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CM was featured in a news article by Spectrum News 1 illustrating some of the differences that can be found in the Montessori environment versus traditional public schools. As legislation made its way through the gears of Kentucky lawmaking (complete with a Governor's veto and an override of that veto) it was so important for the people of Kentucky to know what they may be missing out on! Our Director, Barbara Fondren, walked with a reporter from Spectrum and gave the 411, the rundown, a recapitulation (if you like a fancier synonym with your tea and crumpets) of how we are unique, what we have to offer, and what future charter schools in the Commonwealth might aspire towards. It's that last thought that resonates most: as an established, successful Montessori Charter School, we have that responsibility to the community - to stand as a shining example of the possibilities and the varying paths to education! See the full article & video linked below:

We have had so much fun redesigning our outdoor playground to our revamped NATURAL PLAYGROUND - installation Summer 2022. With grant funds covering most of the cost of the project, we need a bit more HELP to support our full vision to revamp our backyard playground into a treasured NATURAL PLAYGROUND. With your help, we can install the GIRAFFE SWING (not currently in the budget) or MAYBE even 2 Giraffe Swings! WE ARE SO EXCITED!

We are lessening our footprint, to make room for MORE footprints. Please join us in re-thinking outdoor play. If you attended our December PIP Workshop, you heard from our designers, Bienenstock - the leaders in DISRUPTIVE design of Natural Playgrounds! The pandemic brought a new way of thinking to our world, and for us - it was a renewed commitment to our natural world. We have had so much fun redesigning our outdoor playground to our revamped NATURAL PLAYGROUND - installation in Summer 2022. YES! IF all goes as planned, we will be returning in Fall, 2022 - with an incredible new space… A Giraffe(looking) swing with an omnidirectional movement for incredible sensory input, collaborative play, and LARGE feelings of satisfaction. A digging/creative pit - It has been a dream for a LOOONG time to support this need in our young humans. This vast span of sand will be packed with little hands and toes:). A sensory path - a winding walkway with various shapes, materials, and designs to explore with shoes on or off. Wacky posts (small cut trees 5’-7’ tall) to climb on, build with, designed for slacklines and hammocks – so much fun! Hill slides - utilizing the slope of the earth to travel from the upper space to the sandpit. Climbing Structure - with climbing tree components, tall nests to gather in, ropes to travel across, and even a rope tunnel. Walking path - connecting the sidewalk at the front of the building to connect all the way around the school with paths and trails. Maintaining the large field in the back yard with better drainage management by integrating drain pipes under the digging pit. Large boulders and tree stumps throughout and even a rock path. A spiral bench and large trees to make a fort or dwelling. Landscaping and grass – all to make a space so a whole age level can be outside at the same time;)! HELP us make this the best it can be - GIVE NOW! You will be billed for this donation through Infinite Campus. If you would like to make your contribution in another way, please contact Barbara Fondren, Director. HERE is a SNEAK PEAK - WE ARE SO EXCITED!

We recently had a presentation at Community Montessori discussing our Woods program (high school). If you were unable to attend feel free to check out the presentation recording and slide deck linked respectively. This is a great opportunity to see how the Woods incorporates Maria Montessori's Philosophy and in-depth perspective of what their schedule might look like and how we help them transition out of high school and into the world! Click here to view the presentation slideshow: Woods presentation slideshow

With families not being able to visit our building as much this year, we wanted to share a few pictures from all of our studios for you to enjoy.

Check out our PIP Workshop from Thursday, Dec. 16th by watching the video here! We are so excited to get started with the conceptual designs for our new outdoor master plan - starting with a natural playground philosophy and in partnership with Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds.

Visit this link to view a recording of the call, and read on for more details and information on the updates and adjustments. Many of us are hoping for a safer environment soon with the recent announcement of vaccination of children aged 5 and above. Fingers crossed!! Please remember, you can visit www.ourshot.in.gov to sign anyone (including all people ages 5 and up) for a free vaccination at many locations throughout the state. To bring us in closer alignment with the current recommendations of the CDC, and help support the families that choose to participate in the vaccination effort, we are sharing some changes to our COVID Plan effective Monday, 11/29 with relaxed protocols with respect to COVID and contact tracing for vaccinated people. A summary of the changes beginning on Monday, Nov. 29th is given here: A NOTE ABOUT COVID VACCINATION RECORDS IN COORDINATION WITH OUR NEW COVID PLAN ADJUSTMENTS: BECAUSE WE DO NOT HAVE THE CAPACITY TO KEEP THE CONSTANTLY CHANGING COVID VACCINATED RECORDS UP-TO-DATE, FULLY VACCINATED LEARNER RECORDS MUST BE SHARED EACH TIME YOU ARE REQUESTING LEARNERS/SIBLINGS TO COME ON CAMPUS AND - CM MAY ADJUST THE PLAN ON A CASE-BY-CASE SCENARIO DEPENDING ON SYMPTOMS. THESE RECORDS WILL BE EMAILED TO THE STUDIO TEACHERS AND YOU AGREE NOT TO BRING LEARNERS ON CAMPUS UNTIL YOU HEAR BACK FROM THE STUDIO TEACHERS. SIBLINGS OF FULLY VACCINATED LEARNERS: For VACCINATED symptomatic learners, their siblings will not need to stay/be sent home with the symptomatic sibling. Only the sick learner will stay home. Email your teachers with the vaccination record and symptoms when you are reporting your absence. For UNVACCINATED symptomatic learners, ALL UNVACCINATED HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS, INCLUDING SIBLINGS OF THE SYMPTOMATIC LEARNER SHOULD STAY HOME. However, VACCINATED siblings or household members could return, but need to agree to send their vaccination record to the teachers each time and test the unvaccinated symptomatic learner for COVID as a part of the return process.​​​​​​​ FULLY VACCINATED LEARNERS WHO ARE CLOSE CONTACTS OF A COVID POSITIVE: CM learners may choose to share vaccine documentation with the school. If this documentation is shared BY EMAILING THE RECORD OF FULL VACCINATION TO THE STUDIO TEACHERS EACH TIME and the individual is considered a close contact of a person who has tested positive for for COVID then:​​​​​​​ They may return to campus immediately. They should CLOSELY monitor for any symptoms developing for up to 14 days from the date of close contact. And families agree to Enhanced Precautions (per Indiana Dept. of Health guidelines) while at school:​​​​​​​ Close contact must remain masked AT ALL TIMES during the school day. Close contact must maintain extra (at least 6ft) distance from others during lunch because this requires them to be unmasked. School staff should encourage as much social distancing as possible throughout the school day, and also prioritize hand hygiene (as already established in the CM plan.)​​​​​​​ They are recommended to have a PCR test on days 5-7 after exposure. If they develop symptoms, they should not return to campus and they may do one of three things to return to campus:​​​​​​​ A negative COVID PCR should be shared with the studio teacher, or the family will provide a note that states that the illness is NOT COVID from a medical professional, or the learner should not return for 14 days.​​​​​​​ The learner should also be fever free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications and improvement of symptoms before returning back on campus.​​​​​​​ STAFF COMMIT TO MONITORING ENHANCED PRECAUTIONS: For those learners returning as vaccinated close contacts as described above the school will follow Enhanced Precautions (per Indiana Dept. of Health guidelines). The staff commit to monitoring these additional precautions for the full 14 days after a potential close contact. Please remember, IF YOU ARE TRAVELING NEXT WEEK, per CDC guidelines, here are recommendations for domestic travel for unvaccinated people on public transportation (e.g. bus, plane) OR if individuals have been in large crowds while travelling (where 6ft social distancing was not kept) families are recommended to follow these two parameters: Get a Covid PCR test 3-5 days after travel and share it with your child's teacher, AND​​​​​​​ Self-quarantine at home for a full 7 days before returning to on campus learning. (The day you return from travel will be day 0.)

We invited the News and Tribune to visit Community Montessori this week, and they published a wonderful, inspiring story about our new exchange teacher in Turquoise Studio, Joy Elaigwu and her husband Johnson. They joined us on a J-1 exchange visa from Nigeria and we have loved having them as a part of our school community. Visit this link to read the story.

Thank you for your continued participation in the dialog about Community Montessori's COVID Safety plan for the 2021-2022 school year. We hosted a call on August 25th giving an update on Covid in our community and sharing some tweaks to our plan. You can view that call here: Also, on the call we discussed options for Covid PCR testing in our community and shared a Google Sheet of options that can be found here. Please feel free to make comments about additional sites that we can add to the list. For those of you who were with us last year, we will be reinstating the Family Support Program (FSP), to support staffing absences and any necessary reduction to on-campus learning due to increased infection. This program will only be used if necessary. Although we are not able to reduce any fees at this time for the paid programs like our early education program (3 and 4 year olds) or our extended learning program, we will remove families from our extended learning program without notice if you request to do so. If you want to re-enroll, you will most likely be placed on a waitlist. What is the Family Support Program(FSP): This program is for families on the main campus, not enrolled in the Community Nurtury. The FSP program is for families who are in the most need for their children to be ON CAMPUS when we need to reduce the number of children on campus. PLEASE, only enroll in this program (by using this survey) if you have an exceptional need - ie. you do not have back up childcare and both parents work outside the home. If a child is enrolled in the FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM (FSP) they can attend M-F during their regular school hours through the Family Support Program. This program will be filled on a first-come basis through September 3rd. If you feel you have a secondary need you can sign up to be on the waitlist through the same survey. There are limited spots for the FAMILY SUPPORT PROGRAM available that will be filled on a first-come basis. There is no additional cost for this program. When all the spots are filled, any new enrollments will be added to a waitlist. If FSP learners need to be at school before or after their standard school hours, they will need to enroll in the Extended Learning Program. (If they are not already and if spaces are available.) You can email Prerana to check for available spots for your learner(s) or to be added to the waitlist. Families who are not in need, but would like to be considered for this program if spaces are available, can enroll on the waitlist for the Family Support Program on the survey. Interested families can request participation in the Family Support Program for each of their enrolled learner(s) here. Please know that you must submit one survey for each enrolled child/teen to be added to the list for the Family Support Program. To reduce the chances of needing to enact the Family Support Program(FSP), we are moving up our Substitute Workshop to this Tuesday, August 31st at 5:00pm. You can RSVP here and the link to the workshop is here. If you already signed up for the workshop, you will receive an email from Signup genius with the changed date for the workshop.If you are pre-registered but unable to attend due to this change, we will reach out to you with a recording of the workshop! We are also making arrangements to provide Chromebook devices for learners that need to be off-campus either due to a quarantine situation or because of illness. Families that need Chromebooks can email Glenn requesting one and he will support you with the next steps.

Thank you to all the families that participated in the New Family Orientation that was held on Tuesday, August 17th. We shared information about our school, Montessori information and answered questions. If you were unable to attend, a recording of the meeting is available here to view:

An update on the COVID Safety plan and pandemic impacts for Community Montessori. Check out all the information here:

This virtual workshop focused understanding and supporting Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents. We are happy to share the recording of the July 21st family workshop - Supporting Anxiety Among Children and Adolescents. Thank you to those who were able to attend! We hope you find the information and strategies useful as your family prepares for the school year ahead. We are also excited to continue the growth of the Courage Cabin, our partnership with Lifespring - click HERE for all the info on how to get your family connected with professional mental health services.