{"id":118288,"date":"2014-08-18T21:15:30","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T03:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiva-montessori-charter-opens-doors\/"},"modified":"2014-08-18T21:15:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-19T03:15:30","slug":"kiva-montessori-charter-opens-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/kiva-montessori-charter-opens-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiva Montessori charter opens doors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Children
Children in grades one through six take a seat in the multipurpose room on the first day of school Monday at the new Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori School. The charter school opened its doors in the old Beach Street Kindergarten building, on East Empire Street.<\/span>Shannon Livick\/The Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Safe, respectful and responsible, as we use our head, heart and hands, and have fun integrating the joy and rigor in our academic pursuit of excellence. That\u2019s the motto of the new Children\u2019s Kiva Montessori School.<\/p>\n

The new charter school in Cortez opened its doors to more than 70 students in kindergarten through sixth grade on Monday, Aug. 18. To launch a school from the ground up, officials had to hire teachers, order school supplies and train new board members, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team was really busy this summer,\u201d said Kiva board member Anna Gahl Cole.<\/p>\n

Josh Warinner was tapped as the school\u2019s executive director to lead a staff of about a dozen teachers and administrators. Originally from Grand Junction, he was dean of students at Manaugh Elementary last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cJosh is full of energy and enthusiasm, and we are really excited to have him on board,\u201d said Cole. \u201cIt also helps that he has a strong working relationship with the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 District.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the summer, Warinner attended a four-week Montessori administrator\u2019s training conference in New Rochelle, N.Y., and Andrea Owens, a lead teacher, attended an eight-week Montessori teacher-training seminar in Boulder.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur entire staff worked hard this summer to prepare classrooms, plan for our inaugural year and get ready to welcome our students,\u201d said Cole.<\/p>\n

In addition to its academic focus, the charter school also offers a health and wellness program, farm to school family-style meals and an after school outdoor education program.<\/p>\n

With an annual tuition of just under $800 per student, board members are committed to ensuring that more than half the student body consists of low- to moderate-income families. Tuition assistance is available.<\/p>\n

According to the school\u2019s website, 70 percent of budgeted income is garnered from tuition. Funding and support from grants as well as corporate and individual donors help support the school\u2019s tuition assistance and scholarship programs.<\/p>\n

Parent-led efforts are also vital to the school\u2019s fundraising strategy, and a Parent Teacher Organization introductory meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Aug. 28.<\/p>\n

Montessori education dates back more than 100 years, when Maria Montessori opened the Casa dei Bambini, or Children\u2019s House, in a low-income district of Rome. Today, more than 5,000 Montesssori schools exist in the U.S.<\/p>\n

Montessori education is characterized by multi-age classrooms, a special set of educational materials, student-chosen work in long time blocks, a collaborative environment with older students mentoring younger ones and individual and small group instruction in academic and social skills.<\/p>\n

The Montessori curriculum is organized as integrated, multi-disciplinary studies as opposed to the more traditional model, in which the curriculum is compartmentalized into separate subjects. Literature, the arts, history, social issues, civics, economics, mathematics and science all complement one another in the Montessori curriculum.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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