Community Montessori School

"Our daughter (2.5) has been attending this school for a year now and we are extremely pleased with not only the education she's receiving but also the characteristics she's picked up from attending a Montessori school. Our friends are always shocked that she's only 2.5 because she is polite, articulate and potty trained at an early age. Our favorite part of Montessori is her ability to learn at her own pace giving her confidence in education."

"First class AMI school, embraces diversity with an exceptional category of teachers....The educational experience is truly impressive! I have two children at the school, a toddler and an elementary student and I am amazed at the high standards and educational excellence that comes from this Fishers school. Seeing is truly believing...I highly recommend a tour! The accomplishments of their alumni also speaks volumes on what this small school can achieve."

"Both my husband and myself have Professional Doctorate degrees and corresponding careers. We value a safe, educational and nurturing environment that will inspire an early love of learning in our child. After visiting and interviewing several private preschools, we decided to enroll our daughter at Community Montessori School (CMS) in Fishers, IN. There are only two AMI accredited Montessori schools in the state of Indiana. CMS is located in Fishers, IN and the other AMI accredited Montessori school is located in Carmel, IN. CMS starts at age 18 months, whereas the one in Carmel starts at 3 years old. The CMS building is fairly new and was built specifically with the Montessori environment in mind. The classrooms all have tons of natural lighting and an open floor plan. All the Directress/Teachers have college or graduate degrees. Every Directress/Teacher at the school knew my daughter by name by the second day of school. I get daily reports via email on my kid, letting me know her days activities. The toddler classroom will help potty train as well. Every personnel at the school I've come across has been courteous and informative. The diversity of the staff is a definite plus. Exposure to diversity promotes curiosity, creativity, and encourages the search for novel information and perspectives - something we want our child exposed to early on. There is an entrance interview that CMS calls "an encounter" where the Directress spends approximately 30 min with your child in their respective classroom, observing them play with the particular "work" they chose and how they interact with their surroundings and other children in the class. I came to value a school with an entrance interview after I visited other preschools that didn't have one. The preschools that did not have an entrance interview take anyone and everyone as long as the parents have the means to pay the tuition. Preschool age children are sponges, quickly picking up social and behavioral cues from their peers and surroundings. The children at CMS, in general, seem to be more respectful of their surroundings and peers. I would attribute this to both the Montessori environment as well as the existence of an entrance interview. Although we feel our daughter is in a safe, educational and nurturing environment at CMS, we are realistic about accidents that may happen from time to time. Having inspected her classroom, I know CMS does everything they can to keep the kids safe. However, children can still trip, stumble, or fall despite the safe environment. The child-to-teacher ratio is right in line with state mandate; in fact, in my child's classroom, the child-to-teacher ratio is better than state mandate. In terms of fundraising, I agree with the other reviewer who said "of course, any private school will have fundraising activities." This is true for all the private preschools we looked into as well. And come to think of it, this is true for all the schools my husband and I have attended as well (college, grad school, professional school). Giving is always optional. If you do give, it's a tax deductible contribution that is used to further create and sustain the Montessori environment and education for your child. For this reason, we were happy to contribute. I was not familiar with Montessori schools and methodology until I started researching preschools. Although my husband is a product of a Montessori preschool, I was not. It's one thing to read about Montessori online, but it's another to actually see and observe the classroom and environment for yourself. I'm glad I took the time to visit the various private preschools and observe the children in their respective classroom environments. CMS was the clear choice for us. My daughter has been at CMS for almost a year now. What I like most about CMS is that my child loves it; she is excited to go to school every day. As a parent, you can't really ask for more."

"My son has been attending Community Montessori School for 2 years and he loves it! He enjoys having choices in his daily work and has rediscovered that love for learning he lost while in a traditional elementary school. CMS offers a well-rounded education which includes life skills and service projects on a regular basis which he loves to help plan and participate in. The 4th, 5th, and 6th graders just recently planned a field day fundraiser for Relay for Life and they had such a blast doing it! We love the CMS teachers and community and wish we would have found this school when our son was 18 months old. He would have been a Montessori kid from the start!"

"I just had the most ridiculous interaction with staff at this facility. I have no idea who the person was, she never introduced herself, however she was VERY RUDE!!!! It was to be my son's second visit at the school and he was understandably scared. She immediately barked at him to take his lollipop out of his mouth, which is fine, but she again was VERY RUDE!!!! I removed the lollipops from his mouth and he started to cry. He is 3 ok, of course he is going to cry. She made absolutely NO ATTEMPT to pair or appropriately interact with my son. As we entered the hallway, she stated "You need to get control of yourself, I cannot allow you to enter the classroom if you are still crying" AGAIN HE IS 3! She was talking to him as if he were 10 or 12 years old and could stop crying on a dime. She knelt down in front of him and again told him to get control of himself, and he attempted to kick her. I don't approve of that behavior, however he doesn't know this woman, she made no effort to be nice or welcoming to EITHER one of us and she is barking at him like he is an adult. At that point she handed me my application fee back and said "We won't be taking him as a student" I was in shock, and said "Really?" She said "Yes, we can't bridge a gap that big" Are you kidding me?? As an "educator", who says that to a potential family? I can't say that I am surprised, as the reception from this school has been horrible from the beginning. You all need to work on your social skills from what I can see! I don't even want to give this poor excuse for a school one star but I had to put something. I will be telling everyone I know about my experience there, you can be assured of that."