Mountain Shadows International Montessori School

We've been at Mountain Shadows for 7 yrs. We've been in most of the classrooms and at all age levels. Our 3 children have enjoyed their teachers and time at Mountain Shadows. Each of the teachers we've worked with were excellent. My children are quite independent because of their Montessori background and feel confident in trying (and failing!) new things. We've found that it's a lovely community for our children and family. There have been changes over the years (many related to Covid) but I would say that MSMS is in a rebuilding phase. The parent community is strong and enthusiastic this year and supported by the teachers, staff and administration. I'm excited to see the programs grow and now upper elementary (grade 4-6) return. The new upper elementary teacher/guide seems so impressive and caring. I think she will add to the energy of the school tremendously. I'm thankful for this safe and caring environment in which my children have thrived!

Very picturesque school surrounded by farms with a lot of outside space and multiple playgrounds. The Montessori materials available inside the classrooms are extensive and the teachers do a remarkable job deciding and dedicating a beautiful space to different areas of learning. They change things out depending on the season or topic of group interest. The teachers past and present are all so amazing and we have met so many new friends (fellow parents and children).

We have had a very positive experience with MSMS over the last several years. The staff has always been accommodating and the teachers have been excellent. Recently (Fall'22) as COVID restrictions have died down the teachers and staff have increased community engagement with numerous social and educational gatherings. We have especially appreciated the new after school enrichment offerings (Adventures in STEM with LEGOs!) and the recent Fall Festival that the school hosted.

MSMS is first home for my kid & yes I said "first home" as he really loves this school. Before I was going to enroll him to this school he never wanted to goto school as he did have 2 days of terrible experience @ Millar Ranch in Avon city, which put him in some traumatizing experience that he never wanted to go to School every again, but ever since he was enrolled in MSMS he enjoyed going to school & that says it all about the school. I really like the staff''s here who have been truly understanding & helpful by all means.My experience with MSMS has been truly a great one & I'm glad my kiddo found a happy place to call it a home. :)

Great school with engaged and compassionate teachers/staff who work to build a community amongst the teachers, parents, and students. My daughter has grown immensely through a thoughtful, well-prepared curriculum that constantly challenges her to explore her academic and social curiosity. Growth utilizing the whole person concept seems to be a priority, and it shows daily with our kiddo.

My daughter attended the school in 2021-2022 and our experience was far from positive. When we toured and applied in 2020, the school sounded fantastic. Unfortunately between the time we applied and the time we started, the seemingly wonderful head of school left and the board selected someone whose only qualifications, as far as I can tell, was being old, male and white. He had no educational experience at all. A year later the other, fantastic, member of the original two-person administration left and was replaced by someone equally under-qualified. Then things went down hill rapidly. My daughter attended YCC - and even with Kacey who is great, the experience was only ok; I can only conclude that even really good Montessori teachers will struggle if not supported by a well run administration. Several times my daughter came home with injuries and no incident reports. We learned of several incidents from our 2yo that the school should have informed us of. We actually started YCC under a different teacher (Kay) who (among other things) gave us advice such as "send whole nuts as a healthy snack" and "drive your kid to school in their puffy winter jacket to expedite drop-off", and was hostile when told that these were explicitly against current safety guidelines for kids 1-3yo. We did complain, and I think that was part of what led to the transition from Kay to Kacey in YCC. In 2022 we moved into one of the primary classrooms, and this is where our experience really fell off. My daughter initially had an ok experience. But again we found out about several incidents from her that should have warranted an incident report. This culminated in her telling us that one child had hit or shoved her 3-4 times over the last few days. We of course brought this up and the teacher (Koral) kept trying to tell us this was "normal developmental behavior". We disagreed, and attempted to raise this with the head of school, who ignored us for weeks. In this time we had interactions with several other parents, where upon telling them of the issue we'd get responses like "oh, was it [kid]? My kiddo was getting hit by them too." One other parent told us their kid shook with anxiety about going to school and had to be kept home for a month as a result of bullying by the same kid. A 5yo in the same class we chatted to at an event, totally unprompted and out of the blue, pointed out the same kid and said "that's [kid], he's really mean". It became clear that the kid in question had bullied many other kids in the classroom, and the school had done nothing about it. Kids occasionally hitting or pushing is normal; one kid doing it repeatedly and persistently is bullying and completely inappropriate to ignore. Finally, in the time between the end of the spring session and before the summer session started up, we got a meeting with the head of school. Who started the meeting by gaslighting us, telling us we were "complainers" and that he felt "nothing he could do would ever make us happy" - as if enforcing the school's own policies on bullying were too much to ask. Given that response we quickly ended the meeting after agreeing that the school would refund us the tuition we had paid for the two-month summer session. The head of school then dragged his feet on issuing that check until after the entire summer session had passed, and then issued a check for a woefully inadequate ~$200. For a school where half-day tuition is on the order of $2,000/month that is laughable, and in my opinion, intentional fraud. Neither the head of school, nor the board have seen fit to try and address this and agree to a more reasonable refund amount. So in short, our experience was of an incompetent administration, classrooms that could not provide a safe learning environment for our child, a sudden termination of services and a wholly inadequate refund from a disingenuous head of school. There has been quite the exodus of families from our cohort in the last few months to other area schools, and that should tell you everything you need to know.

As the parent of a former student, I would not recommend this school and would suggest ignoring any reviews posted prior to fall 2020 as in that time there has been 100% turnover in the administrative staff, a high turnover rate in teachers, and many families have left the community and in my opinion it is effectively not the same school. When we initially toured the school there was a lovely Head of School in place (see the pre-2020 reviews) but by the time we arrived in fall 2020 she had left. The new Head of School has no educational background with his only relevant experience being the parent of former student(s) and our experience with him in the time we were at the school was quite negative. I could go long on all of the issues we encountered, but in short the school did not provide a safe environment for our child. For example, on their very first week in the YCC program (ages 1-3), our child came home with a visible head injury with no notification or explanation from the school. Similarly, our child was bitten by another child in the classroom at one point, and we only found out from our child, not the school. Of course toddlers will injure themselves from time to time but there was a repeated pattern of the school not notifying us of injuries which is both against their own stated procedures and also incredibly worrisome in a classroom where not all of the children are verbal yet and wouldn't be able to tell their parents what was happening. There are many other incidents I could cite, but the final straw was when our child was being repeatedly pushed or hit by another child after they moved up to the 3-6 year old classroom who we subsequently found out from other parents had been injuring other students on a routine basis for at least months if not longer. When we raised the issue with the teacher and then Head of School we were emphatically told that there would be no changes in how the school was handling the issue and that it was effectively just "children being children" and that we were "complainers" for raising this and other safety issues. We left the school at that time and have joined a different local Montessori community which is 100% better run and our only wish is that we had never joined MSMS in the first place.

This review is for Kacey, the lead teacher for the YCC program. Kacey is a wonderful teacher whom I believe is very dedicated to her profession and the Montessori method of education. Her approach with the kids is patient and kind while encouraging them to try and experience new things. As a parent, I always found Kacey pleasant and approachable. She was extremely helpful when we started potty training. She led my son's potty training at school while offering judgment-free support and advice to this first-time parent for potty training at home. Kacey is great. I highly recommend her.