Cornerstones of Care Education Center to Open Beginning of 2026 School Year

Beginning in August 2026, we will consolidate both of our day treatment schools into a single South Kansas City location and vacate our Gillis Campus site.

The consolidation of the K-8 school at the Gillis Campus and the grades 9-12 school at the Ozanam Campus will create the Cornerstones of Care Education Campus at the former Bishop O’Hara High School at 9001 James A. Reed Road. The move will provide additional space to manage larger enrollments and add students who are currently on waiting lists.

“Growth and change are part of Cornerstones of Care’s core values as a trauma-informed organization,” said President and CEO Merideth Rose. “This was a tremendous opportunity to align our schools and key education programs within the same location.”
The new Education Campus is part of a 10-year lease with the James A. Reed Road property. In addition to the day treatment school classrooms, the Education Campus will include therapeutic services and provide additional space for thriving educational programs like Build Trybe, Behavioral Intervention Support Team (BIST), and Collaborative Learning.

Build Trybe, which teaches marketable job skills to youth in our care, will enhance its outdoor education center with a five-acre space to teach youth in its Landscaping and Conservation and Seed-to-Plate programs. BIST, which provides training to educational professionals to support youth with behavioral issues and increase learning time within the classroom, will move its offices from the Gillis Campus. The Collaborative Learning and Training team will implement plans for a simulation lab, complete with a home setting to train case managers, foster parents, and biological parents about best practices in serving children and families working through trauma.
Along with the K-8 school’s departure from the Gillis Campus, all team members with on-site offices will move to the Ozanam Campus when the lease ends in December 2026. Facing costly deferred maintenance of buildings on the Gillis Campus, which coincided with the availability of the former O’Hara High School, supported the timing of the move.

“Cornerstones of Care’s roots go back to the Gillis Campus, and while we feel nostalgia as our time ends there, we see a tremendous opportunity with our new education campus,” Meridith said.