Saint Joseph Grade School began in 1932 with the vision of the Reverend George Welsh pastor of St. Joseph Church. The task of starting and building an elementary school was a daunting task in the face of the Great Depression. The school began by subdividing the church social hall into four rooms each holding two grade levels, a principal’s office, a stage, lunch room and bathrooms. The first teaching staff was comprised of five nuns from the order of Saint Dominic of Newburgh, New York. Sr. Dalmatia was the first principal. The sisters taught 103 students. The Reverend Lawrence W. Donovan became pastor in 1949. In 1951, ground was broken on North Hooper Avenue to build a new school and church. The year 1952 saw 401 students enrolled in the new school taught by seven nuns and three lay teachers under the direction of a new principal, Sr. Eucharia. Continued growth and rising enrollment forced additional construction behind the school and church of 10 classrooms and an auditorium. In the early 1960’s enrollment reached 1,358 students. Between 1960 and 1980, several modular units were added behind Building B to house a seventh grade classroom, band, and compensatory education. During the 1970’s a physical education program was added to the curriculum and was taught in the back of the cafeteria and lead to the beginning of an organized sport program offering Cross-country, basketball and track for boys and girls. 1991 saw the reestablishment of a Kindergarten program. Kindergarten was housed in two classrooms in the high school building. In 1993, a new church was built on the south end of the property on an area of land known as “Angels Field”. With the new church available for worship, the old church in the school building was re-designed to be a gymnasium and the Kindergarten classes were moved to the basement of the new church.

During the late 90’s and early 2000’s many programs were added and established into the curriculum. The athletic program grew to 10 Varsity sports with the addition of soccer, wrestling, tennis, and volleyball. Spanish was added as a World Language, Advanced and Accelerated Math programs were formed for grades four to eight and the use of technology expanded from a computer lab to classroom iPad stations, interactive Smartboards, and eventually in 2013 the “Bring your own iPad" program went into effect for grades five to eight. A Pre-Kindergarten program for four year olds began in 2016 and a Pre-K-3 program was added in 2017. 2018 saw the dedication of the gymnasium as the Sr. Jean Spena Gymnasium, in honor of founding the Physical Education and Athletic programs at SJGS. In 2019, St. Joseph Grade School became a Notre Dame STEM Fellowship school and extended the STEM Lab to include the Margaret and Donald Wenzel Makerspace. Presently, there is an enrollment of over 560 students in Grades Pre-K through Eighth grade. The school encompasses four buildings and modular units: Building A (Grades K-5), Building B (Grades 6-8). Pre-K 3 and 4 year old programs are in the basement of the church and in a house on Lafayette Avenue. For the past 90 years all involved in the SJGS community have answered the call from God to serve. We and those that have gone before us have answered “Yes, my Lord”, with joyous exuberance and have focused on a shared mission which is the development of children into caring individuals with sincerely held Catholic Christian beliefs.