Our History
We Remember
In 1949, Our Lady of Grace Catholic School opened with eight rooms, staffed by the Sisters of Mercy, who welcomed 115 students. The school was part of Fr. Louis Forrey’s vision to build a strong Catholic community of ministry and a K-8 school, all of which began with the founding of Our Lady of Grace Parish in 1946 with 165 families. A 22-acre campus was made available by the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. However, before even one stone was laid on the campus, the first liturgies were celebrated in the old Edina Theater. By 1949, the parish community had laid the church’s cornerstone. Mass was celebrated in a basement church, which today is used as art and music rooms. In May of 1950, OLG graduated its first class of 12 students.
Our Growth
We recognize how blessed we are that our parish and school community have flourished through the years, and that growth could not have happened without our vibrant faith community. Today, there are more than 3,300 families at the parish and over 825 students enrolled in OLG. The significant expansion of our facilities has resulted in a corresponding growth in the faith formation and education programs.
Our Successes
Over the years we have been honored with awards from the National Catholic Education Association, Today’s Catholic Teacher Magazine and Apple Computers, and we have received multiple trophies for athletics and activities. However, we are most honored to have been awarded three National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence Awards by the U.S. Department of Education in 2001, 2009 and 2019, which makes OLG the only K-8 private school in Minnesota to have received three Blue Ribbon Awards.
We Believe
We believe that our school continues to offer the exemplary educational experience it has offered since opening its doors in 1949 -- nurturing and expanding the hearts, minds, and souls of students and providing a solid foundation on which they can rely as they become caring and engaged Catholic Christians. As another class graduates this year, many of these more than 60 students have been studying and worshiping in our school for nine years. In kindergarten, they enjoyed having an 8th grade “prayer buddy” who helped them research a saint and watched them march as that saint in the school’s All Saints’ Day Mass. In 2nd grade, they studied for and celebrated the sacraments of First Reconciliation and First Eucharist. Now, as 8th graders, they have kindergarten prayer buddies assigned to them and the opportunity to act as Peer Ministers for our school. From an eight-room school to a school filled with over 800 students who participate in a rich faith formation program and a challenging academic curriculum, we stand on the shoulders of generations of parishioners, school families, faculty and staff who have made OLG School the extraordinary Catholic educational institution that it is today.
