Amelia McTamaney's Careful Planning

In 2002 Amelia McTamaney commissioned a study on the school she had built and led for nearly 30 years.

"It concluded the school was too dependent on me," she said.

If she was to get more time to travel, sharpen her golf game and spoil six grandchildren, she knew she had to loosen her ties to Christopher Academy, an independent school with campuses in Westfield and Scotch Plains, New Jersey, 20 miles from New York City.

Meeting with her family, husband Robert, sons Matt and Bob and daughter Catherine, the decision was made. "I would very gradually walk away and try to have the school continue.

"It's a very precious part of my life," she said. "I would like to see it continue forever."

It would take planning. For one thing, it would not be easy to simply sell the school.

"Real estate in New Jersey is now outrageous," McTamaney said. "Bob and I own the buildings so this gives the school stability."

But handing off responsibility for the operation would not be easy when more than half of one's life has been invested in the school, when memories of long hours, uncertainties and difficult decisions are still fresh.

And it had been quite a ride.

Spirit of the '70s

In 1975 she quit a full-time job teaching first graders at a traditional school to take a part-time job teaching at the Montessori School of Cranford. She had not begun Montessori teacher preparation.

"My husband told me I was crazy," she said. But the adventure began.

She took training through St. Nicholas, but before she was done, the school director's husband got sick. "She talked me into buying the school. I borrowed the money from her to buy it.

"The first few years I made about $4,000 and I was thrilled. I remember sweating passing my exams in the summer of 1976 because I was about the buy the school and was not sure I would qualify. But I was 30 years old and did not know what I was getting into."

In 1978, the McTamaneys heard that Christopher Academy, New Jersey's oldest Montessori school, founded in 1963, was not doing well.

"It was in the next town. I called the then-head and I decided to buy the building and move everything over to it."

Their banker balked at the mortgage. She and her husband convinced the bank to reconsider-or put 20 people out of work. "They did it," McTamaney said. "We borrowed money on our house and off we went to fill both locations before we knew it."

A third site, in Scotch Plains, was purchased in 1986 and the Cranford site was closed.

She was pushed on by the entrepreneurial spirit of the time.

McTamaney's generation revived Montessori education in the United States. "A lot of Montessori teachers reflect the personality of the late 60s and early 70s," she said. "We were doing things on our own. I couldn't imagine anyone else telling me what to do.

"Of course, if I knew what I was doing I never would have done it.

"We were going to change the world. And I think we did. The women of that age were at the beginning the women's movement. We were a little bit rebels, but even more we were movers and doers. Nothing was going to stop us so we did it with all of our being. Salaries did not necessarily merit us working outside the home, but we had to prove that we could do it. This ideal and our work ethic allow today's women the ability to be educated, to work in or outside the home and not to have to choose between being a teacher, nurse or educator. The world is our oyster, and please pass the Tabasco."

The school has been the base for a wide variety of involvements for McTamaney. "Many of the Montessori schools in New Jersey were begun with former staff who have moved elsewhere or students from our training program." She has taken leadership in the New Jersey Montessori Administrators Council. She served as president of the International Association for Montessori Education.

Who will Lead?

How to carry on that passion?

"I have not announced a retirement date yet, and do not intend to, but I am 60 and know I needed to think about it."

McTamaney's affection for her staff is palpable. "I am very proud of my staff and the school community. Many of the staff have been here for 15 years or more with three well over 25."

It is a close community, she said. "People go to movies together. There are Christmas parties. We build community.

"Although the Montessori philosophy is solid, it's a new community all the time."

Who can carry the vision?

"Finding the right person is to some extent intuitive," McTamaney said. "You can teach people to run the daily happenings of the building, to get the newsletter out on the right day. The key is savvy. It's academic smarts; it's developing new ideas so the program won't become stale. We need to recognize the talents of others, recognize they are smart and competent."

"When you own a new business, you do not work when you wish, you work all the time. You are constantly worried about making ends meet, and making clients happy. It took me three years to make four thousand dollars. But I had found my mission - Montessori education."

"I'm still concerned that anyone would love it as much as I do-and constantly work at it as I did."

McTamaney decided to withdraw in small steps.

Her staff appeared ready.

"I have always included staff in decisions of school policy. I explain every policy or action I do. I gradually have encouraged them to take on new responsibilities. They come through often."

She had campus directors at both sites, each with a secretary. The training program had a third administrative leader. She began to delegate more.

 "The four of us talk about almost every decision that is going to be made regarding the school. I have gradually given them the authority to purchase without my permission, evaluate staff, do all interviews, do enrollment. They often prescreen employees.

"I am still doing budget and all finance. I am still working and intend to for the next few years but I am away a lot and the campus directors are doing the day to day stuff. I am more of a full time consultant now. I advise. Although I have given away many responsibilities, I still feel the administrators look to me for new ideas and I am still good at this. I am at work visiting with staff and socializing and trying to create a peaceful community.

"I still enjoy going in and consulting, counseling, spurring the others on."

Reflections

McTamaney sounds comfortable with the transition at Christopher Academy. Her view of Montessori education in New Jersey and the United States leaves her with optimism, and some concerns.

"I am worried about the next generation of Montessorians," she said. "I don't know if we are attracting or empowering the risk-taker. There are Montessori schools popping up all over the place. But I don't see leaders coming out with innovative, new ways of doing the work."

And the new generation is going to need to learn to deal with a generation of more demanding parents and changing boards of directors.

"School directors are going to have to start cultivating their boards," she said. "The board has to be devoted to this kind of education. You have to give them responsibilities and help them work toward those responsibilities- just like you do with staff."

She sees potential in a new generation of teachers.

Twenty years ago, she said, mothers were discouraging their children from going into teaching. No longer.

"We've come full circle," she said. "Teaching is not seen as such a poor career choice anymore. Salaries have come up. It is no longer looked at as a second profession."

Her staff includes a veterinarian and a university faculty member.

"It is becoming a profession again," she said. "The next generation of leaders are going to be people who really want to be there."

"I am convinced that our life achievements sometimes depend on just being in the right place at the right time and then doing a lot of hard work. I have been fortunate enough to fall into a job or occupation that has been more than that to me. It was and is a mission for me. And all that before so-called 'mission statements' became part of our lives.

"I have been fortunate in that I have found a love in my profession. I have been able to teach and follow the Montessori method, which becomes almost a cult to some of us, but I have also been able to administer my beliefs and thoughts because it was my business.

Now she, and Montessori pioneers across the country, are going to be looking for ways to transfer that passion and experience on to a new generation.