Parents of students in the Lagunitas School District’s Montessori program met on Tuesday to discuss the future of the program and a potential merger with the district’s Open Classroom.
In an email sent out to district families earlier this month, superintendent Laura Shain proposed a policy for when to begin considering closing or combining programs: when a program has less than 24 students with three teachers.
A second proposal, crafted by Montessori 4th and 5th-grade teacher Alex Cusick and Open Classroom 4th, 5th and 6th-grade teacher Anita Collison, would join all the Montessori students and Ms. Cusick with the Open Classroom Program for the 2023-24 school year. For many parents and staff, the latter came as a surprise since the discussion of a merger has long divided the community and alarmed proponents of the separate programs. But the increasingly small classrooms have made education and socializing for students difficult, and the collaboration between program educators encouraged Ms. Shain.
“We’re really struggling with that sense of smallness,” said Ms. Shain. “What’s really important to our board and all of us is that this is merely a suggestion for people to consider. We want to hear feedback.”
The future of the Montessori program remains nebulous as enrollment declines and two teachers plan to leave the program at the end of this school year. Pauline Hope, the program’s kindergarten through first-grade teacher, is retiring in May, and Alex Perry, the 2nd and 3rd-grade teacher is leaving the district. The program has lost five students since November, with several of them moving to Ross Valley Charter. The Open classroom has gained four students since November and stands at an enrollment of 39. Ms. Shain expressed excitement about the teachers’ readiness to collaborate on merging the programs, and said that, if the Montessori program were to continue, there would need to be a reevaluation of its core values.
“If we decide to keep the two programs, we’d have a plan to refresh the pillars,” Ms. Shain said. “Asking us what our overarching values are and how we want students to approach learning and the arts.”
The Board of Trustees had mixed feelings about the merger proposal being presented to the public just a day after it was presented at a board meeting, and stressed the need for community input over administrative reach.
“As there are fewer children in this district and more options in the area for charter schools, we need to buckle down and listen,” board member Denise Bohman said. “People are leaving this district because they want more kids in the class with their child.”
Both programs have staunch supporters but division among the Montessori parent group has been worsened by students leaving and high staff turnover, while the culture of Open Classroom has become more cohesive, especially after two Open Classroom teachers came out of retirement this year to assist the kindergarten classroom. Ms. Shain said fewer families are touring the school that once drew people from around the country and that combining resources would be conducive to students’ learning and lucrative for the district. As it becomes more difficult to attract teachers, particularly in West Marin where housing is scarce, parents and administration met to talk about how a merger of the two programs, both with distinct values, could occur without dilution.
The two programs are similar in many ways. Both are mixed-age classrooms with philosophies of holistic education that prioritize the interests of the child to facilitate social and emotional growth. While the Open Classroom emphasizes student freedom to work individually or with a group on tasks, and free movement in the classroom, Montessori students often approach activities as a group and have a more structured school day.
Montessori parents’ chief concerns about a merger were change in their children’s learning structure and the dilution of Montessori values. While a full-on move to Open Classroom did not excite parents, they all expressed optimism about working with Open Classroom parents in finding a compromise or perhaps a new, combined program that would encompass the foundations of both philosophies.
Board president Richard Sloan demurred, saying that the values of the two classrooms are far too different for such a compromise, but applauded the parents and administrators for their ability to work toward an unprecedented compromise.
“I commend all of you for doing something I have never seen in my time here,” said Mr. Sloan, who helped found the Open Classroom program more than 50 years ago.
The school board will meet with Open Classroom parents on March 6th with a follow-up board meeting on March 9th to continue to discuss a potential merger’s relevant policies and community feedback.
“I know there are a lot of questions that will come up,” wrote Ms. Shain in her email. “We will answer them together. This is simply a big idea at this point, one that we have staff excited about, and if the programs want to explore the idea we can determine a path together.”