North Palm Beach

Only a Name on the Door

 By Mark Anderson

Families and staff at the Montessori Academy of North Palm Beach, FL, were waiting last month to see whether a series of administrative missteps has jeopardized the future of the two-year-old charter school—and whether or not the academy would finally start to reflect the “Montessori” in its name.

The school’s immediate challenge came from officials at its chartering district, the Palm Beach County schools, who in November were in the midst of a review of the academy’s response to a list of 17 administrative problems the district had identified.

At the same time, parents and other Montessori educators were asking why the school had failed to make substantial progress toward training its teachers in Montessori methods or introducing the approach in the charter’s classrooms.

Those questions didn’t come up in the district’s review, however, which limited its critique to administrative shortcomings at the academy. Those ranged from chronically late financial reports, to student computers that weren’t installed and the school’s surrender of over one-third of a $300,000 federal startup grant that it failed to spend.

Palm Beach officials also criticized the charter’s board for not meeting until October of this year, leaving school oversight during its first two years entirely with its founder, Joseph Orr.

District spokesman Nat Harrington wouldn’t talk specifically about the complaints, but said they were serious. “There is nothing frivolous about any of the concerns on the list. We wouldn’t have [taken this action] if we didn’t take them seriously and believe they need to be corrected.” Harrington said in an email after a November meeting with the school that “progress has been made,” but that the district would continue to investigate the school’s effort to correct its shortcomings.

Depending on the outcome of the review, the district could initiate a 90-day warning period, during which the school must address all the district’s concerns or face a possible charter revocation.

Orr, a former deputy superintendent and chief academic officer with the Palm Beach district who oversaw the startup of two local Montessori magnet schools, blamed most of the problems the district had identified on misunderstandings, mistakes by the school’s outside accountant and shifting rules regarding the federal grant.

He said his academy has addressed many of the issues now. “We’re ready to meet with the district. It will take us three years to develop this school, and I’m pleased with where we are now.”

There was another shortcoming at the academy that wasn’t among the district’s warnings, but was bothering school parents, according to reports published in the Palm Beach Post. That was the school’s failure to implement the Montessori method in its classrooms.

During its first two years, the academy hired only one Montessori-trained teacher, and released her for failing to obtain a Florida teaching certificate. She was in the process of gaining temporary certification when she was terminated.

Also, none of the school’s teachers obtained any Montessori training during the school’s first year.

The school started a training program this year with Barry University’s Montessori Teacher Education Program in Miami Shores, FL, but that was suspended after several meetings.

Ijya Tulloss, director of the Barry program said that she expects to resume training at the school after she and the academy finalize details of a contract.

Orr said he had always planned to hire state-certified teachers and then train them in Montessori methods over the school’s first several years. Most local teachers with Montessori training are pre-K specialists or private school teachers, he said. “They wouldn’t pass the state of Florida’s rigorous certification. I’ve always thought we’d have to grow our own.”

But Orr postponed the training process last year because he didn’t expect to retain that crop of teachers. “We couldn’t see investing that kind of money in them. In short, they weren’t very good teachers.”

Orr said he came out of retirement two years ago to create a Montessori alternative for families in the north end of the district, honoring a pledge he had made before he left the district four years ago.

Earlier in his career at Palm Beach, Orr oversaw the startup of the S.D. Spady and Northboro Montessori magnets, which have earned strong reputations and are oversubscribed now, he said. “I’m going to establish this [Montessori Academy] the right way. I’ve done this before, and I really do know what I’m doing.”

Tulloss said that Orr and the academy were approaching its Montessori implementation in an unusual way, however.

“They were up and operating for a year before they contacted me, and it’s interesting to me why they waited until the last minute this year.”

She said that none of the North Palm Beach academy teachers this year would register to attend training at Barry, which the school usually prefers, so she agreed to conduct Saturday trainings in Palm Beach. Since the school hasn’t yet acquired all its Montessori materials, she also was transporting materials to and from the school for each session.

“They’re already in the midst of starting a Montessori school,” Tulloss says. “They already have students there. I felt obligated to try and help.”

She added that Orr appears to be committed to building a Montessori school. “And the parents, amazingly, are still there through all this.”

Whether the school finally completes its Montessori training will be of interest to many of those parents and other Montessori educators, but district spokesman Harrington said it won’t be a high priority to Palm Beach officials.

“If they say in their charter that they’re offering a curriculum we’ll look to see if that’s happening,” but the district’s main concern is to ensure a school’s conformance with Florida curriculum and achievement standards.

“It’s less the case that we’d monitor to see if they were using Montessori methods.”