The Pembroke Hill School (usually referred to as Pembroke Hill) is a private secular preparatory school for about 1,200 students in early years (age 2 years) through high school, separated into four sections: early years and prekindergarten (early childhood school), kindergarten through 5th grade (lower school), 6th through 8th grade (middle school), and 9th through 12th grade (upper school). It is located on two campuses a mile apart in the Country Club District of Kansas City, Missouri, near the Country Club Plaza.
Vassie James Ward Hill[clarify], a Kansas Citian and Vassar College graduate born in 1875, inherited a fortune upon the death of her first husband, Hugh Ward, a son of pioneer Seth E. Ward. She then married Albert Ross Hill, formerly president of the University of Missouri.
At the time, Kansas City's wealthy commonly sent their children to boarding schools on the East Coast. Hill did not want to send her daughter and three sons "back east." She believed they should have equal access to education in Kansas City. This led her to research the workings of college preparatory schools, especially the progressive education of the Country Day School movement.
In 1910, using funds solicited from 12 Kansas City businesspeople, Hill founded the Country Day School for boys, which accepted both day students and boarders (boarding ceased in the 1950s). The initial enrollment was 20 students, but grew to 52 within three years. It sat on what is today Pembroke Hill's Ward Parkway Campus, to the west of the Country Club Plaza at 5121 State Line Road.
Sunset Hill School
Three years later, Ruth Carr Patton and Frances Matteson Bowersock joined with Hill to found the Sunset Hill School at 400 West 51st Street, named after Hill's favorite area on the Vassar campus (Sunset Hill is above Sunset Lake at Vassar). Sunset Hill was located on what is now Pembroke Hill's Wornall Campus, south of Country Club Plaza. At the time of its founding, the campus overlooked the Kansas City Country Club (today Loose Park). It also includes a portion of the Battle of Westport battlefield.
Pembroke School
In 1925, some educators and students left the Country Day School to form the Pembroke School for boys at 7444 State Line Road (about 23 blocks south of the Country Day School).[3] The school was adjacent to Lincoln and Lee University, which opened 1927. An advertisement for Pembroke noted it was "modeled after the finest English boarding schools." Two major schools in England (Oxford and Cambridge) have the Pembroke name because of their connection to the Earl of Pembroke.
Knute Rockne
Legendary Notre Dame Coach Knute Rockne was killed in a plane crash on March 31, 1931, flying from Kansas City where he had planned to visit his sons Billy and Knute Jr., who were boarding at Pembroke. Rockne made several unpublicized visits to the school, including a 1930 graduation speech. He was to be a speaker at the school's father-son banquet. Knute Jr. was captain of the Pembroke football team, which had played the Country Day school in 1930 in a high-profile game played at the University of Kansas Stadium. Rockne was quoted as saying he intended "to steal that play" when watching his son practice.[4]
Premboke-Country Day School
The two schools re-merged in 1933 to form the Pembroke-Country Day School (usually called "Pem Day), keeping the Country Day School's original campus. In 1933, Lincoln and Lee, which was renamed the University of Kansas City, moved to what is today the campus of the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
Pembroke Hill School
From the start, Sunset Hill and Pembroke-Country Day worked cooperatively. 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, were often combined, and Sunset Hill girls were cheerleaders for Pem Day's athletic teams. In 1963, the schools began coeducational classes in upper-level math, science, and languages.
In the early 1980s, the two schools began merger discussions, ultimately merging in 1984 to become the Pembroke Hill School. The class of 1985 elected to have separate graduation ceremonies. True coeducation started the following year. The former Sunset Hill campus became home to the primary and lower schools (then preschool through 6th grade), and the former Pem Day campus became home to the middle and upper schools (then 7th grade through 12th grade). The two campuses are about a mile apart in the Country Club District, with the upper grades in a campus on the west, on the Missouri side of the Kansas border at 5121 State Line Road, and the lower grades a mile due east at 400 West 51st Street at Wornall Road.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Pembroke Hill completed a $50 million capital improvement project, which renovated both campuses. The Ward Parkway campus gained a new middle school building, Boocock Middle School (which now serves 6th-8th grades), a new upper school building, Jordan Hall, a new arts center, and a new library, the James M. Kemper Sr. Library.
In the Class of 2013, 29 seniors were recognized by the National Merit. Of these 29, 21 or 21% of the class, are National Merit Semifinalists.[5] Eight of the students are Commended Students. This number represents the second-highest percentage in the state of Missouri. [citation needed]
On September 7, 2017, Dr. Steve Bellis announced that the 2018–2019 school year would be his last as Head of School. Dr. Bellis served as the Headmaster of the Ward Parkway Campus of The Pembroke Hill School for 16 years.[6] Upon his departure, Pembroke welcomed in Brad Shelley as the newest Head of School. Shelley was previously serving as associate headmaster at the McDonogh School, in Baltimore, MD.[7]
Incidents
The private school is located in one of Kansas City's most high-profile neighborhoods, and historically, its parents have been among the city's movers and shakers. In 1988, Kansas City Magazine published an article titled "A High School on Easy Street", criticizing Pembroke Hill's students' allegedly "advantaged way of life."[8]
According to The Kansas City Star, students at Pembroke Hill have "faced several incidents of anti-Semitic behavior at Pembroke."[9] On the 2021 International Holocaust Remembrance Day in January, a swastika was discovered on a student's desk.[9] The symbol was accompanied by an offensive reference toward members of the school's LGBT community. The incident was covered by citywide media and contextualized by prior incidents where one student raised his arm in a Nazi salute while calling a Jewish student an offensive name. Swastikas were painted on a Jewish student's locker. Several Jewish parents spoke to The Star on the condition of anonymity, fearing reprisals against their children. Following the incident, officials initiated a hiring search for the newly created position of Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.[10]
In April 2021, months after a swastika was discovered in a classroom, school officials found "KKK" written on the side of a desk. School officials hired consulting firm Sophic Solutions to "hold community conversations, complete a diversity and equity audit, and then present recommendations."[11][12]
Pembroke Hill colors are blue and red, its teams are known as the Raiders, and its mascot resembles a Viking raider. Pembroke is a member of the Crossroads Conference.
Championships
The boys basketball team won two Missouri State basketball championships in 1956 and 1957, operating under the Pembroke County Day name. In 1997, 1998, and 1999, Pembroke Hill's boys' basketball team won the Missouri Class 2A state title. In 2000, however, in a nationally publicized scandal, the Missouri State High School Activities Association stripped Pembroke of the titles and placed the school on probation after the Kansas City Star revealed that promoter and AAU coach Myron Piggie had remitted cash payments to two of the school's star players, Kareem Rush and his brother JaRon Rush, to play on his "amateur" basketball team.[13][14][15][16][17] Piggie admitted to paying JaRon Rush $17,000 and Kareem Rush $2,300, after which the brothers "submitted false and fraudulent Student Athlete Statements to the universities where they were to play intercollegiate basketball", certifying that they had not been paid to play basketball.[17] As a result, the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Missouri found themselves subject to NCAA penalties for awarding athletic scholarships to non-amateurs.[17] On Piggie's 2002 appeal from his prison sentence and restitution for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud, and tax evasion, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that Pembroke Hill had "sustained a loss of $10,733.89 in investigative costs and forfeiture of property as a result of" Piggie's conspiracy.[17]
The Raiders lacrosse team won the 2009 Division II state championship, beating Eureka High School 6-5 after trailing 5–2 in the 4th quarter.[18]
The boys' tennis team also won the 2009 Division II state championship,[19] sweeping all teams up until the final, where Pembroke won 5–2.[citation needed]
In 2017, the Raiders won state tennis tournaments in both the boys and girls class 1 sections. The boys defeated The Saint Louis Priory School 5–2 in the finals, while the girls upended the defending champion[20]John Burroughs School 5–4 in October.
In 2021, boys' golf member Ryan Lee won the Missouri golf championships for the second time in his high school career. Lee set a state record for the lowest two-day score, firing a total score of 133 (67,66).
Gretchen Craft Rubin, class of 1984; author, The Happiness Project, Happier at Home and Better Than Before and hosts popular podcast "Happier With Gretchen Rubin"
Kareem Rush, class of 1999; college basketball player, Missouri Tigers; professional NBA, NBA Development League, and ABA shooting guard, brother of basketball players JaRon Rush and Brandon Rush
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