Our Current Situation
A dream realized...
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Fourteen years ago, SVCMS opened its doors to 99 students, pre-K to 2nd grade. The summer leading up to its grand opening was a scramble. The search for an acceptable facility didn’t end until three months before school was to start, and the small commercial building had to be transformed from a building used for light-industrial purposes into a school with four classrooms, a very small room that operated as a library and lunchroom, and an administrative office. The parking lot in front of the building was gated off to provide an asphalt playground for the incoming Children’s House and Lower Elementary students.
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Class sizes grow larger; the classrooms do not.
The founders’ original plan was to grow the program through 8th grade, with 13 total classrooms and approximately 450 students in a permanent facility within 5-7 years of opening. The number of families seeking positions at SVCMS in the first few years was relatively moderate and manageable. However, in the last several years, community demand for positions at SVCMS has been overwhelming for the size of its facilities.
Never-ending construction cycles.
To meet this demand, SVCMS has undertaken construction projects of various size and intensity nearly every summer, including:
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Expanding a classroom into the lunchroom/library
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Improving an adjacent vacant lot to house a modular classroom
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Leasing and renovating a nearby warehouse to add three classrooms for the Upper Elementary and Middle School programs, as well as a small indoor gym and a fenced and gated asphalt parking lot/playground
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Reducing the size of the asphalt playground at the warehouse facility for the installation of another modular classroom
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Transforming the small Upper Elementary library into an administrative office in order to create another small Children’s House classroom in the other building
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Bursting at the seams.
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Today, SVCMS educates approximately 270 students in facilities intended for 200. In the last five years, waitlists for positions at the school have averaged 220 children. The facilities lack basic amenities found at most public schools, including adequate gymnasium space, a cafeteria, a library, and suitable outdoor play areas and outdoor classrooms. Despite this challenge, educational programing at SVCMS has adhered faithfully to the Montessori philosophy, while also providing innovative learning opportunities for its students, such as an upper elementary Global Explorium store, a student-led farm stand business, and an environmental education program.
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Click here to read more about our challenge and our opportunity.
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