Principal St. Sebastian Catholic School
If you walk the hallways of St. Sebastian Catholic School early enough in the morning, you’ll find Mrs. Patricia Connelly already there propping open the front doors, greeting every student by name, and making sure no child starts their day without a warm smile. For Mrs. Connelly, leadership has never been about the office at the end of the hall. It has always been about the children walking through it.
A lifelong Catholic and a product of parochial schools herself, Mrs. Connelly grew up in a household where faith and education were treated as the same thing two sides of a single coin. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Creighton University and later completed a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Loyola University Chicago. She spent the first twelve years of her career as a third-grade teacher at Our Lady of Mercy in Omaha, where colleagues still recall her as the teacher parents requested by name, year after year.
She joined St. Sebastian eight years ago as assistant principal, and was named principal four years later. Under her leadership, the school launched its first STEM enrichment program, introduced a school-wide service learning initiative called Hearts & Hands, and saw student enrollment grow for three consecutive years. In 2023, St. Sebastian was recognized by the Archdiocese as a school of excellence an honor Mrs. Connelly was quick to redirect to her staff and families.
“Every child who comes through these doors is made in the image and likeness of God. My job is simply to make sure they know that — and to help them become the best version of that image they can be.” Mrs. Patricia Connelly
Outside the school building, Mrs. Connelly is a devoted wife to her husband Daniel, a retired firefighter, and the proud mother of three grown children two of whom attended St. Sebastian as kids. She volunteers with the diocesan literacy outreach program on weekends and rarely misses a Friday evening fish fry at the parish hall during Lent. She is known around the neighborhood as the principal who still stops to pick up trash off the sidewalk on the walk to her car.
When asked what keeps her going after more than two decades in Catholic education, Mrs. Connelly doesn’t hesitate. “The kids,” she says. “Always the kids.” And if you’ve ever watched her kneel down to a kindergartner’s level to hear about a lost tooth or a new puppy, you believe her completely.
