Snake River Montessori School Inc

Our quest is to keep tuition reasonable to offer Montessori education for all children of Southeastern Idaho.  We have a fabulous facility that we are eagerly trying to pay down to facilitate more student scholarships and free up the budget for more educational, outdoor, science, technology, engineering and mathematical advancements.

 

The Montessori Philosophy of education begins with respect for the child's natural ability and desire to learn.  The teacher prepares the environment, shows the activity and offers the child engaging activities.  Patterns of concentration and thoroughness, established in early childhood, produce a confident, competent learner in later years.  Montessori education teaches children to observe, think, and judge.  It introduces children to the joy of learning at an early age and provides a framework in which intellectual and social disciplines go hand in hand.

 

Our History

In 1989, Jill Schurman introduced Montessori education to Idaho Falls.  Along with her partner, Barbara Turner, she founded The Montessori Place for kindergarten and preschool students.  The school was housed in the First Congregational Church for six years.  In 1995, the school moved into its own facility, built with the help of dedicated parents and other interested members of the community.  Many of those parents wished to further their children's Montessori education beyond kindergarten.  To accomplish this, The Snake River Montessori School was established in May 1996.  The school then became a non-profit organization complete with a board of directors from the school community and the community-at-large.  In 1998, the campus was expanded to a second building to house the preschool and kindergarten while accommodating the developing elementary class.  Facilities were leased at that time.  In 2000, the school, with substantial donations from the parents, was able to build a 12,000-square-foot building. Showing continued dedication, in the spring of 2003 parents supported construction of an addition to the building to provide for the expanding of the preschool and elementary classrooms as well as the addition of a multipurpose room and media center.