Our History from the Beginning
classes began in 1982. The Montessori families were also tremendously involved in making their program a success. Enough money was raised to hire a Montessori trainer to work with the faculty here. The new program was popular, and some children came from other districts to enroll. It
Board meetings arguing against combining grades, and in favor of standardized testing. (Eventually the A&E program was discontinued in the early 2000s because of low enrollment and District financial difficulties.) Montessori Program In 1981, a group of parents began meeting to explore the feasibility of a public Montessori school in the Valley. Their children had attended Montessori preschools, and the parents were convinced that this educational method would be a good fit for the Valley. They proposed this to the School Board. Montessori education emphasizes mixed age classrooms, student choice of activity from within a prescribed range of options, uninterrupted blocks of work time, and a “discovery” model, where students learn con- cepts from working with materials developed by Maria Montessori and colleagues, rather than by direct instruc- tion. Once again, there was great opposition to this and contentious meetings were held. The original proposal was turned down. However, with the discovery of a successful public Montessori program in the San Mateo District, sup- port from Richard Sloan arguing that families should be given a choice as to school program, and a newly elected School Board, the Montessori program was adopted, and
eventually grew into a K-5 program. Waldorf-Inspired Program
In 2004, the Waldorf-Inspired Program started in the Lagunitas School District with a kindergarten class. This also began with a group of parents wanting an alternative form of education for their children. These parents had petitioned the Ross Valley School District to start a charter school similar to the Novato Charter School, which had a Waldorf-Inspired curriculum and had been in existence since 1996. Ross Valley District was not interested, so a dialogue was started in the Lagunitas District with the addition of many Valley parents. Once again, Richard Sloan was very instrumental in encouraging the group and persuading other Board members to accept the proposal. Once again, there were major arguments and contentious Board meetings because the model of a charter school was new to this District, the Waldorf curriculum was new to many, and as always, there were financial anxieties. But the
The first class picture of the Open Classroom. Among those pictured are founding teacher, Sandy Dorward, and students Andrew Giacomini, Erik and Kevin Meade, Marc Edwards, Kira Thelin, Kristy Muhic, Margaret and Heather Dorward, Renee and Todd Berardi, Jennifer Graham, Joe Soewith, Greg Radue, and Kate Edmiston. Judy Voets (not pictured) was student teacher .
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50 th Anniversary
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