Montessori Children's School

Mary Kern founded San Luis Obispo Montessori Children's School in 1983 at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church with six students, ages three to six. During the first year, enrollment expanded to include a grand total of fifteen children! Eventually, the enrollment expanded to its maximum of 25 while still at the St. Stephen's location, and in the spring of 1991 the owners of an existing Montessori school in San Luis Obispo approached Mary to see if she was interested in purchasing their school. To make a long story short, she was, and the two schools blended that summer. We retained some families from the old location, some from the new and welcomed some families brand new to Montessori. The school accommodated children ages three through nine. We added more teachers, kept the extended care program that existed at the new location, and we were on our way. In Spring of 1997 we saw a real need to expand our school to encompass Upper Elementary students aged nine to twelve years. We started the program in our extended care room with four students coming up from the lower elementary and seven other students who wanted to continue their Montessori education here. By the end of that year it was clear that the Upper Elementary was an integral part of our school that we could not live without, but we definitely needed more space. We looked around our community and after much deliberation we purchased the building we were leasing and added on a classroom, a library and offices.