History of Our Lady’s Montessori School

Our Lady’s Montessori School (OLMS) is a small Catholic Montessori school in Kansas City.

Our Lady’s Montessori School was founded by the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) in 1973. SOLT is an international Catholic religious community composed of ecclesial teams of all the vocations – laity, priests, and sisters. The SOLT community began the school on Tracy Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri in 1973. Fr. James Flanagan, the founder of the SOLT religious community, saw a need to serve the children in the local neighborhood community. With the help of SOLT laity and sisters, OLMS came to serve a diverse mix of local neighborhood children, including Vietnamese refugee children, and children of the SOLT lay families. Two houses on the block served as school houses, one for preschool and one for elementary aged children. Fr. Flanagan was a big supporter of Maria Montessori, a devout Catholic woman who lived in the early 1900's, and saw great value in how this way of education upheld the dignity of the child. The school served children and families in the neighboring areas for 20 years until 1999.

In 2002, SOLT reopened the doors of Our Lady’s Montessori School in Wyandotte County on South 7th Street in Kansas City, Kansas. The school started with one Montessori classroom for children ages three to six, and has continued to grow. In August 2019, OLMS expanded its scope to include a lower elementary classroom for children 1st-3rd grade (6-9 years old). December 2020, we decided to continue to grow with our students and families through 6th grade.

In 2021, due to limited space and growing enrollment, Our Lady’s Montessori school began the search for a new building that would be able to accommodate our growing number of children. We are very pleased to announce that in Fall 2023 we will be moving to a new location at 5809 Michigan Ave, in the diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph Missouri.

The school continues to serve children 3-12 years old with a Catholic Montessori education, and will soon expand to include grades 7 and 8. With strong Catholic values guided by Montessori philosophy, an atrium for The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and an Oratory for the adoration of the Most Holy Eucharist, we are blessed to offer our families an authentic Catholic education steeped in Truth and Beauty.