Our staff is our most precious resource, and we take great pride in their experience and training. The SSMS board and leadership are committed to providing all staff a healthy living wage, benefits, and ongoing professional development. Recruiting and retaining committed individuals to be able to offer continuity of care day after day, and year after year, is a priority here at SSMS.
It takes a higher-level training and education to obtain a Montessori diploma. In addition to just having high-quality teachers, they also need to be certified by an accredited Montessori training center. Lead guides are required to complete a rigorous 2–3-year Montessori training program to obtain their certification. The completion of Montessori training also applies toward a Master's degree in most college and university programs. This high standard we maintain adds to the cost of tuition and accounts for the high-fidelity Montessori education our students receive.
Montessori schools require special wooden teaching materials and furniture, in addition to many other sensory manipulatives. Students learn language, math, art and science through sensory aided, neurologically stimulating, and handcrafted materials such as sandpaper, letters, movable wooden alphabets, and phonics cards, to name a few. To maintain beautiful environments, the materials are required to be replaced after they are worn or broken. Providing an authentic, prepared environment for each classroom can mean several sets of these handcrafted materials, and their subsequent replacements.
We do not receive ongoing support from the state or federal government in order to keep our doors open. We are a private school and non-profit, which means we ask for parents who are opting to be a part of our community to cover the cost of operations, while we look to fundraising within our community to tackle larger facilities projects.
