In 1892, the Congregation arrived in the United States when four Sisters of Sion began educating young children in Auburn and Lewiston, Maine. By 1904, the number of Sisters had grown to sixty. In 1907, the Sisters transferred to Marshall, Missouri, where they taught at Sion Academy until 1925. In 1912, Bishop Thomas Francis Lillis invited seven Sisters to Kansas City. Two taught in the Annunciation School. The others began a Frenchkindergarten and gave private sewing, music and French lessons, which grew into the Notre Dame de Sion School. For decades to follow, the Sisters continued managing and growing the institution, building their first campus in Kansas City’s historic Hyde Park. In 1953, Bobby Greenlease was kidnapped from the Hyde Park school by a woman claiming to be his aunt. The $600,000 ransom paid by his family was the largest paid to that point, although Greenlease had been killed before the ransom was paid. The original campus at 3823 Locust is now co-ed and includes PreK Montessori, and kindergarten through middle school.
South Kansas City All Girl High School
In 1962, the high school moved to south Kansas City at 10631 Wornall Rd. Six years later the Sisters invited lay members to serve on the school's Board of Trustees, and in 1990 the ownership of the school was transferred to the Board.
Sion Today
Notre Dame de Sion is now known city-wide as a rigorous college preparatory school. It is still located in the South Kansas City campus, and girls from all over the Kansas City metro travel to come to Sion. Sion has many musical opportunities including a musical and plays. It also has a drum line and choir. Sion has many athletic achievements, including many wins from the dance team, who has won 10th overall in the nation in 2019 and has won 1st place in the state of Missouri for ten consecutive years. Other sports include basketball, softball, cheerleading, swim, dive, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, lacrosse, cross-country, and track. Sion also has many opportunities to travel abroad to Australia, Costa Rica, and France, to their sister schools.
Governance
Today, Notre Dame de Sion in Kansas City is one of seventeen Sion schools worldwide, sustained by the charism of the Sisters. Notre Dame de Sion in Kansas City is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph as well as the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion. The school is owned by a lay corporation and governed by a board of trustees.
