Our History

St. Michael’s Parish Day School was founded in 1958, five years after the formation of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church, by the church’s first rector, the Reverend John Clinton Fowler.  Father Fowler realized the need to create such a school after discovering that many of his Sunday school students, from various local neighborhoods, could not read.  On opening day in September of 1958, thirty-four students enrolled in Kindergarten and first grade.   

The school thrived from the start.  Within five years, St. Michael’s was serving grades K-8, and the first eighth grade class graduated in 1965.  We have since grown tenfold to an enrollment of about 350 students and a faculty of more than 30 full-time teachers.  To accommodate this growth and add a third class for grades 6-8, the school completed construction of a middle school addition in 1997.  An endowment campaign that surpassed the $1 million mark in 2005 has allowed the school to expand its programs while maintaining our high standard of educational excellence.  In March 2008, the school celebrated its 50^th anniversary with a weekend of special events.

From the beginning, the school’s curriculum has been strongly academic.  As Father Fowler proclaimed, “We teach children to read, to write, to cipher, to sing, and to pray.” While our educational program is grounded in tradition, we believe that students should be exposed to a broad liberal arts curriculum that includes athletics, the arts, and religious study.