9/23/16 • Racine, WI • Racine Public Montessori Update
9/23/16 • Racine, Wisconsin • Racine Unified School District is launching four new Montessori Children’s House classrooms, as reported on MontessoriPublic here. These will be the first Montessori classrooms in the district.
The program was launched at the initiative of Racine Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lolli Haws, who came to Racine from District of Columbia Public Schools where, as Instructional Superintendent, she oversaw (among others) one of D.C.’s public Montessori schools. The model of nearby Milwaukee Public Schools, home of the country’s largest and oldest public Montessori system, was also influential, as was the input of Milwaukee Montessori veteran Phil Dosmann.
The program will open with four half-day sessions, two in the morning and two in the afternoon, each sharing one of two classrooms in Goodland Elementary school, serving 20 three and four year olds each. Next year classes will extend to full day for five year olds, and to grow by a grade each year through elementary.
Three and four year olds in Racine are district funded, and that will apply at Goodland as well. Enrollment will be by district-wide lottery, and parent interest has been strong, with a waiting list of 80 already recorded.
David worked in private Montessori for more than twenty years as a parent, three-to-six year-old and adolescent teacher, administrator, writer, speaker, and advocate. In 2016 he began working with the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector. David lives in Portland, Oregon.