Dear GMS Family,

Your children's teachers are remarkable. 

I love how hard they work. I love how purposely they observe your children. I love how they curate specific Montessori lessons to precisely meet the needs of a specific student. I love how they are so deeply committed to helping guide their students to unleashing potential, whatever that potential may be.

Their work is hard work … big work. Yes, it would be easier if we pretended it was best practice for each student in a specific grade to be ready to learn the exact same thing at the exact same pace: lesson taught, worksheet given, grade assigned. Easy. However, meeting every single student where they are and guiding them towards authentic learning is hard work. And, this is what your teachers do for your child every single day.  

In her book, "To Educate the Human Potential," Dr. Maria Montessori wrote that, “The teacher’s task is no small or easy one! They have to prepare a huge amount of knowledge to satisfy the child’s mental hunger, and they are not, like the ordinary teacher, limited by a syllabus.” 

“Not limited by a syllabus.” I love that, too.

At Greensboro Montessori School, we meet children where they are. We create real-life work, real-life scenarios, and important experiences with real purpose. We show the students that they have agency, that they have purpose, and that they can impact change. 

When they do this real work, when our Upper Elementary students lead a pizza lunch fundraiser, when our Junior High students offer a schoolwide Maria's Market drive-thru, or when our Lower Elementary students teach us how different cultures celebrate light around the world, our students learn that what they do matters. They learn that they belong in are important to our community. 

Our students’ belonging, feeling safe and secure, knowing they are fully seen and supported, and knowing they can do and learn so much are all key outcomes of our Montessori education. And, when we think about it, what more could we want for our students and our children?

I love this place. And, I am so happy and appreciative that your family will be joining us for the 2025-26 school year. I, like you, just love this place.

Kevin

1. Signing up for our Summer Camps.
2. Signing up for CASA next year.
3. Considering any other change of enrollment status.

Beyond these needs, there is no new contract to review or sign for returning students, and your child’s spot is secure when we receive your deposit and applicable fees by March 15, 2025. Rhea's email will provide specific information about how the School will add your deposit and fees to your Blackbaud Tuition Management account based on your family's current payment plan or financial assistance application, if applicable. Rhea and I are also happy to answer any questions you may have.

What is tuition for next year?

Your board of trustees sets tuition prices each year. They carefully consider any tuition increases, always balancing the costs of running our School's high-quality program and keeping our School affordable to as many families as possible. For 2025-26, the board has decided on a 4.5% tuition increase for all divisions. This annual tuition increase secures the dollars needed to cover the School’s operating expenses, the majority of which are faculty and staff salaries and benefits package. It also allows us to optimize our program and to run the very best Montessori school we can.

For next year's $5.4M operating budget, 82% of the budget supports faculty and staff, including their salaries and benefits, such as health care, dental, 403(b) investment accounts, and other employment benefits. The budget also includes a raise for faculty and staff commensurate with those received by Guilford County Schools' teachers.

Why a 4.5% increase?

As an independent school, we do not receive any funding from the state or federal government. Therefore, when the costs to run our School increase, raising tuition is the primary tool we have to secure proper funding to operate.

As we all continue to experience, the cost of goods and services are increasing. For our School, this includes utilities, ongoing maintenance, and the specialized Montessori materials we use in our classrooms.

Most importantly, we believe in fairly compensating our faculty and staff, who hold a combined 68 bachelor’s or associate’s degrees, 23 master’s degrees, 4 doctoral degrees, and 39 Montessori credentials. This team is more committed than ever to your children, and the majority of our tuition increase will be used to raise their base salaries proportionate with the 3.6 to 10.8% increases that North Carolina public school teachers will receive over the next two years.

Is financial assistance available?

We know a tuition increase can be challenging, and neither the board of trustees nor our team take it lightly. As you evaluate your family’s finances for the 2025-26 school year, we encourage you to explore these financial resources which may be available to your student entering kindergarten or older.

• GMS Financial Assistance
• North Carolina Opportunity Scholarship
• 529 Plans for Elementary and Secondary Education

Why Greensboro Montessori School?

During reenrollment season, we think it is important to look beyond the immediate and to look forward onto the horizon, to know that our Toddlers will soon be Primary students and Junior High students will soon be graduates, who will both one day be independent adults charged with contributing to society and making a positive impact on the world. Our mission is entirely based on helping our students become their best selves. That is one of the main reasons many of you choose to send your children to our School.

As a toddler-through-ninth-grade community, we think the best way for us to look at the horizon is by looking at our alumni community – to learn their stories and achievements, to learn what skills they took away from their time with us, and to learn how they are making their worlds a better place as productive and compassionate citizens. Our alumni community is our most important testament to the strength of our School. Here's a look at some recent alumni achievements:

• GMS' Class of 2025 has a 100% acceptance rate to the to the International Baccalaureate (IB) program and their districted high school The IB program is a challenging, internationally recognized curriculum that aims to develop students who are curious, knowledgeable, and caring, and who can think critically and apply their knowledge in a variety of subjects. 
• Asher Ermentrout '23, whom we profiled earlier this year, has
• Tatiana Frontera '16 recently accepted a position as a Clean Water Act Compliance Inspector and Case Manager, Environmental Scientist, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Chicago, Ill.
• Hayden Juneau '17 graduated in December (a semester early) from the University of Charlotte with a Bachelor of Science in computer science. He is on track to earn his Master of Science in computer science by the end of this year.
• Sarah (Coates) Whittemore '97 performed as a vocal soloist to a sold-out show at Carnegie Hall in December.
• Thomas Comick '19 is a sophomore pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. "I'm The Best," a short file directed by Thomas and Amelia Waldeck, recently won Best Overall Film at Greensboro's 48-Hour Film Festival. They were also awarded Best Directing, Best Actress, Best SFX, and Best Creature. Thomas and Amelia will travel to Seattle next month to screen their film at Filmapalooza, the international film festival and filmmaking conference of the 48 Hour Film Project.
• Dianna (Potter) Walla defended her thesis in October, earning Doctor of Philosophy in educational studies from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
• Kathleen Quaintance '12, a doctoral student at Yale University, was named a Lead Teaching Fellow in August.
• The GMS Class of 2024 began high school in August. 95% are taking sophomore- or junior-level math classes as freshmen.

Having celebrated our 50th anniversary with you and many of our alumni and their families last fall, we are delighted to be reconnecting with our alumni community and look forward to sharing more and more of their stories and accomplishments.