Author: Cathy Bachman

Parent Education-Healthy Boundaries

Written by Cathy Bachman on April 5, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Blog, Parent Education.

Please join us Wednesday April 19 at 6:30 PM for the April Parent Education night. This event will highlight the Healthy Boundaries Curriculum in use at the school and how to carry on conversations at home, and will include the importance of understanding emotions as it relates to the curriculum.

This will be an in-person event.

Presenters are Jennifer Taylor our School Nurse and Amanda Bywaters our Student Support Coordinator. There will be a Q&A session, books and resources available for parents viewing and snacks!

Professional Development Days

Written by Cathy Bachman on March 22, 2023. Posted in Blog.

Our March Professional Development days last week provided our staff with a wonderful opportunity to all come together at the same time to learn and engage with each other. We focused on bringing much needed training on policies and procedures to our staff. We had a large focus on the Health, Wellness, and Safety of all members of our community as well as the Student Support training. This policy will be available soon on our website so look for it. All staff also had the opportunity to deep clean and organize in their classrooms and prepare curriculum and end of year items for the remainder of the school year.

Our priority task was sharing our new Risk Management Policy with the staff. We continued with Part B of our Creating A Culture of Safety: Child Abuse Prevention in-service training. Infant and Toddler staff learned more about using sign language in their classrooms. All other teaching staff had training on new Student Support observation forms.

All of us benefited from training from Nurse Jen who switched roles with our teachers and stepped into the educator role to provide training on medical response protocols during our PD days. We started off discussing the staff and student Incident/Accident forms and how to assess for concussion symptoms and continuing to observe for new or worsening symptoms.

We went through the classroom emergency backpacks and discussed the purpose of each of the first aid items and how to use them. Nurse Jen provided a demonstration of how to provide first aid for wounds before having everyone partner up to participate in a scenario where everyone had a chance to wrap each other’s wounds. We also discussed participation in the Stop The Bleed training as part of our CPR and First Aid training requirements.

Nurse Jen wrapped up her training sessions with our extended day and new teachers to review Medical Action and Support Plans and provided training for how to respond to situations such as Asthma, Anaphylaxis, and Epilepsy in the school setting.

During these days we also enjoyed some service project work. Outside we started garden bed preparation, turning over the soil and planting flowers and early vegetables. We also contributed completed fleece blankets for Project Linus.

Fun Run – April 11, 2023

Written by Cathy Bachman on March 5, 2023. Posted in Blog.

15th Annual Fun Run Fundraiser 2023

The Fun Run is our primary fundraiser for our school’s nonprofit, the Montessori Educational Foundation.

Give Now

Our goal this year is to raise at least $3500 total, with 80% family participation. Our students have the unique opportunity to raise pledges for the following Service Learning Projects:

The Children of Ethiopia Education Fund (COEEF) – Specifically, the COEEF program sponsors girls in Ethiopia so they can attend school.
Adopt-a-Native Elder Program – Allows us to reach out to one another, share our gifts, and mend the broken circle of our relationship with the Land and the Native Americans who hold it in sacred trust.

Each class will have a time on April 11 from 9:15-11:15 AM to run laps on the field (and through a bouncy house). Snacks and water will be provided and we hope some parents can come to cheer the kids on. Stay tuned for a schedule of when your child’s/children’s class will participate. In addition, watch for a SignUpGenius next week regarding volunteer opportunities.

Please help to make an impact by:

Helping your child to set a goal to raise a certain amount.
Helping your child tell family and friends about the Fun Run. You would be surprised how many friends, neighbors and grandparents are eager to support such worthwhile causes.
Helping your child actively participate. (For example, earning money by doing extra chores at home. Then, in turn donating to this charitable event.)
Attending the event and join the students as they run or cheer them on from the sidelines.
Volunteering to help at the event. Look for a sign-up genius being emailed in the next week.

We look forward to this exciting Service Learning experience and hope all of our families will participate with enthusiasm.

Thank you for your support!

2023-2024 Academic Calendar

Written by Cathy Bachman on February 25, 2023. Posted in Blog.

Please find the 2023-2024 Academic Calendar here.

Peace Rocks Highlighted at the UMC Conference

Written by Cathy Bachman on February 1, 2023. Posted in Blog.

This weekend much of our staff attended the 20th Utah Montessori Council conference. The conference is for our Montessori teachers to share ideas, learn, socialize and be inspired. Schools were invited to share their peace project and our Amanda was invited to speak.

Amanda shared our Peace Rock story and arranged a Peace Rock Project display at the UMC conference. “This past fall, our staff and students (infants through upper elementary) painted peace rocks. Each class placed them in front of our school during our Peace Parade on International Day of Peace. We placed signs inviting the greater community to take a rock of peace. The idea was to spread messages of peace into our community.”

Amanda’s display featured rocks painted by our staff and students and information about our peace project. She invited the UMC attendees to make a peace rock or take one decorated by our school staff and students.

Re-Enrollment for 2023 -2024

Written by Cathy Bachman on January 19, 2023. Posted in Announcements.

We are happy and honored that you have entrusted us with your child’s education and look forward to continuing that relationship for the next academic year.

Re-enrollment for 2023-2024 is now open!

Every family should have received an email from enroll@mcsslc.com on January 17, 2023 called Enrollment for Returning Student explaining how to complete the re-enrollment process for the 2023-24 school year. The email was sent to the same parent/guardian who filled out the application & enrollment forms previously.

Open enrollment for new families begins in the near future. We wish to preserve our current families’ spaces by enrolling your children first. Re-enrollment needs to be completed by February 15th. After this date, spaces will be opened to new families and your child’s placement will no longer be guaranteed.

Enrollment details to note for 2023-2024

The tuition increase this year is 5% school wide.
If you are considering the Extended Day option, we would encourage you to sign up sooner rather than later. As of this year there is one fee for both early and late care Extended Day. Staffing is based on those who have selected this option during enrollment and we cannot always guarantee space for later schedule changes.
Registration and enrollment for Summer Camp 2024 will be conducted in late fall 2023.

If your child will not be returning for the 2023-2024 year, please email enroll@mcsslc.com to indicate your decision. Alternatively, log into FACTS Family Portal and click Apply/Enroll -> Enrollment / Re-enrollment and click the button “Will Not Enroll.”

If your family has elected not to return to MCS next year, we recommend that you wait to relay that information to your child until closer to the end of the academic year. It has been our experience that children who are told in advance of such a change often lose their focus for the balance of the year, and begin the process of separation long before the change is imminent.

We understand that educational decisions are the result of a thoughtful, intentional process and we appreciate our families taking the time when they are considering re-enrollment for another school year. Do not hesitate to contact us at enroll@mcsslc.com if you have any questions or need assistance in this process.

Carsen Ireland: New Wasatch Extended Day Teacher

Written by Cathy Bachman on January 12, 2023. Posted in Announcements, Blog.

Carson was born and raised in Utah. He has always had a passion for understanding the world around him and has found much love for travel and getting to know new environments, people, cultures, and language. He loves communication and is always looking for better and more productive ways to relate to others. Carson has a background in mindfulness, meditation, and Nada or Sound yoga. Prior to substitute teaching he found his passion for education through working with youth in special needs programs. Outside of teaching he enjoys music, reading, yoga & meditation, and hiking with his dogs. He is excited to grow with the community.

Wishing You a Joyous Winter Break

Written by Cathy Bachman on December 23, 2022. Posted in Blog.

It has been a busy week with holiday programs, classroom sing-a-longs and potluck events.

Capping off this festive week was the staff Sweater Contest in which there were 3 categories to compete: Ugly, Gorgeous and Festive. There was some strategy in category selection, but the winners are: Carson for the Ugly Sweater, Elise for the Gorgeous Sweater and Karla for the Festive Sweater.

We do hope that you enjoy fun family time and look forward to more growth and education in the new

Summer Camp 2023

Written by Cathy Bachman on December 14, 2022. Posted in Blog, Community News.

Please click here for current summer camp information.

Summer Camp

June 12 – August 4, 2023

This summer’s eight-week camp will focus on the arts, movement, gardening and cooking. We are both fortunate and grateful to have the energy and creativity of Candace Wiseman returning as our Summer Camp Director. We are so excited to offer this engaging and creative curriculum that will include many exciting field trips and activities.

Transitioning and rising students will be charged tuition using their 2022-2023 school year’s program tuition amount. We are not offering partial or prorated tuition amounts, but we are allowing new students enrolled in the 2023-2024 academic year to start this summer during camp.

Summer Camp Tuition is listed below by program. Your Summer Camp spots are guaranteed until February 28th when we will open enrollment to new students. Payments will be charged to families in May and/or June of 2023 depending on your enrolled payment plan. Camp enrollment will continue until all available spaces are filled. If you have any questions regarding summer camp, please contact summercamp@mcsslc.com.

You may Enroll in Summer Camp by going to Webforms in FACTS.

Summer Camp – Tuition Schedule

Summer Camp Description

The Montessori Community School’s Summer Camp is a multi-week program that focuses on a different area of the world. Each summer, in order to provide our students with a new “adventure,” the typical Montessori materials are exchanged for crafts, art projects, and various other activities. Our philosophy remains the same: an emphasis on conflict resolution, supporting the development of independence, and making the process of learning fun.

Our summer camp staff is usually made up of extended day, substitute and other support teachers who work with us year-round. Additionally, we may welcome a handful of new summer camp teachers who are trained by our MCS Administration and current staff.

Toddler students who are eligible for Early Childhood and showing readiness for that environment will be in a Transition classroom. Our Third Year Early Childhood students transition to Elementary at the beginning of the summer and they are very excited and ready to embark on all of the more advanced activities that are offered in the Summer Elementary class.

Please keep in mind that while transition is very exciting and our camp is a lot of fun, summer is a different routine. We recommend families be prepared for all of the normal outcomes of change in routine. Our teachers and camp director make a great effort to keep parents informed and share photos of their child’s experience. We encourage parents to join teachers in building healthy, communicative relationships in order to support our students so they can have a successful and enjoyable summer.

Summer Camp Sign-Up

HVAC Timeline

Written by Cathy Bachman on December 8, 2022. Posted in Blog, Community News.

We would like to provide an update on the HVAC status as well as provide the timeline to show what has been done over the last couple of years so everyone has the complete picture.

2021

Throughout the year The Strategic Planning Committee met and discussed the challenges we have been experiencing with our current HVAC system and we continued the process to improve functionality and comfort levels.

We received an assessment from WattSmart (Rocky Mountain Incentive Program) – this program highlighted some options:

Upgrade our current evaporative cooling system
Retrofit the building with VRF/VRC systems
Install a costly ground-loop heat pump system
Install a chilled water system that could utilize the existing hydronic distribution piping

Option 4 was eliminated as it would not be able to cool the building to an extent that would keep up with the longer hotter summers.

Option 3 was eliminated as it was very costly and out of the budget.

Option 2 was deemed the best option for the building and the budget but also expensive, estimated between $1.5-2.5 million.

Option 1 was selected initially to help with specific hot spots and areas that struggled more than others and to give some additional time to budget and plan for option 2.

The evaporative cooler that cools the Toddler classrooms was upgraded in June 2021. An additional portable evaporative cooler was purchased that could be wheeled into a class or the Gym when temperatures grew in specific areas. All of the other evaporative coolers were tuned up for optimum cooling.

2022

The Strategic Planning Committee created an HVAC subcommittee to research and help with the HVAC project specifically. The HVAC subcommittee decided it made sense to move forward with a full engineering analysis and one was performed on the school’s existing infrastructure.

Before and after the engineering analysis, the school interacted with more than 22 companies and sent the engineering analysis to many of them. Some of them immediately said they could not help. After seeing the engineering analysis some of them said they could and then once they came to the school and saw the scope, said that they couldn’t. A leading HVAC and plumbing company who had helped the school in the past said they could do it and scheduled a time to come out and start the planning, then when it came to start the work, backed out due to being overwhelmed with other projects. The company who manages the church’s HVAC next-door claimed that they could do it and after six separate calls and multiple emails, never put together a firm bid.

The summer of 2022 proved to be unseasonably hot and humid, meaning that even with the tuned up evaporative coolers and the new one over the Toddler classrooms, it was not enough to stay cool.

As an additional stop-gap solution, nine portable AC units were purchased to cool all the upstairs classes. They had to be retrofitted to the windows and additional electrical infrastructure was put in place in order to allow them to function. This meant that the evaporative coolers that typically pushed air from upstairs to downstairs had to be turned off as they were not compatible with the new portable AC units and the downstairs floors remained warm.

Within the last few weeks the school has finally received a firm bid from a local HVAC contractor to completely upgrade the entire heating and cooling infrastructure. The cost will be between $800K and $1.2 million dollars which is a staggering amount but we believe it is an important step in continuing to ensure students have an ideal environment in which to learn and grow. As we have throughout this process, we continue to research grants and other funding options to help offset some of the costs of this large capital investment.

As with any project of this magnitude we hope to meet certain targets but plan for unexpected variables. If things go well we may begin working in late January and anticipate it taking at least three or four months to complete.

We appreciate everyone who has helped with this project. It has been long and time consuming but we are excited to see a solution on the horizon. Please reach out to us with any questions or suggestions.