Questions about Crossway Community Montessori - public charter school?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone send their kids here? or have kids starting in the fall? I'm curious to know if they still have any openings? Do they take kids midyear or at 4/5? (the middle of the Primary cycle.. or do they only take 3's?) What has been your experience with them? What are they like compared to other private Montessori schools?

I also don't quite understand how they've come to be or who is eligible.. Is there an existing school that is private or for their 'disadvantaged mothers' program and now they are opening a second public charter school? or is the county public charter they are opening only for (or mostly for?) the disadvantaged mothers program?

It's all a bit confusing and their website isn't clear about it.

[Anonymous]

They have a Montessori program already that is open in its admission but favors kids of disadvantaged mothers. We toured there though and I do think they try to get a mix of kids in the class so it's not all poor children. The preschool seemed very well run and was very impressive (although expensive as all Montessoris seem to be).

Now they have finally run the gauntlet to open a charter school for elementary ages. My understanding is you can start in kindergarden although they seemed to discourage a friend of mine from applying whose child had not been in Montessori for pre-K. I don't think they are allowed to restrict applicants only to disadvantaged kids. I'll be checking it out this year since DD starts K in Fall 2013 and we're not far from the school.

[Anonymous]

A friend of mine just got in off their lottery waitlist. According to her the school is broken down into thirds; 1/3 disadvantaged families on scholarship, 1/3 lottery families paid for by the state, 1/3 paying families. The school's original purpose was to serve disadvantaged minority families and they also house families on site.

The waitlist for the lottery families is still quite long and they will continue to offer those spots (if any become available) through December.

The facility was completely redone this summer and sounds really amazing. They also hired new teachers.

[Anonymous]

It's a public charter school. There are no paying families or scholarship families. Your information must not be correct. Anyone else have information?

[Anonymous]

I live near Crossway and have friends whose children have attended the daycare/preschool recently. I think that 14:23's info is basically right. I have a 3 year old, so was interested in the charter school for my own child. . I assume that the charter school runs concurrently with their other two programs—scholarship program for disadvantaged children and full pay program for children from the community. It is not this simple in practice, obviously. I don’t understand how it all works administratively and functionally. Their website is useless—no mention of staff or faculty-- and I don’t understand why MoCo doesn’t have any detailed info either. When I called to get information for my child before application was due, I was told they would be hiring a new principal for the charter school. I was told the charter school would have its own principal, but does anybody know who the principal is?

[Anonymous]

They are two separate schools. The charter is paid for by state/public school funds and the other is paid for by gov't vouchers or private pay. We applied but missed the age cut off by a week and they were completely disorganized and it took forever to get an answer from them why we never heard about the lottery (i.e. age). Even if we got in, for a 3 year old the disorganization might be fine but no way I'd risk it for a kindergartner.

[Anonymous]

Bump. Any more recent information on this school - including admissions, open houses, etc. Website still doesn't yield much information.

[Anonymous]

There was a lottery in the summer. We lost along with a few hundred other people. I don't think it will be possible to get into the charter school again for a long time. You can pay for the private school but it is very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Agree that they are disorganized. They accidentally told everyone who applied that they won the lottery then they had to go back and tell us we lost.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks so much for the responses. Sorry to hear about your experiences, and also sorry to hear they're pretty disorganized. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[Anonymous]

They are very disorganized. We had to email and call several times to find out the status of the charter to find out after many phone calls and emails that they would not consider my child due to his birthday (10 day difference). At least send a rejection email or letter. I even called to ask before applying and was told it was fine. Hopefully the school is doing well and the kids are thriving but it made me very uncomfortable.

[Anonymous]

The preschools seemed really well run - I have to imagine that the charter is getting just inundated with folks from nearby neighborhoods (not generally the best school districts in many cases; same with my home school a bit north of it) that are thrilled with the new option and the fact that it's a Montessori. I think they are having trouble figuring out how to deal with all that interest. Just my guess.

[Anonymous]

My kids went to the preschool and from an academic/nurturing standpoint, it was awesome. Really a wonderful place.

I will agree that the office is and always has been VERY disorganized and bad about returning calls, etc. The head of school and the director both have their personality issues that can make them pretty hard to deal with.

It's totally worth it. But be forewarned.

[Anonymous]

This is my son's 3rd year at Crossway Montessori. We continue to be in the non-charter (private) part of the school. We like and appreciate the school's non-profit mission, as well as its ability to provide a very good education to its students, using the Montessori philosophy. I can't comment much on the Charter as its very new, but i assume the philosophy and classroom approach we've experienced on the private side will be transferred to the Charter school as well. The charter started with 3-4 year olds (the Montessori primary classroom comprises 3, 4, and 5 year olds for a 3-year long experience in one classroom (ideally)). The private school is expensive, as are all the Montessoris in the Silver Spring area (we compared!), and we also use the after care program (beforecare is also offered), so an added expense. The teachers are absolutely genuine, warm, and experienced. The campus is great, and tucked back down a quiet street and protected from traffic, has awesome gardens (and nature is heavily incorporated into the curriculum), and a really nice and attractive playground. We live in the neighborhood, so i know for a fact the kids spend a lot of time outside playing, taking walks, exploring nature, etc. which we really like. The Administration is generally well-meaning, but there's plenty of concern among the parents-- both private side and charter side -- that communication is/continues to be a big challenge for the school, as noted by others. Although they're a non-profit, because we do spend a lot of money for our son to attend year round (seems about what we paid to go to college 20 years ago!), we feel that at least at the administrative level, they should run things more like a business w/ customers (e.g., promptly answering calls/emails, timely and organized billing, better website, etc). Perhaps under what I assume will be new MCPS oversight, this will improve eventually. In all, we will have spent a lot of money over my son's 3 years there, but I believe he will depart well-rounded, a good communicator, understanding the importance of kindness and courtesy, and very well-equipped for kindergarten/1st grade in terms of reading, writing, math and science. And I'd say that's the case with most of the children when they "graduate", no matter what their socioeconomic experience, and that's significant.

Based on this, if I had a child who would qualify to apply for the charter program lottery when it next opens up, I would definitely apply (guessing this will be for kids who will be 3 during the 2013-2014 school year), despite the school's quirks. They accepted 3 and 4 year olds during the charter's first year to establish some age diversity in the classroom (along the lines described above, which ideally has 3, 4, and 5 year olds as there's supposed to be a lot of 2-way learning and teaching between the younger and older kids' interactions in the classroom), but i believe (though am not certain) that they were going to then move to just accepting 3 year olds in the following lottery years. Sorry, I know nothing about the lottery program, but would take time to research that and to attend some of the info sessions the school will likely offer prior to the lottery to find out more about Montessori method, observe classrooms, and ask questions in person.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

OP, is this the school you're talking about:

http://crossway-community.org/

We had friends attend the preschool and loved it.