Reply to Shining Stars New Location!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is located on several bus lines that go up and down Wisconsin, as well as a short walk from buses that run from Dupont along Mass ave (stop at Calvert).

Not super convenient, but there are options.[/quote]
This argument always makes me cringe a bit. Busing from across the city takes a lot of time. Having to transfer to a second bus adds more time. Not everyone has the flexibility in their lives to make such a commute. Let's not forget that an hour bus ride to school doesn't actually mean ONE hour. It means one hour there and one hour back for drop off. Then there is one hour there and one hour back for pickup. Suddenly it is a[b] FOUR hour per day bus commute[/b]. We are a current family, and we are definitely among those who are disappointed with the new location. I completely understand that they were in a tight spot and didn't want to accept a 2 year lease at SELA when they had the option of a 10 year lease at the new location. But I think that it is now pretty much a given that SSMA is going to become a vastly different school, serving a vastly different population, in the next few years.

And to interject a little bit of snark, it's going to look awfully tone deaf when a class made up of mostly rich, mostly white kids spends their days "develop[ing] positive self-image through specialized culture-based learning activities and materials."

A few more tidbits from the SSMA website:

[i]We are committed to improving the lives of inner city children and we believe that making Montessori accessible to these children and their families will do much towards positively impacting their lives. [/i]

[i]We are committed to providing an authentic urban Montessori experience enhanced with the cultural empowerment principles to meet the developmental needs of our students and to provide an enriching and holistic experience for our families and staff.[/i]

[i]The cultural empowerment principles through which we operate, offer a holistic approach to instruction that infuses the values of people of color throughout the world. These lessons will be reinforced through the Montessori hands-on approach to encourage intellectual curiosity. Students will be fully educated in the extent to which people of color and other minorities have contributed to our society.[/i]

These are great principles to learn, btw, and I think that is gives SSMA a unique strength that other Montessori schools don't have, but let's face it, it's going to be awkward when it is a group of mostly high income, majority-white kids being the main beneficiaries of this lesson.

I really hope that SSMA finds its way through this, as I am one of the many parents who thinks that it provides an exemplary Montessori education. I know that I sound pretty bitchy, but I know too many SSMA parents (who are not on DCUM or the SSMA FB group) who will not be able to continue attending, at least without great hardship, due to lack of transportation, no flexibility in their jobs, etc. and I am feeling a bit sad about the situation.[/quote]

We didn't apply to SS--neither old nor new location work that well for us--but sounds like a great school w/unique principles.  Is there any way current families and/or administration could band together to get bus service from old location?  Just trying to think of a way to make it work so that attrition of current EOTP families is minimized, to the extent possible, at least for the 2014-2015 school year.[/quote]

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