St. Stephen's Academy / Academia de San Esteban

St. Stephen's Academy is a Catholic school
in the Northeast neighborhood of Kansas
City, Missouri. St. Stephen's Academy
began educating students in 1889. At that
time, the neighborhood consisted of mostly
steel workers of Polish descent. Single
family homes were close to the steel factory
so fathers could walk to work. In 1958 the
school building burned and a new school
was built in 1959. St. Stephen’s had grades
1-9, later adding a full day kindergarten to its
program.

During the 1980’s a large consolidation of
parishes took place in the Kansas City
diocese. Many of the neighborhood Catholic
churches in the Northeast were closed and
consolidated with others. The parish
schools were also closed, but St. Stephen's
Academy remains open serving five
parishes in the area.

The mission of St. Stephen's
Academy is to establish a
Catholic environment for the
spiritual, physical, intellectual,
emotional, and social
development of each student.

La misión de la Academia de
San Esteban es de establecer
un ambiente Católico para el
desarrollo espiritual, físico,
intelectual, emocional y social
de cada estudiante.

The demographics of the neighborhood have also changed over the last 15
years. No longer is the neighborhood mostly Polish, but Hispanic. The steel mill
has closed, and the area is populated with low income families. There is currently
a movement to revitalize the area, but, as with all efforts of this type, change is
slow to occur.

St. Stephen’s offers a safe, religious, academically challenging environment in a
city whose school system has had problems with accreditation. The curriculum
has also changed over the years to serve our families and prepare students for
the future. We have classes in Art, and P.E. and ESL. We also have written a grant
to provide a school nurse on a part time basis. St. Stephen's Academy has a
great need for a counselor for our students, so we are able to contract a
counselor for two days a week through Catholic Charities.

St. Stephen's Academy has a sports program run by volunteer parents. We offer
track, volleyball and basketball to students in grades four through eight. Our
students received the President’s Service Award for five years for their
volunteerism helping throughout the school and community.

Eighty four percent of our students are on free and reduced lunches, and fall
within the poverty guidelines. Our parents are very supportive of St. Stephen's
Academy efforts, but often find it difficult to become involved because they must
work at low paying jobs, or second jobs to support their family.

We have a current enrollment of 148 students with 67% Hispanic with Spanish as
the primary language spoken in the home. We are proud of the ministry that we
do at St. Stephen's Academy. God has blessed us.