the MISSION of
OUR LADY OF HOPE CATHOLIC SCHOOL
All children learn in a Christ-like environment. In partnership with parents, we strive to prepare multicultural and diverse students to serve the Lord with all their hearts, souls, minds and strength.
We believe that:
- All children are sacred creations of God.
- All children need a safe, non-threatening learning environment.
- All children can be successful learners.
- Each person should be treated with dignity.
- Educating children is a shared vocation involving home, school and church.
- Everything is a gift from God.
- Hope changes everything!
Statement of Non-Discrimination
Both faculty and students in true ecumenical spirit will welcome all students into the Christian educational community of the school. We admit students of any sex, race, color, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities accorded to students of the school.
Both faculty and students in true ecumenical spirit will welcome all students into the Christian educational community of the school. We admit students of any sex, race, color, national or ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities accorded to students of the school.
Who We Are
For over 115 years, Our Lady of Hope School has been a welcoming home for families seeking a Christ-centered, academically strong, and inclusive education. We're a proud ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph, rooted in the heart of Midtown Kansas City.
Our school community is:
We embrace the diversity of our community and believe every child deserves a joyful and hope-filled Catholic education — no matter their zip code.
Our school community is:
- 91% Catholic
- 80% Latino
- 14% Multiracial
- 5% African American
- 20% of students have diagnosed disabilities
- 100% receive scholarships
- 52% Missouri families | 48% Kansas families
We embrace the diversity of our community and believe every child deserves a joyful and hope-filled Catholic education — no matter their zip code.
What We Do
We educate K–8 students in a nurturing, faith-filled, academically excellent environment.
We are:
We are:
- A Bright Futures Fund school
- MO Scholars Program eligible
- Fully accredited by the Missouri Nonpublic Schools Accrediting Association (MNSAA)
- A bi-state school serving both Missouri and Kansas families
- A school where 50% of our parents once walked these same hallways as Catholic school students
Our Roots
Our story began in 1909 with German-speaking Catholic families near the old Santa Fe Trail (now Westport Road). Through generations of change — new school buildings, new names, and new faces — we’ve never stopped answering the call to serve.
Key milestones:
1910: Guardian Angel School opens with 40 students and two Benedictine Sisters
1955: New school opens with 290 students
1991: School renamed Our Lady of the Angels
2006: Returns to Guardian Angels campus
2016: Our Lady of Hope is born from the merger of Our Lady of the Angels & Our Lady of Guadalupe
Thanks to the generous support of the Hunt Family’s Loretto Foundation, our campus was transformed with extensive renovations — a sign of enduring belief in our mission.
Key milestones:
1910: Guardian Angel School opens with 40 students and two Benedictine Sisters
1955: New school opens with 290 students
1991: School renamed Our Lady of the Angels
2006: Returns to Guardian Angels campus
2016: Our Lady of Hope is born from the merger of Our Lady of the Angels & Our Lady of Guadalupe
Thanks to the generous support of the Hunt Family’s Loretto Foundation, our campus was transformed with extensive renovations — a sign of enduring belief in our mission.
Our full History
Our Roots are deep. Back in 1909, the old Santa Fe Trail, (43rd Street) now Westport Road, was still mostly unpaved, but many German families were moving south from the downtown area. About 40 Catholic families lived near the old trail. Most spoke German and observed German traditions and customs. A new parish, Schutz Angel Kirche, Guardian Angel Church, was founded that year. It was only a few months until a brick building was constructed for $40,000 on the corner of 43rd and Mercier, with a chapel on the second floor, two classrooms and living quarters on the first floor.
On Sept 11, 1910, the school opened with 40 students taught by two Sisters of St. Benedict of Atchison, Kansas. Their furnishings were simple. Orange crates served as washstands and a wooden box with two shelves as a closet. The kitchen table was a board supported by two sawhorses. Parishioners attending Mass on the second floor complained of smelling the food the Sisters were preparing for Sunday dinner, so they did their cooking on Saturdays. Cows were said to graze under the school windows.
In 1940, property on the west side of the church on Terrace was purchased for a playground. The pastor wanted to build a new school, but it didn’t seem practical in the midst of a depression. So, he quietly established a building fund which by 1953, when he died of a heart attack, had grown to $170,000.
His successor purchased five homes and a 50’ lot on the west side of Mercier for a new school and convent. The school, completed in 1955 at a cost of $200,000, opened that September with 290 students. The Benedictine Sisters taught at Guardian Angels School until 1988.
On Sept. 6, 1991, it was announced that Guardian Angels and Redemptorist Schools, along with the middle school students from Our Lady of the Americas, would be consolidated and located at Broadway and Linwood Boulevards. The new school was named Our Lady of the Angels.
After a fourteen-year absence, in March 2006, Our Lady of the Angels School moved back to the Guardian Angels site to make way for Cristo Rey High School. Before students arrived, the building underwent renovations to bring the 1955 building up to 2005 standards, much of it done through donated funds and labor.
By the end of 2015, it had become clear that both Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels school buildings were in need of extensive repairs. The Bright Futures Fund Board of Directors decided to renovate the larger of the two school buildings, Our Lady of Angels, to serve students from both schools. Two long-time Bright Futures Fund principals were named to lead the new school, Our Lady of Hope — Holy Cross principal Barb Deane as president and Our Lady of the Angels principal Mary Delac as principal.
A generous gift from Lamar and Rita Hunt’s Loretto Foundation made the renovations possible. The long list of repairs, improvements and upgrades includes new HVAC, roof, insulation, an upgraded electrical system and new lighting, painting inside and out, updated restrooms and plumbing, asbestos removal and resurfaced classroom floors and second floor hallway, built-in classroom storage and new furnishings, art and music classrooms and more.
Our Lady of Hope School was dedicated and blessed on Sept. 11, 2016. Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr., celebrated Mass at Guardian Angels Church. Our Lady of Hope’s student body is composed of students of the former Our Lady of the Angels School, which had occupied the building since 2006, and students of the former Our Lady of Guadalupe School, which closed at the end of the 2015/16 school year. Those two schools were part of the diocesan Bright Futures Fund, as is Our Lady of Hope.
It was dedicated exactly 106 years after Guardian Angels School first opened. The dedication honored Lamar and Rita Hunt and the Hunt family. A plaque was presented to Lamar Hunt, Jr., inscribed, “Their generosity will be remembered forever by all who learn, teach, pray and gather inside these walls.” The plaque and a photograph of the Hunt family will be mounted in the school’s entry hall.
On Sept 11, 1910, the school opened with 40 students taught by two Sisters of St. Benedict of Atchison, Kansas. Their furnishings were simple. Orange crates served as washstands and a wooden box with two shelves as a closet. The kitchen table was a board supported by two sawhorses. Parishioners attending Mass on the second floor complained of smelling the food the Sisters were preparing for Sunday dinner, so they did their cooking on Saturdays. Cows were said to graze under the school windows.
In 1940, property on the west side of the church on Terrace was purchased for a playground. The pastor wanted to build a new school, but it didn’t seem practical in the midst of a depression. So, he quietly established a building fund which by 1953, when he died of a heart attack, had grown to $170,000.
His successor purchased five homes and a 50’ lot on the west side of Mercier for a new school and convent. The school, completed in 1955 at a cost of $200,000, opened that September with 290 students. The Benedictine Sisters taught at Guardian Angels School until 1988.
On Sept. 6, 1991, it was announced that Guardian Angels and Redemptorist Schools, along with the middle school students from Our Lady of the Americas, would be consolidated and located at Broadway and Linwood Boulevards. The new school was named Our Lady of the Angels.
After a fourteen-year absence, in March 2006, Our Lady of the Angels School moved back to the Guardian Angels site to make way for Cristo Rey High School. Before students arrived, the building underwent renovations to bring the 1955 building up to 2005 standards, much of it done through donated funds and labor.
By the end of 2015, it had become clear that both Our Lady of Guadalupe and Our Lady of the Angels school buildings were in need of extensive repairs. The Bright Futures Fund Board of Directors decided to renovate the larger of the two school buildings, Our Lady of Angels, to serve students from both schools. Two long-time Bright Futures Fund principals were named to lead the new school, Our Lady of Hope — Holy Cross principal Barb Deane as president and Our Lady of the Angels principal Mary Delac as principal.
A generous gift from Lamar and Rita Hunt’s Loretto Foundation made the renovations possible. The long list of repairs, improvements and upgrades includes new HVAC, roof, insulation, an upgraded electrical system and new lighting, painting inside and out, updated restrooms and plumbing, asbestos removal and resurfaced classroom floors and second floor hallway, built-in classroom storage and new furnishings, art and music classrooms and more.
Our Lady of Hope School was dedicated and blessed on Sept. 11, 2016. Bishop James V. Johnston, Jr., celebrated Mass at Guardian Angels Church. Our Lady of Hope’s student body is composed of students of the former Our Lady of the Angels School, which had occupied the building since 2006, and students of the former Our Lady of Guadalupe School, which closed at the end of the 2015/16 school year. Those two schools were part of the diocesan Bright Futures Fund, as is Our Lady of Hope.
It was dedicated exactly 106 years after Guardian Angels School first opened. The dedication honored Lamar and Rita Hunt and the Hunt family. A plaque was presented to Lamar Hunt, Jr., inscribed, “Their generosity will be remembered forever by all who learn, teach, pray and gather inside these walls.” The plaque and a photograph of the Hunt family will be mounted in the school’s entry hall.
