Divine Savior Holy Angels High School history

By 1920, life for a Salvatorian Sister in the USA was radically different than it had been 25 years earlier.

In 1927 the BVMs dedicated an imposing new building on the school's original site.

In 1951, DS moved to a new building near 100th Street and Capitol Drive.

The 1969 closure of Francis Jordan High School sponsored by the Salvatorian Fathers and Brothers loomed in their collective memory.

Both schools offered young woman in the Milwaukee area opportunities for a top-notch education, but by 1970 they also shared a challenge: both schools were facing a decline in sister-teachers, financial uncertainty and falling enrollment.

In a word, "Should they seek out some group willing to purchase the school?" In 1975, a Salvatorian task force was established to confront this question.

In 1976, a DS alumna, Angela T. Pienkos, was named to the newly created position of chief administrator with a set of responsibilities that combined the duties of principal and those of leader of development.

The 1980s, a time of heated debate about the quality and effectiveness of American primary and secondary school education, saw DSHA emerge as a beacon of academic excellence. Its accomplishments were honored by the United States Department of Education in 1985 when DSHA was formally recognized as an Exemplary Private School at a Rose Garden ceremony at the White House.

In 1992 DSHA celebrated its centennial.

When the new millennium arrived on January 1, 2000, Salvatorian Sisters were already five years into our second century on USA soil.

In 2015, DSHA made another addition knocking down the original gymnasium, and building the Chris and John McDermott Gymnasium, the R. J. Fridl Commons, Sarah M. Hegarty Fitness Center, a new academic wing with a music suite, and the Mother of Our Savior Chapel with the DuBois Campus Ministry center.

In Valiant Women, a history of DSHA published in 2017, author Frank Miller describes the nerves of former Holy Angels’ teacher Mary Mross on her first day at the new school.