The Pembroke Hill School

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The Pembroke Hill School
Logo of Pembroke Hill
Freedom with Responsibility
Location
Kansas City, MO, USA
Information
Religion Nonsectarian
Headmaster Dr. Steve Bellis
Faculty 129 total
Average class size 11 students
Student:teacher ratio 9.5:1
Average SAT scores (2005) Verbal: 658, Math: 656
Average ACT scores (2005) 28
Type Private
Campus Urban, two campuses
Athletics 14 interscholastic, numerous club
Athletics conference N/A
Mascot Raider (Viking)
Color(s) Red & Blue
Established 1910 - Pembroke-Country Day (boys), 1913 - Sunset Hill (girls), 1984 - Pembroke Hill (coed)
Enrollment Approx. 1,200
Homepage http://www.pembrokehill.org/

The Pembroke Hill School (commonly known as Pembroke Hill) is a nonsectarian, coeducational, private preparatory school in Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

The school is located on two campuses, the "Ward Parkway Campus" and the "Wornall Campus," both in Kansas City's Sunset Hill neighborhood near the Country Club Plaza. Both campuses, however, pre-date the Plaza itself. Pembroke Hill enrolls approximately 1,200 students in preschool through 12th grade. The school has a strong academic tradition and usually matriculates all of its graduates to four-year colleges, many in the Ivy League.

Contents

Vassie James Hill, founder of The Pembroke Hill School
Vassie James Hill, founder of The Pembroke Hill School

Vassie James Hill, born Vassie James in 1875, was a prominent Kansas Citian. She had graduated from Vassar College in 1897, first married Hugh Ward, a rich pioneer's son, and after he died married educator Ross Hill, who formerly had been president of the University of Missouri. Hill was dismayed at the lack of nonsectarian private education in Kansas City, as at that time those of means in Kansas City commonly sent their children to boarding schools on the east coast.

Seeking a similar education for her three sons in Kansas City, Hill proceeded to arrange funding from twelve prominent Kansas City businessmen in 1910 and founded the Country Day School for boys, accepting both day students and boarders (although boarding ceased in the 1950s). Initial enrollment was 20 students and grew to 52 within three years. Several years later, the Country Day School merged with the Pembroke School for boys to form the Pembroke-Country Day School for boys, establishing itself on the Country Day School's large campus along State Line Road. Commonly, it was referred to as "Pem-Day".

In 1913, Hill sought the same sort of education for her daughter and founded the Sunset Hill School for girls (named after the neighborhood in which it was located). The school established itself on a large campus overlooking what was then the location of the Kansas City Country Club (today Loose Park), including a portion of the battlefield from the Battle of Westport.

From the start, Sunset Hill and Pembroke-Country Day existed in common. Often, teachers taught at both schools. For generations, many Kansas City families would send their boys to Pem-Day and their girls to Sunset Hill. School activities, such as plays and dances, often were combined.

Given this cooperative environment, in the early 1980s the two schools began merger discussions. Finally, in 1984, Pem-Day and Sunset Hill merged to become the Pembroke Hill School, although the class of 1985 elected to have separate graduation ceremonies. True co-education began the next year. The former Sunset Hill campus became home to preschool through sixth grade, and the former Pem-Day campus became home to seventh grade through twelfth grade.

In 1988, Pembroke Hill gained some local notoriety and scorn after Kansas City Magazine published an articled entitled "A High School on Easy Street," which criticized Pembroke Hill's students' "advantaged way of life."[1]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pembroke Hill completed a $51 million capital improvement project, which renovated both campuses extensively. The new Ward Parkway campus includes a new middle school building, Boocock Middle School (which now serves grades six through eight), a new upper school building, Jordan Hall, a new arts center, and a new library, the William T. Kemper Library.

Pembroke Hill has a long athletic tradition.[2] Its colors are blue and red, its teams are known as "The Raiders," and its mascot resembles a Viking raider.

Pembroke Hill Raiders athletics logo
Pembroke Hill Raiders athletics logo

For girls, Pembroke Hill offers:

Fall Winter Spring
Cheerleading (V) Basketball (8, 9, JV, V) Soccer (JV/V)
Cross Country (7/8, JV, V) Cheerleading (V) Swimming (JV, V)
Field hockey (8, C, JV, V) Dance team Track and field (7/8, JV, V)
Golf (JV, V)
Tennis (JV, V)[3]
Volleyball (8, JV, V)

For boys, Pembroke Hill offers:

Fall Winter Spring
Cross Country (7/8, JV, V) Basketball (8, 9, JV, V) Baseball (JV/V)[4]
Football (7/8, JV, V)[5] Wrestling (7/8, JV, V) Golf (JV/V
Soccer (JV, V) Lacrosse (JV/V)
Swimming (JV, V) Tennis (JV, V)[6]
Cheerleading (V) Track and field (7/8, JV, V)

In the past, Pembroke also has participated in softball, rugby union,and ice hockey. Additionally, the lower campus has facilities for racquetball, and the upper campus is one of only three locations in Kansas City which contain squash facilities.[7]

For three years in a row between 1997 and 1999, Pembroke Hill's boys' basketball team won the Missouri division 2A state title. In 2000, however, the Missouri State High School Activities Association stripped the school of the titles after the Kansas City Star revealed, in a much-publicized local scandal, that promoter and AAU coach Myron Piggie had made cash payments to two of the school's star players, Kareem Rush and his brother JaRon Rush.[8] In 2006 and 2007, the girls' basketball team won their Missouri Class 2 state title.

The school also is a perennial contender for or winner of Class 2 state championships in boys' golf, boys' tennis, boys' soccer, girls' golf, and girls' tennis.

Pembroke Hill has cross-state athletic rivalries with MICDS and John Burroughs School, both located in Ladue, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

In the 2007-2008 school year, tuition and fees will range from $14,440 (for students up to second grade) to $16,880 for high schoolers.[9] About 17 percent of students receive financial aid, totaling over $1.5 million per year.

In May 2007, the Malone Family Foundation, established by John C. Malone of Denver, Colorado, gave a $2 million grant to Pembroke's endowment, the largest single endowment gift in the school's history.[10] The gift will be used to create a "Malone Scholars Program" to give need-based financial aid to students with "high-caliber academics" who otherwise would qualify for at least 50 percent in financial aid, including not only low-income families, but also middle-income families as well.

The school has assets of over $85 million and an endowment of more than $18 million.[11] It receives substantial contributions not only from a large percentage of its alumni base, but also from Hallmark Cards, Kansas City Southern Industries, Sprint, H&R Block, and other leading regional corporations, many of whose executives attended Pembroke Hill.

Pembroke Hill is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS) and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The school is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS).

  1. ^ The Kansas City Library: Catalogue
  2. ^ The Pembroke Hill School (Official Website): Athletics
  3. ^ The Pembroke Hill School (Official Website): Tennis
  4. ^ Pembroke Hill Baseball (Official Website)
  5. ^ Pembroke Hill Football (Official Website)
  6. ^ The Pembroke Hill School (Official Website): Tennis
  7. ^ United States Squash Racquets Association: Missouri facility locations
  8. ^ ESPN: "Piggie indicted on 11 counts in Kansas City" (April 14, 2000)
  9. ^ The Pembroke Hill School (Official Website): Tuition and Financial Aid Information
  10. ^ "Pembroke Hill gets $2 million", The Kansas City Star, May 31, 2007.
  11. ^ [1]
  12. ^ IMDB: Elizabeth Craft
  13. ^ IMDB: 2002 Academy Awards
  14. ^ St. Louis Commerce Magazine: Cover Story, November 2002


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