Our Story
A School Formed Through Faith, Family, and a Shared Sense of Mission
Our Story
A School Formed Through Faith, Family, and a Shared Sense of Mission
Mount St. Michael Catholic School was formed by a community of families and educators seeking something deeply purposeful for their children: an education rooted in Jesus Christ, attentive to the development of each child, and strengthened by a genuine partnership between families and educators.
The school has grown and changed over the years, but that original founding purpose continues to define who we are today and guide all that we do
STORY OF FORMATION
Begun by a Community That Believed Education Could Form the Whole Person
The story of Mount St. Michael Catholic School begins in 1978, when the Montessori School of God’s Delight opened for children ages two through six in the basement of Holy Trinity Catholic Church.
Under the leadership of Sister Monica Marie Hibberd, O.S.U., and with the enthusiastic support of parents and volunteers from the Christian Community of God’s Delight, the young school began to flourish.
From the beginning, it was more than an educational program. It was the shared work of a community committed to helping children grow in faith, independence, knowledge, character, and love for God.
In 1981, through the generosity of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge, the Montessori school moved to the Mount St. Michael campus on West Davis Street. Sister Mary Anne Tasker, O.L.C., encouraged the move, and Joshua Thompson served as director.
As the Montessori community grew, families began discerning how the school might continue serving their children beyond the early years. Through prayer, parental commitment, and encouragement from the Diocese of Dallas, an elementary program was established. Additional grades followed, and the school’s first eighth-grade class graduated in 1990.
As Mount St. Michael’s understanding of education and formation deepened, a classical curriculum was introduced in grades one through eight. This created a coherent progression from the developmental foundations of Montessori education into the grammar and dialectic stages of classical learning.
Daily Mass, Adoration, service, outdoor learning, the arts, athletics, and community traditions became part of an educational life directed toward a single enduring question:
Who is this child becoming?
Mount St. Michael was not assembled from disconnected programs. It was formed over time by a community seeking to respond faithfully to the intellectual, spiritual, moral, physical, and relational needs of children.
major milestones
A Tradition of Purposeful Growth
The school begins in the basement of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, serving children ages two through six under the leadership of Sister Monica Marie Hibberd, O.S.U.
Through the generosity of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge, the Montessori community moves to the Mount St. Michael campus on West Davis Street.
Founded as Prince of Peace Christian School offering a strong academic foundation rooted in spiritual and moral formation; later renamed Prince of Peace Community School.
After the Montessori program expanded into an elementary school, the first class of eighth-grade students completes its education at Mount St. Michael.
Prince of Peace Community School (POPCS) became a private school under the Catholic Diocese of Dallas.
Mount St. Michael implements a classical curriculum for students in grades one through eight, providing a deliberate progression from Montessori foundations into classical formation.
The school further centered its daily and monthly rhythms on prayer, worship, and the sacramental life of the Church.
Dancing Classrooms, now called Dance to Success, were introduced for students in grades five through eight, adding a distinctive opportunity for students to develop confidence, courtesy, cooperation, and social awareness through the art of ballroom dance.
The school adopted a disciplinary approach intended to unite personal accountability, restored relationships, and growth in virtue.
The school expanded its outdoor-learning program through a working farm and apiary, giving students direct opportunities to study nature, accept responsibility, care for living things, and encounter God’s creation.
Mount St. Michael partners with the University of Dallas to support faculty formation in classical teaching and to strengthen the school’s outdoor and humanities-based learning.
MSMCS Today
Rooted in Its Founding Purpose.
Forming Students for the Future.
Today, Mount St. Michael Catholic School is a private Catholic school within the Diocese of Dallas and an apostolate of the Christian Community of God’s Delight.
Serving children from the Montessori years through eighth grade, Mount St. Michael brings together two complementary educational traditions in one coherent path of formation:
- A Montessori foundation, from 18 months through kindergarten, that honors each child’s developmental readiness while cultivating independence, concentration, order, confidence, and a love of learning.
- A classical program in grades one through eight that develops knowledge, clear reasoning, moral discernment, thoughtful expression, and an enduring pursuit of truth, goodness, and beauty.
Jesus Christ remains at the center of school life. Students encounter Him through daily Mass, prayer, Scripture, the sacraments, service, study, and relationships with teachers who understand education as a vocation.
The campus itself is an integral part of the educational experience. Outdoor classrooms, the farm, and the apiary give students space to observe, investigate, work, explore, move, and discover the beauty and order of God’s creation.
MSMCS families come from parishes and communities throughout the Dallas area. They are united not by a single neighborhood or background, but by a shared desire to form children who reason clearly, choose what is good, serve faithfully, and live with purpose.
The school has grown far beyond its first classrooms, but its deepest purpose remains unchanged:
To partner with families in helping every child become the person God created them to be.
ACCREDITATION & AWARDS
Accountable to Standards.
Faithful to Our Mission.
Mount St. Michael Catholic School is accredited through the Texas Council of Catholic Bishops Education Department.
Accreditation provides an external process for evaluating educational quality, Catholic identity, school governance, curriculum, student services, faculty qualifications, operational practices, and commitment to continuous improvement.
For families, accreditation offers important assurance that MSMCS is accountable to recognized standards. Yet meeting external standards is not our final measure of success.
Our deeper responsibility is to remain faithful to our mission: forming students in courageous virtue, grounded in the truth of Christ, so they are prepared to reason clearly, choose what is good, and serve faithfully.
Plan Your Visit
The Next Chapter Begins with the Children We Serve Today
Mount St. Michael’s history is more than a record of dates, programs, and institutional growth. It is the story of families, religious sisters, educators, volunteers, and students united by the conviction that education should help children grow in knowledge, faith, character, and purpose.
That work continues each day in every classroom and through our partnership with every family we serve.
We invite you to experience Mount St. Michael Catholic School and see how its founding purpose remains alive today.