1938 - Shrine Catholic Grade School opens at 12 Mile and Woodward, Royal Oak, Michigan.  Most of the building's cost of $130,000 was collected via a 25 cent "seat collection" taken at the door at Sunday Masses. As explained by Father Coughlin, the "Shrine was built by Canada and all of North America, but the Shrine School must be maintained by parishioners at the Shrine. We shall have to get together," he said, "and make every sacrifice possible to have one of the finest schools in the country, a school which will befit such a beautiful Shrine and such a fine parish."

1941 – The Little Flower High School for Girls opens at 13 Mile and Woodward, Royal Oak, Michigan. The Sisters of Charity helped fund the construction of the building on land donated by Father Charles E. Coughlin, pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower parish. Fr. Coughlin requests that the Sisters of Charity staff the school. The Sisters of Charity were already administering Shrine Elementary School, which opened in 1934 at the current location of 12 Mile and Woodward, Royal Oak, Michigan.

Sister Barbara Geoghegan serves as principal. Her staff includes Sisters Rose McConville, Myra Drain, Ancilla Marie Petricone and Francis Anna Bunline.

1942 – Shrine High School for Boys opens. WWII postpones plans to construct permanent facilities. The school temporarily utilizes rooms located in the grade school building as well as in the new girls’ high school at the 13 Mile Road campus.

1948 – Due to the high cost of new building construction after the war, the Shrine of the Little Flower parish purchases the 13 Mile girls’ high school building from the Sisters of Charity, merging the Little Flower High School for Girls and the Shrine High School for Boys. The Little Flower High School opens on September 13th with four hundred students enrolled. Thirteen Sisters of Charity, five priests, two laymen and one laywoman serve as the faculty.

1965 – Our Lady of Fatima parish partners with the Shrine of the Little Flower parish to expand the Little Flower High School student population. The Little Flower High School name changes to the Shrine High School – an inter-parish institution. To accommodate the 100 additional students, a new wing is built (the addition on the east end of the original building).

As a result of this partnership, Shrine High School becomes an Archdiocesan high school and the Archdiocese appoints Fr. Dennis Harrity as principal. A lay Board of Supervisors, which was unique to Catholic schools then, organizes school policy.

Thomas P. Kirkwood is promoted from his teaching position at Shrine (since 1962) to assistant principal, becoming the first lay administer in the Archdiocese of Detroit.

1970 – Principal Fr. Dennis Harrity is appointed pastor of St. Dennis Parish, Royal Oak.

Thomas P. Kirkwood succeeds Fr. Harrity to become the first lay principal at Shrine and within the Archdiocese of Detroit.

1980 – Our Lady of Fatima parish withdraws from the operation of Shrine High School because of declining enrollment from their parish. Shrine of the Little Flower parish now solely operates the Shrine Catholic High School as its parish high school.

1993 – Shrine Catholic Academy (7th – 8th Grade) opens at the 13 mile Road campus. To acknowledge the opening of the academy, now attached to the high school, the building is appropriately renamed Shrine Catholic High School and Academy.

1995 – 2002 – A Master Plan is created which accesses all parish community needs. The plan focuses on facility upgrades and development of ongoing ministry and spiritual life initiatives within the church.

2003 – National Shrine of the Little Flower parish embarks on an ambitious fundraising campaign to implement phases of the Master Plan for the church and school campuses.

2004 – 2009 – Numerous renovations and building expansions occur (including science labs in all three schools, a 15,000 square foot fieldhouse/gymnasium with fitness Center, an art room and a performing arts center).

2005 – Principal Thomas P. Kirkwood retires.

Gabrielle Erken is appointed principal of Shrine Catholic High School and Academy.

2008 - Shrine Catholic Schools' Field House built.

2009 - Sanders Auditorium Dedicated 

2013 – Principal Gabrielle Erken retires.

Bernadette Sugrue is appointed principal of Shrine Catholic High School and Academy.

President and Pastor Monsignor William H. Easton unexpectedly passes away.

2014 – Father Robert Fisher is appointed President and Pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower parish and Shrine Catholic Schools by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

2015 - Sharon Dixon retires as Shrine Catholic Grade School principal.  Katie Fotiu appointed new principal. 

2016 - James Mio '96 is appointed principal of Shrine Catholic High School and Academy.

2017 - Father Robert Fisher appointed Bishop by the Archidiocese of Detroit. 
 
Monsignor Robert McClory appointed President and Pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower parish and Shrine Catholic Schools by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Early Childhood Center Opens.

2019 - Monsignor Robert McClory appointed Bishop by the Diocese of Gary, Indiana.  

Fr. Joseph Horn appointed President and Pastor of the National Shrine of the Little Flower parish and Shrine Catholic Schools by the Archdiocese of Detroit.

Jennifer MacDougall Bero '85 appointed as Shrine Catholic Grade School principal.  

2020 - In response to COVID-19 pandemic Shrine Catholic Schools Faculty and Staff implemented a new Distance Learning and Hybrid model for students.  

2021 - 6th Grade moves to Academy. New outdoor sports' field built.

First Head of Schools hired - Mrs. Joanne Swan Jones.

Scott Wisnewski '98 appointed as principal of Shrine Catholic Grade School. 

Archdiocese of Detroit begins implementation of Family of Parishes. 

2022 - James Mio '96 is appointed principal of Shrine Catholic Academy.

Dr. Julie Kaminski appointed principal of Shrine Catholic High School.

The National Shrine of the Little Flower Parish schools were established "in the firm belief that a Christian atmosphere afforded the most complete and effective climate for educating and developing the youth of any generation." From the original grade school, housed in a public school on Scotia Avenue, the school system has expanded to three schools incorporating preschool through twelfth grade. Tuition that first year was $15.00 per family.

Mr. Clair Ditchy, an architect and member of the parish, designed the present grade school, described in 1938 as "new, thoroughly modern, and completely equipped." The J.E. Utley Corporation, under general manager and parishioner Raymond LeVeque, was the contractor for the building. It was a modern ten-classroom structure, which also contained a library, medical clinic as well as general and principal's offices.
 
Most of the building's cost of $130,000 was collected via a 25 cent "seat collection" taken at the door at Sunday Masses. As explained by Father Coughlin, the "Shrine was built by Canada and all of North America, but the Shrine School must be maintained by parishioners at the Shrine. We shall have to get together," he said, "and make every sacrifice possible to have one of the finest schools in the country, a school which will befit such a beautiful Shrine and such a fine parish."

The new school opened its doors on December 11, 1938, with an enrollment of 325 students. By the school's first anniversary, enrollment had increased to 425. By 1958, in the height of the 'baby boom," registration swelled to 1,600 pupils.

In 1940, in anticipation of establishing a Shrine Boys' High School, classes began in some of the elementary school classrooms, in the
Coughlin building, the church undercroft, and under the narthex. Plans were made for a new building, and property was purchased east of the railroad, north of Vinsetta Road and south of Northwood Boulevard. Grading for initial construction had begun when the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, and plans were put on hold.

Meanwhile, the Sisters of Charity built the Little Flower High School for Girls on Thirteen Mile Road on 18 acres that were donated by Father Coughlin. It opened in 1941, with registration quickly reaching one hundred and fifty. The school was owned and run by the Sisters of Charity, who allowed the parish to buy it in the spring of 1948, thus precluding the need to build a separate boys' school. A boys' locker room, lavatories, and dressing room were added, and the facility reopened its doors as a coeducational institution on Monday, September 13, 1948. Within ten years, the enrollment was 635. However, with a capacity of only 580, some classes were confined to the boiler room.

Six new classrooms were built onto the grade school in 1955. With the desperate need for more room in the high school, more than 500 parishioners were mobilized to walk the streets in an effort to reach every family in the parish and obtain pledges for further building. By 1963, negotiations began to enable Our Lady of Fatima, a neighboring parish, to join with the Shrine parish in operating the high school. In August of 1965, Our Lady of Fatima parish formally joined with Shrine parish in the operation of the school. Its name was officially changed from 'Shrine of the Little Flower High School' to 'Shrine High School.' By 1971, 735 students, from more than thirty other parishes and localities, attended the school.

As the Royal Oak area around Shrine became an older community with fewer children, enrollment gradually declined. However, with the increasing demands for facilities for technology, additional space was again required. This time the problem was solved, in 1994, by creating the Shrine Academy, an independent school housed in the third level of the High School building. The Academy, which is limited to the seventh and eighth grades, has a separate principal and staff, curriculum and schedule, but shares facilities for drama, music, art and the biology and computer labs. Currently, the Academy accommodates over 150 students, the High School over 300 students. The Grade School, with preschool for three-year-olds through sixth grade, has an enrollment of over 600 students.