Hundreds Protest Proposed Santa Cruz Montessori School

Santa Cruz city school district parents are up in arms about a proposed new Montessori elementary school in the district, which they say will cause $1 million in cuts to the rest of the public schools in the district.

In a press release for a Wednesday protest, the parents say the new school will "likely result in the closure of an elementary school" and "will be funded by money taken from our neighbhood school programs K-12, at the expense of students."

On a blog, one of the parents in favor of the school, Whitney Smith, wrote that she wants her daughter to attend a Montessori school, however all of the ones in Santa Cruz are private with tuitions of $12,000.

Montessori schools are based on the philosophies of Italian educator Maria Montessori, who started her schools in the early 1900s and based them on the needs of individual children, rather than a set curriculum. Classrooms aren't separated by age, so that older students can be role models and teachers for younger ones.

The new proposed school has a website spelling out its goals. Children aren't tied to desks, it says, and adds "a Montessori teacher is trained to prepare environments, observe readiness and present materials to each child when they are most ready."

In her blog, Smith writes disparagingly of her neighborhood Santa Cruz public school and argues for the Montessori approach:

"We have looked at our local public elementary and considered sending her there but the school has an API rating of 2 out of 10 and in 2nd grade only 35% of kids are demonstrating proficiency in english and in 4th grade only 50% of kids are proficient in math. DEPRESSING statistics which mean that Lennon, no matter how talented and smart she is will be impacted by the challenges of this school."

The protesting parents argue that Santa Cruz schools have made significant improvements.

" Santa Cruz public schools have…
- Increased student achievement and test scores.
- Reduced class sizes.
- Added college track programming.
- Earned CA Distinguished School status for 2 high schools.
- Reversed enrollment declines at all grade levels.
- Montessori-based programming at Monarch Elementary School."

They sum up their arguments here,  worrying about a lack of diversity, displacement of current classrooms, a cost of $7,000 for all the students in the district and a lack of programs for disabled students. They criticize the city charter, Pacific Collegiate School, which has been ranked the seventh best school in the country, for its lack of diversity.