Maple Corner Montessori Adding Middle School Program

Maple Corner Montessori is expanding to include middle school grades seven and eight. The application will be live on the school’s website on Dec. 1 and there will be an information session on Feb. 6 for parents and students at 6 p.m. in the tech building at UCC. The school has enjoyed a remarkable 100% retention rate from the previous year and parents want to keep their students in the same environment as they grow up, according to Head of School Leanne Jorgensen. “I’m so excited,” Jorgensen said. “Our school population has grown very quickly. We are going into our fourth year and we have 140 students. Everyone wants to stay through the middle school years so we can nurture them and help them grow in this sweet little community throughout their whole childhood.” There are just 20 spots remaining for the middle school. Jorgensen said the oldest group of children currently at the school is small, but the younger groups are large. “Also, the community — I believe — needs options for middle schools available to the parents,” Jorgensen said. “Even though we are a small town, it’s really nice to have options. There are no non-sectarian private schools other than us in town right now. We would love to have people from the community join our middle school.” The middle school grades will follow a traditional prep school model and be taught by Montessori-minded teachers. Jorgensen is bringing in the program head from the school where she previously worked to help start the program with the same curriculum. “We will have sports, will have extracurriculars, we will have lockers, we will have all the things middle schoolers love and want and need,” Jorgensen said. “As well as a great program academically. The way of thinking that we take to working with children will be the same (as the Montessori Model), the way that we treat them, the way that we try to provide intensive hands-on experiences, bringing learning alive will be the same, but it will not be a Montessori program.” The classrooms are not confirmed, but Jorgensen said the college has confirmed they will have space adjacent or close to their current classrooms. Being on the college campus gives students access to resources that enhance their learning. “We’re able to bring in visiting professors from their staff, we have access to all their amazing facilities and learning opportunities from anatomy to astronomy at the observatory, the track, the hiking, the Whipple Fine Arts Center,” Jorgensen said. “The extracurricular opportunities will be amazing. We feel like with these resources and this nice population we’ve built already, we can put together an exceptional middle school program that would rival any private middle school program in the country, personally. Which is a great gift to our small community.” There is no deadline for the applications. Seats will be filled on a first-come, first-serve basis and it will be capped at 30 students. The tuition rate has yet to be set, but the current rate for elementary is around $6,000 per year. *** Photos of the sixth-grade class at Maple Corner Montessori courtesy of the school.