Sagebrush Montessori School

My child was asked to leave mid-year (2023) with no notice. It was his first year. And while he was taking time to adjust to their style, we were actively involved and were being told on a daily basis that he was doing well. The reason given for his removal was that the school is under-resourced, and the "guides" too inexperienced to ensure his academic progress.I think that they should not be considered a true Montessori. They are unable to handle induvial learning rates, styles, and interests. Instead, are using a faux-Montessori environment but applying rigid curriculum and expectations in place of the proper method. I they claim membership with the Association Montessori Internationale. But I checked with that organization and discovered that is not true, at least at the time I am writing this.I believe there is an unstated 6-month trial period. So, if you enroll child be aware of that. If you have an only child, be aware that they state that they prefer multi-child families and your only child's spot will not be safe.

The classroom does provide good opportunities for children to work, but the staff are not kind or nurturing. They don't spend time teaching emotional intelligence to children (although they claim they do), and when children are crying will either (self-admittedly) walk away without engaging, or say things like "I hope you come to school tomorrow without fussing," or "we can begin our day after you're done crying." Our child felt like he wasn't allowed to cry in their school, and when we brought this to their attention and explained the reasoning they said "I can't control how your child perceives things." As parents they dismissed every one of our concerns, and have an "I know best, so just do it" attitude. At almost every interaction we had with them they were telling us exactly how they wanted us to parent by saying things like "don't discuss ___ with your kid, just tell him how it's going to be," which we fundamentally disagree with. The teachers discipline children by providing long-term consequences, which we believe are developmentally inappropriate. For example, our son threw sand at a kid on one occasion, and they said he maybe threw a rake on a different occasion, so he wasn't allowed in the sandbox for about three weeks. The teacher we had almost never answered e-mails, and if she did they were never professional, courteous, or respectful. After we made a few unsuccessful attempts to reach our teacher about our son not being allowed to cry in class, we reached out to the director, who made both of us drive down to the school to chastise us for contacting her, and for thinking that our son not being allowed to cry in class was urgent. We have witnessed the teacher stick her head outside the door and yell at a child who excitedly said "EEEEE!!!" when her dad picked her up from school, and have seen her close the door on a parent's face who was trying to ask her a question. With very limited teacher communication and parents never being allowed in the building, there is no transparency. During our parent teacher conference she did not say a single positive thing about our child, but felt it necessary to tell us one-off things he did wrong, like there was exactly one time where he screamed in class, she told him to stop yelling, and he did, etc. If you are looking for kind, nurturing staff, look elsewhere.

Leadership changed in 2018 when the elementary school merged with the preschool. Admin is unprofessional towards both staff members and parents. Admin has an 'I know better than you' attitude to both staff members and parents.

There is an elementary school! Both of my children attended all 3 years at Sagebrush Preschool & Kindergarten -- a top-notch program with gifted teachers -- and now there is an elementary school opening in the fall: www.sagebrushelementary.org. This will be a great option for the Tri-Cities... non-faith-based education and that wonderful Montessori approach.

Both of my children attend sagebrush and we are so thrilled that they do! One of the things that I love most is that the school currently has children from India, Korea, Russia, and the US in it, so our kids are exposed to a lot of different cultures everyday. The teachers and their aids are absolutely amazing at loving the kids. My kindergartener is reading at a 3rd grade level (as evaluated by the public school she will attend next year) and doing multiplication. My only disappointment is that this school doesn't continue on through elementary school :(