Hunsur is located 45 kilometres west of Mysore City on the Mysore –Madikeri – Mangalore Highway. Its main claim to fame was that the former Chief Minister of Karnataka State Sri D. DevarajUrs hailed from this constituency of Karnataka Legislative Assembly. St Joseph’s Convent institutions are located in the heart of Hunsur town, just opposite to the old KSRTC bus stand. The important land marks like post office, church, market and telephone exchange are within a stone’s throw from here. Fr K.A. Mathew, parish priest of Hunsur at the time invited the Ursuline Sisters to Hunsur and Mother Genevieve, a daring person by nature and missionary minded, ventured into the Diocese of Mysore by opening a convent in the year 1956. Incidentally this was the first institution of the Congregation outside the Diocese of Mangalore, and was to become the gateway for the Ursulines’ entry into many a remote village of Mysore District.
St Joseph’s High School was started in 1985, at the persistent request of the parents who wanted their children to continue their high school education in this campus itself. St. Joseph’s Primary School was rendering invaluable service to the local children since 1956. After the seventh standard most of the English Medium children would go to Mysore for further studies or join the two existing government schools where there was a provision for one section in English medium. The Kannada medium students would either discontinue their studies or go to the government schools. There was a pressing demand from the parents to start a high school and provide opportunities for continuity of studies of the children. The Management was considering seriously ways and means to meet this demand. Finally the Primary School headmistress at the time Sr Serena (Liliana D’Souza) and the correspondent Sr Severine Barrows took a bold step to start the VIII Standard with full assurance of academic support from the Education Department. Thus after 29 years from the establishment of primary school, the high school emerged in the year 1985 in both the mediums that is, Kannada and English.
Incidentally a new building was ready for accommodating the primary school children with better facilities and implementing service of women empowerment. Then, the plan of the high school came in calling for the novel use. The same block continues even today as the main building for high school. Mr K.N Shiva Rao, the retired headmaster of a government high school, Mr Walter D’Mello and Rosy Lobo were the pioneering high school staff members. Grant-in-aid was given in the year 1995. The English Medium High School remains unaided.
The great contribution made by the stalwarts Mr K N Shiva Rao (1985-88) SrVeena D’Souza (1988-98), Sr Emily D’Souza (1998-2001), Sr Annamma C.J (2001-2002), Sr Jacintha Pereira ( 2002-2003) and Sr Leena Mascarenhas ( 2003 onwards) will remain indelible in the proud annals of St Joseph’s school. St Joseph’s High School was started with 29 students in the Kannada medium and 35 in the English medium. At present it boasts of 215 students in Kannada Medium and 487 students in English Medium on the rolls.