Montessori ONE Academy

Thank you, Shawn!!! Your trust in us is greatly appreciated!

IN RESPONSE TO COMPLAINT
While we respect the right of all to their opinions, we are responding to correct and clarify the misinformation provided in the review above.
Montessori ONE Academy was established to address the education needs of New Mexico’s students. Our mission is to provide an authentic Montessori learning environment that encourages the balanced development of body, mind, and spirit leading to the fulfillment of each child’s individual academic and personal potential. We continue to be committed to the Montessori Method as a proven, valuable way of learning and are actively involved in helping to improve New Mexico’s public education system by encouraging state law makers to explore alternative, proven, learning methods.
Those familiar with Montessori philosophy know the emphasis placed on developing independence in children. This is accomplished in many ways including a specific student to teacher ratio consistent with Association Montessori International pedagogy, mixed age classrooms which allow older students to act as role models for younger students, peer-to-peer learning, as well as, peer problem solving with reduced dependency on adult intervention. As a Montessori school, we follow this pedagogy while also observing county and state regulations. Our student families understand this when they tour the school, observe the excellent work being done, enroll their children, and reap the benefits of their child’s development.
Montessori ONE has always and continues to comply with ALL state and county requirements pertaining to child care assistants, ages, child to supervisor ratio, and supervisory needs. Our youngest assistant is 18, although youth as young as 15 years are permitted to work under certain met requirements.
As for transparency, as Montessori ONE Academy’s Founder and Director, I have an open-door policy and has always demonstrated a willingness and enthusiasm to listen and provide information. On average, I issues one email per week to parents with school-related updates, in addition to, in-person meetings and responding to individual parent emails and phone calls on a daily basis.
In addition, teachers are encouraged to communicate with parents and vice versa. Teachers send out monthly newsletters to parents with updates on curriculum studies, upcoming events, and photos. Teachers are encouraged to and do provide their professional email address and cell phone numbers to parents. This allows for smooth and efficient communication as needed or desired. Teachers also meet with parents twice a year to provide progress reports. Parents are invited into the classrooms during holidays and special occasions, to participate in philanthropic events, to read to students during daily circle time, and on select classroom observation days.
While our school was recently sanctioned by CYFD, we continue to disagree with their finding/interpretation. We feel that there were errors in their investigation and are very disappointed by the misappropriation of confidential information because of the inappropriate circulation of the investigation’s preliminary documentation. In our 10+ years serving the educational needs of New Mexico families that value high quality education for their children, this is the first time we have been sanctioned by CYFD. Though not in agreement with the finding, in a gesture of good faith and collaboration, we have fully addressed the issue and have complied with CYFD’s requirements for additional professional development/training for our staff. Should anyone wish to discuss the details of the investigation, they are welcome to contact the Director who will be pleased to discuss the particulars and address concerns.
In terms of our business acumen, the only way we can provide such an enriching environment the families that choose to entrust us with their children’s education is to run our school efficiently and professionally. Our diligence also allows us to help families in need by offering substantial amount in tuition assistance annually.
While we strive to please every family, and meet each student’s individual needs to the best of our ability, we are not always successful. This Reviewer’s use of inappropriate language in front of children and derogatory and unprofessional communication with the Director, necessitated the family’s disenrollment from the Academy.
As we have consistently demonstrated, we are open to ways in which we can improve our school, our community, and our families’ experience. We welcome constructive, factually-based feedback.