In 1884, five Sisters of Mercy,
at the request of Bishop Theophile Meerschaert,
traveled to what was then known as Indian Territory
to establish a school for young ladies at the
Sacred Heart Mission near Shawnee. When fire destroyed
the school in 1901, the Sisters decided to relocate
to Oklahoma City on donated land on a hill overlooking
what is now known as the Oklahoma River just south
of downtown Oklahoma City. The cornerstone was
laid on December 12, 1903, and young ladies arrived
from across the United States to be educated at
Mount Saint Mary Academy.
In 1950, at the request of Bishop Eugene McGuinness,
the Sisters converted the all-girls academy to
the co-educational Mount St. Mary High School.
In 1959, a three-story wing was added to the north
of the original structure to provide more classroom
space and an auditorium. In 1980, a gymnasium
and parking lot were added in the southwest corner
of campus.
Throughout the 1990s Mount St. Mary was a pioneer
in education in Oklahoma City. In 1991 the school
was the first in the area to implement an alternating
block schedule which better prepares students
for the type of schedule they will have in college.
The school was also the first to have a fully
integrated computer network. Other innovative
programs developed at Mount St. Mary include “Oklahoma
History Summer Session,” an intensive summer
class that takes students all over the state to
visit historical sites, and our sophomore “Community
Service Learning Program” that places 10th
graders as volunteers in local community organizations.
In the spring of 2000, the Sisters of Mercy,
St. Louis Region, and the Catholic Archdiocese
of Oklahoma City entered into a co-sponsorship
arrangement with regards to Mount St. Mary High
School, making it the first and only Catholic
high school in the country to be sponsored by
both a religious order and an archdiocese.
In recent years, Mount St. Mary, the oldest high
school in Oklahoma, has also undertaken a number
of initiatives to enhance and improve its programming
and services. In the 2004-05 school year we instituted
Advance Placement (AP) and pre-AP curriculum in
all primary subject areas, and in 2005-06 we began
our new PLUS (Providing the Link to Unlimited
Student Success) Program to help those with learning
difference excel in a college-prep environment.
In January 2004, Mount St. Mary began providing
English as a second language (ESL) classes to
the Hispanic adult community of Oklahoma City, and in
December 2003, the school celebrated its centennial
with the kickoff of a $6 million endowment campaign
designed to secure the school’s future for
the next 100 years.
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