Creative Montessori unveils improvements
Board members, school employees, students and community supporters were present Thursday at the Creative Montessori School to celebrate the ribbon cutting ceremony and unveil the new campus.
When Barbara Spitzer founded the school in 1968, it was the first to offer social studies, science and foreign languages for preschoolers and have a mixed-age classroom. With these components to guide the classrooms and learning, the school was dedicated to following the Montessori method.
The Montessori method encourages children to discover their own unique potential to shape their future and transform the world around them by avoiding a strict timelines and working at their own pace.
By using these techniques, teachers aim in helping students develop strong thinking skills, self-direction, adaptability and resilience towards future challenges that they may face, be it in school or out in the world.
“Never do for a child what a child could do for himself or herself,” said former school board president and current school board member Brooke Coleman.
In an effort to enhance the schools facilities and make them more reflective of the Montessori teaching methods, the first phase of their campaign, "Now More Than Ever: Montessori," began in December 2015.
Funded by both a capital campaign and school revenues, the school completed its $4.5 million project with the help of ArchitectureWorks and JohnsonKreis Construction.
“This was an exciting year, and we had our timeline right on the money, to the day,” said Greg Smith, director of the Creative Montessori School.
The improvements include a new 14,100-square-foot preschool building, complete with two toddler classrooms and four preschool classrooms; teaching kitchens; an outdoor cultural classroom; a new dining hall with a commercial kitchen; a dining terrace; a community room and community terrace; a resource center and library and a new administration building and reception area. All of the renovations were done with the Montessori method in mind.
In the next three to five years, the Creative Montessori School will begin phase two of their campaign by replacing their old gym, and phase three will focus on improving the existing elementary building. In the meantime, the school will be improving the landscaping the Campus Green for special events, open play and organized sports.
Those involved in the project said they are excited for the new improvements.
“I always thought I’d be running form one church to the other, like when we started,” Spitzer said. “I don’t have the words to express what this building means to me.”