Clay-Platte Montessori School

Nov 14th, 2022

What can J say about our time at Clay Platte Montessori! I honestly miss it. My daughter was in the Sunrise Classroom and we moved out of state this school year. The year we had with Clay Platte is one that will be remembered always. The staff genuinely cares about your child, the classmates have become my daughters lifelong friends and the skills and independence she learned is leaps and bounds ahead of where she should be. I admired the administration for their dedication of keeping the child safe during a pandemic, they were always thoughtful with allergy plans and any accommodation my daughter needed. 10/10 wish I could have uprooted the school to bring them with to our new home. It was simply the best year of our daughters education! We are forever grateful to be apart of the community!
Oct 5th, 2022

BEWARE FOR YOUR CHILD'S SAKE! I was warned and read several unfavorable reviews before choosing this school. I thought it was just isolated cases. Nope, I wish we would have heeded the warnings and evident signs. We were only at this poor excuse for a Montessori school for a few months and had enough. Our son was at a great Montessori school (Child's World) before but aged out. Once he started at Clay-Platte he went backwards in his learning (especially reading). They have a transient staff and they can't keep the same teachers for more than a month. I hoped and prayed that if we just "stuck it out" it would get better. Not only did Clay Platte NOT meet our reasonable expectations, THEY FAILED COMPLETELY! Diversity? Community? That is a joke. I did everything to be a part of all the happenings and was never welcomed. We were constantly treated differently by the staff and teachers because of our sincerely held religious beliefs. We followed all the rules and yet still got targeted. The staff has taken extreme disciplinary actions against my son and when we approached the director Jen Stoll to clarify and explain the unprecidented discipline, she was dismissive and uncooperative. She said the school had to "target families like ours" more extremely because we believe something different. That is prejudice and hateful. Shame on you! Clay-Platte preaches they have all these ways of communicating what is happening in your child's day. BS! Don't be surprised when you don't get daily or even weekly updates. Communication is terrible! Now the only thing that gets communicated is through our son. "Mom, they said to tell you...yadda yadda" um, who tells a child to tell their parents about what is going on?? You can message me via email, phone, text, Transparent Classroom (what a joke that is) Facebook, and even parent social groups. But no, I have to hear it from my child and hope the message was complete. I would expect less at a public school, but not a Montessori school that I'm paying an arm and a leg for each month. What were we paying for? I can't tell you. It's not academics or scholastics or even a positive learning environment. I am sad we wasted our time, money, and energy. I am even more upset that we subjected our sweet child to this hot mess of a school. We will move on to better places. If you love your child/children, heed this warning before you make the same mistake and subject them to this negative environment of fear and prejudice.
Oct 15th, 2021

Both my daughters went to CPMS until they started KG. Both are completely different personalities and CP gave each opportunities to develop their unique strengths. What remained common to both was confidence, curiosity, kindness, and love/respect for small things that make up their surroundings. Thank you for letting us be a part of such a great community!
Sep 4th, 2021

After enrolling my 4 year old in CPM we were so thrilled to be a part of the Montessori community. My daughter was learning so much and we quickly noticed how much her social skills advanced. Approximately 4 months into her schooling the bullying began. Every other week, I was notified by her Guides and my daughter that she was being pushed and usually by one kid in particular. The following week she was upset when i picked her up and she told me that she was so hungry and didn't have anyone to play with. She said that she asked a few students to sit with them to eat and they told her no. I checked her lunch bag and her food was un-eaten. This after a full 8 hour day. After checking with the Guide i was informed that per classroom rules the children eat in small groups of 2-3 and they would make sure going forward she has someone to eat with. That same week I was told, via email, that some of the children have some behavioral issues that the school was working with the parents to mitigate. I felt after that email things would get better and my daughter was communicating with us much more about what was happening. Two weeks after that incident, after pickup she informed me that one of the children threw dirt in her eye. Later that evening I got our daily happenings email and was informed by the guide that not only did she have dirt thrown in her eye, she was pushed again and several children were overheard by the Guide telling my daughter that they do not want to play with her. I wonder if my daughter got so used to the pushing that she didn't even feel the need to tell us about that. We made the decision to speak with the owner after this, and her reaction was the most hurtful, disappointing response that i didn't see coming. We asked her what next steps would be after the multiple bullying incidents and she replied; the behavior exhibited by the children is typical 4 and 5 year old behavior. She stated if my daughter was seriously injured then next steps would be taken and that everyone has a threshold of how much they can take and she understands if we have met ours. She reminded us that we needed to end our contract there in writing and that our last month bill would need to be paid. That's it. That's the concern for children under her care. I reviewed the parent handbook again and confirmed there is nothing, what so ever that mentions anti-bullying. I understand the Montessori philosophy is different in how they approach behavior issues, however I do not understand allowing children to be harmed, in hopes that they will learn what their threshold is or continue to endure the abuse until a serious injury occurs. I have 3 children, I am no expert but I am very familiar with how children behave and how they are still learning to express themselves. And this situation is so wrong! I am my children's advocate and educators most certainly should be a part of that too.
Oct 5th, 2021