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For more than a decade, I’ve watched as parents approach our front entry. As Director of Admissions, I can tell by the looks on our visitors’ faces that our hilltop campus has already made a favorable impression. Within sight of the nearby Blue Ridge mountains, the Montessori School of Westminster’s 27-acre campus assures families that children from age two through Middle School will embrace nature, explore wooded trails, and find friends under wide blue skies while experiencing a quality Montessori education.
We welcome our new Head of School, Lauren Welsh-Baer, the Montessori School of Westminster’s (MSW’s) third in a trio of great women who have led the school for half a century. She is a former student, taught in our Lower Elementary program since 2007, and has her two children attending the school.
Fifty years ago, the area surrounding the school in north-central Maryland was a place where people retreated from the growing city of Baltimore. In 1973, a group of dedicated parents—doctors, attorneys, entrepreneurs, educators, and professors from the nearby liberal arts college—formed the Montessori Society of Westminster to establish a fresh, new preschool dedicated to Montessori ideals. Their efforts created the Montessori School of Westminster.
The Society rented two rooms for the new program in a rural church. The church’s wide lawns, open fields, and even its historic gravestones provided a quiet and fitting setting for a school emphasizing movement for students both indoors and out.
An experienced Montessori guide from Illinois was hired. During the school’s first year in 1973, the school offered morning and afternoon Primary classes for about 50 students. Society members served as school registrar and provided support with marketing, accounting, and fundraising.
As the area population steadily grew, MSW followed in kind. Parents, committed to the Montessori Method, clamored for additional grades, and Elementary programs were added. In 1994, room for the school’s expanded programs was provided by renting space at a second church.
The second location housed the school’s much-anticipated Middle School, which opened in 1999, after the dedicated program guide (a public-school teacher convert) traveled repeatedly between Maryland and Texas to complete her training. Since its inception, students in MSW’s Middle School class have visited cities and landmarks from coast to coast and places in between, experiences that foster independence and encourage students to explore cultures across the globe.
In ensuing years, the surrounding demographic shifted to a bedroom community for those commuting to Baltimore and Washington, D.C. By 2000, after 17 years of operation, about 140 students attended MSW. The school community was surprised when the church housing the Primary program announced it was developing its own school. MSW stakeholders were tasked with quickly finding options for relocating the school.
A downtown Westminster location seemed most advantageous; however, as sites were considered, a 27-acre parcel five minutes from the city center became the choice for construction of a dedicated new building. Excitement grew as space devoted specifically to the Montessori Method was designed. Both the architect and the builder of the school were parents of MSW students. The plan for the new school building included direct outdoor access from each classroom. Low window sills invited sunlight and green landscapes into each room. Kitchenettes, child-sized toilets, and multiple playgrounds were anticipated features of the new campus. The new education building featured clean, modern lines and spacious classrooms designed specifically for the Montessori Method. The first group of students crossed the threshold in September 2001.
As the Montessori School of Westminster celebrates 50 years, in addition to nine classrooms, the school includes a popular program for two-year-olds named Beginnings; the expansive 5,000-square-foot UTZ Field House; a separate Middle School building; outdoor education spaces; expanded playgrounds with updated equipment; before- and after-school care programs; extensive trails, gardens, woods, and a stream that students love to explore. We recently added bus transportation service. Instrumental and choral music, visual arts, language instruction, physical education, and MSW’s one-of-a-kind environmental education program complement our curriculum known for its fidelity to Montessori principles. Our Montessori-certified faculty has a combined 93 years of Montessori teaching experience and almost 150 years in education. MSW is accredited by the American Montessori Society, the Association of Independent Maryland Schools, and is licensed as a Maryland “Green School.”
For two-year-olds through Middle School, MSW instills qualities of mutual respect, independence, creativity, collaboration, and a love of learning. Near-capacity enrollment of 180, including more than a dozen legacy students, suggests we are on the right path as we prepare for the next 50 years!
