photo by: Rochelle Valverde

The Lawrence school board listens to a presentation about the Montessori teaching method as part of its meeting April 25, 2022.

On a mixed vote, Lawrence school district leaders have approved a plan to begin phasing in a public Montessori program at New York Elementary next school year.

As part of its meeting Monday, the Lawrence school board voted 4-3, with Carole Cadue-Blackwood, Kay Emerson and Andrew Nussbaum opposed, to approve a proposal to add the Montessori school curriculum at New York beginning with the Children’s House, which would serve ages 3, 4 and kindergarten, for the upcoming school year, with a plan to add higher grades year by year.

Emerson was interested in making a revised motion that took into consideration three concerns that were expressed by some board members. Students who live in the New York Elementary School boundary area have priority enrollment in the new program, but Emerson said she would like to see additional priority enrollment areas established before opening up enrollment to everyone.

“One of the things we had talked about is that there may be additional priorities in east neighborhoods to add to the priority list before opening enrollment to full district boundaries,” Emerson said.

Emerson also wanted the motion to include direction for the district to seek partnerships to provide after-school care for the three- and four-year-olds in the program, who will not be able to attend the existing Boys and Girls Club after-school program under its current format. She also wanted the New York school families who opt out of the Montessori program to be able to request a transfer to any other elementary school in the district if capacity allows. Instead of voting on Emerson’s revised motion, school board President Erica Hill suggested the board first vote on the motion as it stood, without Emerson’s additions, and that motion ended up passing.

Before the vote, the board heard a presentation from district administrators and others who have been working with the district to develop the proposal, as well as public comment from neighborhood representatives.

Barry Shalinsky, a member of the New York Elementary site council and president of the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, told the board that ELNA is on record as supporting New York School remaining open as a neighborhood school serving the families of East Lawrence and Brook Creek neighborhoods, and that the plan accomplishes that goal. However, Shalinsky said that families choosing traditional learning should be able to request a transfer to other schools — the district is requiring all those students to transfer to Cordley Elementary — as Pinckney or Woodlawn might be easier for parents who commute to Kansas City or Topeka. He also said that as the district seeks ways to attract students to low enrollment schools, it should consider other methods, such as STEAM or language immersion.

District administrators told the board that enrollment is projected to stay flat or decline, and they recommended the board adopt the Montessori school model at New York as a way to attract new families to the district. The school board recently approved more than $6 million in budget cuts for next school year, which were partly due to funding losses related to enrollment declines.

As far as start-up costs go, the district would need to hire Montessori certified teachers for the first year and also purchase materials for the two Children’s House classrooms, and continue to incur those expenses as more grades are added. Superintendent Anthony Lewis told the board that the district already has enough interest from teachers who are already certified in the Montessori method to create the two Children’s House classrooms at the school.

Funding from the Lawrence Schools Foundation is available to pay for some licensure or training, according to presentation materials. The cost of Montessori classroom materials and furniture for the Children’s House would be $17,528 total for two classrooms, or $8,764 per classroom. The district anticipates that funding would come from the district’s capital outlay fund.

The district presented two options for hiring or training more Montessori teachers as more grades are added. If the district were to hire teachers that are already Montessori certified but don’t have their Kansas license, it would cost $7,500 for each license. If the district were to pay for Montessori certification for teachers already licensed in Kansas, it would cost $17,000 for each training certification. The training would take approximately a full school year, and and it would cost $65,000 for each teacher’s salary. Going forward, costs of adding more grades would vary depending on how the district proceeds in acquiring more Montessori certified teachers.

The district also provided more information about the history and particulars of the Montessori curriculum. The method was developed by the Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori, and elements of the method include mixed-age classrooms, individualized instruction, and three-hour uninterrupted “work cycles” where children have a choice of activities. There are five main curriculum areas in a Montessori classroom: practical life, sensorial, math, language and expression.

The district previously announced that the Montessori program would be open to all Douglas County residents, with priority placement given to families living in the New York boundary area. The phasing process will allow current New York Elementary students to continue with traditional learning methods until they move on to middle school, but it will begin affecting kindergarten age students in the New York boundary area next year. If those kindergarten students do not want to participate in the Montessori program, they will have to request a transfer to Cordley Elementary. Transfer requests are due May 1.