Starting a Montessori Micro-School

I'm working on starting a Montessori micro-school for the primary level (3-6 years old). The Montessori school my daughter is going to had a fairly sudden implosion in terms of its quality and reliability, and I wondered what I could do to make sure that she was getting an authentic Montessori experience. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be possible to create something.

So long story short is that I would like to start a Montessori school within my community (or one nearby). I was fortunate enough to attend a Montessori school through the 3rd grade and appreciate what a fantastic program it is, as long as it's done well. That said, I'm not Montessori certified. So I'm looking for 1-2 teacher leaders to help found the school. Speaking of:

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I'm hiring 1-2 Teacher Leaders to help found a primary-level Montessori school. See the founding teacher leader job listing to learn more and to apply.

Values

Values will certainly change (or get added to) over time. I'm going into this without having done this before, so it's all going to be a learning experience, at least for me. Here are some values that I'm thinking about right now. More to come, I'm sure.

1. Keep it small

I'm thinking 10-20 students per school. For things to be financially stable, I think we'll need around 15 students. If we have 15 students, we should be able to hire two guides, and possibly one assistant. I'm going to be available to help with the business side of things, especially at first, and can help to transition and train teachers on that kind of work over time.

With a small enough school (the space), and with few enough students (again, a total of 10-20 students), I believe the administrative work and overhead will be much more manageable. As schools get larger, and as you add more classrooms, you need to spend more and more on administration and rent. Small schools should remove that requirement. We can also use the surrounding community—public spaces, parks, gardens, etc.—to keep costs and maintenance down. This also pushes us to become a deeper part of the surrounding community (more on that below).

One large benefit, besides a reduction in cost and administrative work, is that teacher leaders will learn how the school and the business operates. This means that teacher leaders get to make the decisions. And they can make the decisions that will best serve the student, with no delay or bureaucracy. No need to "run it up to" admin. The teacher leaders are the guides, the directors, and the administrators, all rolled up in one. This only works when we keep things small, though.

2. Invest in teachers

The goal here isn't to make a large profit. The goal is to provide an excellent education to students, and to build something sustainable. That means happy, knowledgable teachers are a must. Here's what I want to do:

Teachers are able to make decisions: Teachers should be trusted and able to make decisions for the sake of the students, and implement them, without any hierarchy or bureaucracy. When the teacher leaders run the school, they can collaborate to do exactly that. They can make improvements to the school without asking for permission.
Pay teachers well: This is something I was trying to figure out in my research, and I'm still not 100% sure, but it sure seems like there's a very large range for pay when it comes to teachers, especially when it comes to private preschools. My goal is to pay teachers well. I really appreciate how difficult of a job it is. I don't want teachers to be taking side jobs to make ends meet. They shouldn't be worrying about their quality of life. This includes making sure they have health, dental, and vision insurance. It means making sure they have enough PTO. It also means setting up retirement matching.
Training and professional development: I believe the best way to help students to improve is to focus on the teachers. Teachers should have access to regular professional development so they can hone their craft, try things out in the classroom, and make constant improvements to the school. Getting better isn't just a once-in-a-while / meeting state requirements kind of thing. We should be learning, experimenting, and becoming better at what we do at a constant rate. If we're able to add more schools, and more teachers, helping teachers get together to help each other out, to share their knowledge and skills, is a must.
Make teachers into leaders: The Teacher Leaders are running the school. They make the day-to-day decisions. Investing in their leadership capabilities will not only allow the school to thrive, but will allow for teacher leaders to one day go off and start their own school (hopefully with the support of the previous school!). I want to help to develop entrepreneurial teachers who can implement their own vision, in their own cherished communities, someday.

3. Be a positive part of the community

I think that schools should be an active part of their community. How we make that happen will depend a lot on how the teacher-leaders want to implement this value, but for right now I think this means:

Serve the community: We should try to serve the parents and children of the community. Eventually, that means bringing in more families that are more racially diverse and financially underserved through grants and scholarships. Students and schools should volunteer in areas of need, as well.
Be a part of the community: Schools should reach out to community members to learn more about the community and what people do, so students may learn more about the people around them and learn from it. Schools should try to be in community-centric locations, such as street-facing retail spaces, etc.
Use public spaces, gardens, etc: In order to save on admin and overhead, we keep classes small and rent a small space. This will often mean we don't have access to our own outdoor space and play area. Finding a space to rent that is connected to or nearby community playgrounds, gardens, nature trails, etc, will serve this need while also connecting us to those in our community.

4. An Authentic / High-Fidelity Montessori

Finally, schools should be an authentic Montessori program. Although teacher-leaders have plenty of room to implement their own visions on what that means, I think it's important to strive towards the core principles of Montessori.

Anyone can say they are "Montessori" (unfortunately!). We should hold ourselves to a high standard, and be knowledgable about what an authentic Montessori is and should be, so we can implement it.

The "Vision"

There is a lot of room and time for me to learn and change on the vision, but currently here are my thoughts for the short, medium, and long term for this project.

The Short-Term Vision

Right now, I would like to fund and start a high-fidelity Montessori micro-school at the primary (3-6 years old) level, and I'd like to do it fairly quickly because I want my kids to participate.

To do that, I need to hire founding teacher-leaders asap that can help to lease a space and set up a school. In the meantime, I am working on finding a space and learning about the Oregon State rules and regulations around starting an early childhood preschool facility.

Before hiring anybody, I also need to set up the business with the State of Oregon, set up accounts, bank, bookkeeping, payroll, and other administrative services.

I'm hoping to open the school in 2024.

The Longer-Term Vision

The longer-term vision is a bit more vague, but I currently have an idea of where I think this could possibly go.

My personal interest is starting a school for older children. Probably 6th grade and beyond. My background and knowledge makes me think I can do something very positive for that age group when it comes to education, but that's still a ways off.

The Medium-Term Vision

That puts us between the short-term (starting a single Montessori school for 3-6 year olds) and the long-term (school for middle and high school) vision. Here's what I think that looks like, at least right now:

I really believe in the Montessori method, especially for younger age groups (Primary and Elementary). I'd like to start a similar micro-school for the elementary age group (or part of that age group) in the near future as well. For me, personally, I'd like there to be a high-quality Montessori program for my children to go through, up until they are around 9-12 years old.
By learning about starting this Montessori primary school, we'll have a blueprint for starting additional micro-schools just like this. Each school has at least two teacher-leaders, so the idea is that at some point those teacher-leaders can split and one of them can start a new school that is integrated into a community that they care about, and that they want to serve. Hopefully we can hire assistant guides, who are training to become teacher leaders / working towards certification. When one teacher leader starts another school, this assistant can step in. Or, we can hire another teacher. In this way, we can start new micro-schools at a natural pace: as teacher leaders gain all the knowledge and skills needed to start and run a school on their own. It's a lot like how Costco won't open a new warehouse until they have enough people internally to go and start it. That way the culture stays in tact, and the people starting the new warehouse are already really good at what they do. It slows down expansion, but makes the success of that expansion more likely while also making sure the experience of the customer is a high quality one.
Come up with some kind of ownership model for teachers, where teachers may become part-owners. Another potential model is switching everything over to being a not-for-profit. When there are enough schools, members of other schools would serve as board members to hold up and increase standards.
When there are enough schools, start a non-profit organization with the purpose of raising money to create scholarships for tuition to the schools with the goal of serving undeserved and under-privileged members of our communities. A high-quality education, especially at the preschool years, can make a huge positive and long-term impact on a child's life. That's why we're here. That's why we're doing this.

That's where I'm at right now. If you want to get in touch, please do. My email is jaered@hey.com. I'm also hiring founding teacher-leaders for the first school, so please apply if you're interested and meet the requirements!