Students, staff return to newly remodeled Montessori School

Students join Juliet Sloan during the red ribbon ceremony for the newly remodeled Monmouth Montessori Preschool. The school reopened in December. / Contributed photo

Juliet Sloan knew her life’s ambition while just a preschooler.

“I was first introduced to Montessori when I was three. In this building,” said Sloan of the Monmouth Montessori School. ‘When I came here, I said I want to grow up and teach here. I never changed my mind.”

Years after she aged out of preschool that ambition remained.

“I would come back and volunteer in high school when I had a class that would let students out in the community to get work experience,” she said. “I worked summer camps here.” 

Sloan remained connected while at Linfield College.

“Any chance I got, I was in a Montessori classroom,” she said.

Sloan worked five years at the McMinnville Montessori School upon graduation. But she was not certified to teach the Montessori method. That changed, however, upon completing additional coursework.

Then Sloan got the call that brought her life full circle. Ramya Blair, her old teacher, asked Sloan if she was interested in purchasing the Monmouth Montessori School. Sloan was. Which, in a nutshell, is how she came to purchase it in 2006, when she was 25.

Structure-wise, the building remained largely unchanged for the next 17 years. Until this past May, that is, when major remodeling commenced. A red ribbon ceremony, held in early December, proclaimed to students, staff and the community that work was completed and the school back in session. 

Remodeling began with excavation of the front yard area. The process provided quite the educational opportunity for young inquiring minds.

“We were glued to the window looking out and watching that part,” Sloan said. “And then (the construction crew) started pouring the foundation, and got that part ready.”

Demolition began the day after school let out for summer vacation. Come September, the school was relocated because work was ongoing.

“We had to move all of our school supplies across town to the Monmouth Christian Church. They had a modular building that we rented,” Sloan said. “We were there for two months. And then we had to move everything back across town.”

The experience provided Sloan with a valuable lesson.

“I learned the amazingness of a dolly. I’m moving everything over there. I carried a box at a time.  My legs were bruised from them bumping into boxes,” Sloan said. “And then, moving back, I had access to a dolly. And, oh wow, you can stack four boxes and roll it.”

Set up at the newly remodeled school took place over Veterans Day.

“It was a huge undertaking,” Sloan said.

Remodeling roughly doubled the building's square footage. There is now ample room for a new elementary school.

“So we used to have just 3- to 6-year-olds in the primary classroom. This is the first year we’ll have first- and second-graders,” Sloan said. “Eventually, we will offer classes through sixth grade. All under the Montessori umbrella.”

Next year, third grade instruction will be offered, then fourth grade instruction the year after, and so forth through sixth grade..

Expansion answered a question parents have been asking Sloan her first year at the school.

“Ever since I got here the school parents have asked me, where do my children go from here? Can you open an elementary school? So we’ve been working towards it,” Sloan said. “We couldn’t add more children without improving the building, without adding a bathroom, and making more space available. That’s been the intention of this undertaking.”

As for other changes, there’s office space, raised flooring and a ramp.

“Just the other day somebody came to talk to me about a grant and she was in a mobility scooter,” Sloan said. “If it had been just days before, she wouldn’t have been able to enter the building. This was the very first time we had access for people in a wheelchair or mobility scooter because of the new ramp that was put in.”

Reformation Custom Construction, and its owner Curtis Roberts, was in charge of remodeling.  Total costs neared $500,000, with most of that paid via private financing. Donations and a $15,000 grant from the City of Monmouth helped.

Twenty-three students attend preschool and kindergarten. There is room for more students. Enrollment applications are being accepted.

Seven students attend the elementary school.

“We’ll probably build to around 25 students over the next several years, as the school grows to first through sixth grades,” Sloan said.

Admission to the elementary school comes with a caveat.

”It’s preferred for students to start at the Montessori school while in preschool or kindergarten,” Sloan said. “We will definitely not take anyone in the fourth, fifth or sixth grades. That’s too old for the classes we have right now.”

According to published reports, physician Maria Montessori opened the first Montessori school in Rome in 1907. It was called Casa dei Bambini, or the Children’s House. In starting her own school, Montessori was able to apply her own philosophy to education.

The Monmouth Montessori School is at 1140 Main St. E., Monmouth.