3/8/17 • Racine, WI • Racine Public Montessori Expansion
3/8/17 • Racine, Wisconsin • The public Montessori program at Goodland Elementary in Racine Unified School District, covered on MontessoriPublic here, has been a hit with parents and school administrators, and will be expanded next year, according to a story in the Journal Times.
The program currently serves 79 three and four year olds in four classrooms. Next year, those classrooms will admit new three year olds and grow to a full three to six age range, and two new three and four year old classrooms will open. More than 100 children have already applied.
The program serves three and four year olds even though the state pays only 60% of the cost for four year olds and nothing for the threes. The district absorbs the remaining expense. Next year’s five year olds will be fully funded. But new children will only be added at the three and four year old level, rather than bringing in children unfamiliar with the education model. Superintendent Lolli Haws explained: “Montessori isn’t set up (for students) to come in at 8-years-old or 9-years-old. You have to grow up through it.”
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.