Cathedral School

In 1900 Bishop Burke (Bishop of the Diocese of St. Joseph) invited the sisters from the Religious of the Sacred Heart to open a parochial school. He offered them the grounds east of the Cathedral Church. The cornerstone dated April 29, 1901 was dedicated in May.

By September, when all schools were starting classes, the Cathedral School building was still under construction. Classes for 175 children were held in the basement of the church. The new school building was ready for occupancy in October 1901. The building was a three-story structure. During those first years, the boys occupied the first floor, the girls were on the second floor and the auditorium/gymnasium was on the third floor and had a seating capacity of 500.

To the south of the school, the sisters had a convent built. It was joined to the school by a covered walkway that was screened from the street by lattice. Mother Delphine McMenemy was the superior of the school. There were 190 students at the end of the first school year.

In 1904 the school added high school classes. These classes operated on a portion of the second floor and on the third floor of the building. By 1912 there were 340 students in the grade school and 65 students (all girls) in the high school.

The Sacred Heart Academy Boarding School, which had been operated by the Religious of the Sacred Heart since 1853, closed in 1916. In 1919 the decision was made to reopen the Academy. The Cathedral high school classes were removed from Cathedral and added to the Academy. Sacred Heart then withdrew their association with Cathedral. Bishop Burke invited the Benedictine Sisters from Mount St. Scholastica to run Cathedral School and they accepted. In 1920, the Bishop asked Father O'Neill to head a fund drive to purchase the convent and school from the Religious of the Sacred Heart. He raised $44,000 in three days. The Bishop was able to buy back the property and open the doors of Cathedral School.

While Father Ruggle was pastor, a PTA was formally organized. Music became a daily subject in the school under the direction of Walton Smith. In 1947 Mr. Smith composed the school song, "Hail, Cathedral" which is still played today. Plans were under way to remove the massive but decaying third floor that housed the auditorium/gymnasium. It was finally removed in the 1940s. Father Ruggle did away with school uniforms in the late thirties or early forties.

In 1952 Cathedral hired its first lay teacher for regular classroom studies when Mary Rump Glenski was hired. In the 1950s, it was decided that more classroom space was needed. A capital funds campaign was started. The added classroom space was provided by a modular classroom building located between the school and the convent. An auditorium/gymnasium was built across the street from the church in 1956.

Also in 1956 it was announced that the two dioceses, Kansas City and St. Joseph, were to merge. Because there was a Cathedral in Kansas City, St. Joseph's Cathedral became Co-Cathedral. When the school year started in 1958, electronic tape teaching was introduced. In 1964 the school enrollment totaled 640 students. Principal Mary Coleman, at the request of the PTA, instituted school uniforms in the 1960s.

Over the years, lay teachers began outnumbering the religious. In 1970 there were twelve lay teachers and five religious. After a 41-year absence, Kindergarten was reinstated. In 1981 Heartland West started operating a daycare facility in the convent building. Basil Hoehn became the first lay person to be principal of Cathedral School in 1984. In the mid-1980s the preschool program was started and Cathedral Parish took over the operation of the daycare facility.

In the 1990s, a computer lab and outdoor classroom/garden were added. In 1998, air-conditioning units were installed throughout the school. Today there are 290 students enrolled in pre-kindergarten through 8th grade. The current principal is Mary Burgess and the current pastor is Father Joseph Powers.