hard decisions. Out of the years of struggle came a time of reckoning, and the silver lining was that everyone in leadership, seeing the reality of their situation, made the hard decisions and took the hard steps to dissolve and reimagine the structure of the school.”

Together, LCEF, the LCMS Nebraska District and both schools worked to take the necessary steps to bring all assets and liabilities into a new nonprofit entity, including a new governing board that Kurth assisted to adopt and implement a Principles Based Governance model to set them up for success.

“What LCEF provided us was guidance and a trusted third party to verify some of the things we had been coming to a conclusion on,” noted Rathe. “Having a trusted entity like LCEF alongside us gave people more confidence in our decisions.”

In 2025, the new school organization was named Central Nebraska Lutheran School, where Trinity continues to serve as the elementary and middle school. Meanwhile, Heartland was rebranded as Grand Island Lutheran High School.

“Heartland Lutheran High School and Trinity Lutheran, with their K-8 school along with Peace Lutheran’s extensive childcare center, make up a strategic three-point location for Christian education in Grand Island,” explained Bob Ziegler, executive for Education and Youth ministries for the LCMS Nebraska District. “The congregations of the great central Nebraska area have access to cradle-to-grave Christian education.”

A new start

“God’s timing was exquisite, and this change brought new life to everybody,” said Kurth.

The rebranded Grand Island Lutheran High School hired a new principal, and Rathe became the executive director of the Central Nebraska Lutheran School organization in addition to continuing as principal of Trinity.

The merger brought the sixth and seventh grades into the high school, which also freed up space for Trinity to grow and expand as they needed.

“There has been lots of renewed interest in the high school,” said Rathe. “We now have great momentum for enrollment.” Not only that, but the fresh start brought back donors who had previously lost confidence in Heartland. Rathe said that their end-of-year giving letter to donors resulted in 80% of funds coming in from people who hadn’t given to the school in the two years prior.

“Donors came back out of the woodwork,” said Jonathan Ward, senior director of RES for LCEF. “It was just what was needed to regain the confidence of families and donors to have new leadership and a new entity. There was a time of mourning for what was, but it was also time for a fresh start and new direction. This merger has renewed Lutheran education in Grand Island for years to come.”

Better together

This effort of renewal for Lutheran education in Grand Island meant an intentional collaboration and lots of humility.

“There were multiple ministries involved in this—altogether focusing on how Lutheran education can thrive,” recalled Meier. “It was cool to see how, instead of chopping off the story of the high school, which could have happened, the decision was to make it bigger than the parts we had before.”

“This is the perfect example of Lutheran organizations cooperating and working together,” noted Ward. “We sometimes as Lutherans stay in our own lane and don’t work together, but these two organizations and their foundations consolidated to work together. We were all trying to aim for the same thing—maintaining Lutheran high school education in Grand Island—and that’s what we did.”

Despite all of the difficult decisions that needed to be made along the way, it’s clear that the challenges were worth it—that Central Nebraska Lutheran School is better together.

“It’s been incredible,” said Rathe. “We’ve had a great response from our families, and now there’s a sense of optimism.We’re as strong as ever, and we’ll be here until Jesus tells us otherwise.”