Montessori School of Durham

The experience my family had at MSD was a nightmare. MSD has sued  families of color and immigrants during the COVID pandemic. Please check MSD's financial statements and their long legal records at the Durham courthouse. MSD got $600,000 from the US government in PPP loans. Although these loans have been forgiven, MSD still decided to sue parents for contracts signed before the pandemic. MSD has used their old name (Montessori Children's House of Durham) to sue families and when is involved in controversial issues. As far as I know, this is the only "school" that has done this in the Triangle. If you're interested in this business' services, please review their contract with a lawyer and compare what they offer in their tours and website vs what is backed up by their contract.

For a school with great teachers and supposably a good idealogy, I am saddened by their business practices and the attitude of the board during a time of crisis. During the pandemic full tuition fees were charged as normal despite the school being closed and also not providing adequate alternative learning for our kids while they were at home. This became near unaffordable to sustain, especially when one has to find alternative childcare arrangements. The school board did not listen to our concerns with any kind of empathy or understanding. I am very disappointed that things had to be this way.

MSD has been such a gift to our family.  Our children are joyful about going to school each day, the teachers are top notch and we feel like the entire staff is part of our family.  We love how much time is spent outside, how much freedom (within structure) is given, and how true to the Montessori principles/curriculum MSD is.  We are extremely grateful to MSD for helping our children grow to be inquisitive, kind, well rounded individuals whose unique qualities are celebrated!  Thanks for being part of our village!

My daughter enjoyed her first grade experience at MSD this past year immensely. When she was remote learning during the 2020 fall semester, MSD teachers went above and beyond to provider her with engaging activities, taped and live lessons, learning apps, and even art and music lessons. I cannot imagine the amount of work it took to prepare this remote learning curriculum on top of their in-class curriculum. Her teachers took the time to give her feedback and went above and beyond to make her feel included in the classroom. When she returned to in-person learning in the spring of 2021, the teachers showed great caring and sensitivity to her needs to help her integrate. We cherish these teachers.

I knocked one star off because the school required us to sign a binding contract for the following school year, and their deadline was weeks before we were able to hear if we were admitted to other area schools. As other reviewers have said, they do not let people out of the contract. However, we are not too upset about it because our daughter enjoyed the school so much.

Wonderful educators but very malicious business practices. When they stopped having classes for Covid and switched to remote learning, they continued to charge full fees. We exchanged 15 hours of educational childcare a week for around 45 minutes of educational videos a week. When we said we would not be paying for this they seemed to okay it and now 7 months later are harassing my family for the remaining tuition. When we mentioned they didn’t fulfill their side of the contract, in this case childcare, they very quickly dropped “ The State passed legislation protecting independent schools from litigation by families as long as the schools were providing content, which we did.” Not even an apology or an admission that the service had changed well beyond what the cost had initially paid for. Not a whole lot we can do except pay the bill and spread the word.

We are thrilled with our decision to be part of the MSD community because it truly is a community. Our first child started as a toddler at MSD and has had the benefit of learning from exceptional, caring, and dedicated teachers. When we welcomed our second child, the entire MSD community came together to help us during this amazing and exhausting time. From teachers helping our son navigate being a big brother to administrators bringing us banana bread in the pickup line, MSD was one of the rocks that we relied on during this joyful time. The school continues to play a similar role during the current surreal times that all of us are now experiencing  There are countless factors that go into the highly specific decision regarding what school your child should attend, and yes these components go way beyond baked goods and emails. For us, we have loved our experience and feel fortunate to be part of this great community.

Ask yourself how would you want your school to act during a crisis? Here is our experience ...   On January 2020, we signed a 5 months contract with MSD for both our kids - a 20m old baby and a 4y. Despite missing half the school year, MSD refused to prorate the admission fee of $2,200 per 2 kids.   We were a little surprised how much the kids struggled in the first 2 months. The 4 years old had experienced physical and emotional bulling from older boys, and we had to intervene time and again. The toddler could not express himself. However,  every time we picked him up we were terribly disturbed. Our baby was waiting for us every day outside in the playground in the cold days of January and February. Standing alone, he was motionless, looking visibly cold and uncomfortable. His bib was always dirty and terribly wet, making his chin red and irritated; his hands and nose red and very cold to touch.  It was so stressful to see, we had to complain several times but things improves only a bit.   Sadly, just as the children begin to settle in a bit, the school had to close due to coronavirus.  When it was clearly a long-term situation, the school tried to adapt the framework of higher education institutions and move to distance learning. With an email a day per each kid, the school has tried to offer its distance learning for toddlers and preschool kids as a fair replacement for in person/ class learning. And without mentioning any official change to its policy nor a discussion of the contractual agreement between us, the school began to reframe its digital effort as an interchangeable learning tool to the traditional Montessori experience. A friend described the irony to me in such elegance: &#34;a virtual Montessori classroom is an oxymoron .....   Providing digital services to you as a parent is the exact opposite of what you paid for&#34;. We told the principal that ultimately in our case, the distance learning the school has offered fails to address our family needs. At the developmental stage of toddlers and young preschoolers, distance learning requires unreasonable level of parental engagement and it puts an overwhelming burden on working parents like us. We acknowledged  that perhaps this is useful learning tools for their K-6 graders who are older and can better study and follow instructions independently with limited need for parental oversight and engagement.   But it fall on deaf ears. MSD has pushed back against any claims we made for getting a refund.   And with with just an email, they moved to charge us tuition for distance learning in the same rate it had charged us for its traditional 5 days schedule in-person program from 8-12pm. And so, we have now unwillingly found ourselves having paid  Montessori School of Durham $18k for as little as +2 months of school.   And if this not enough, now we had to worry also about next year. Having signed a 2020-2021contract with the school in Feb 2020, we have been weary of similar outcomes in the likely event of a second wave of the virus next year.   Making several attempts via emails and phone calls, we asked MSD to clarify its financial policy for next year and an update to the contract accordingly. The Principal has refused to answer. So we asked to withdraw our kids enrollment from next school year 2020-2021 since we do not agree with the current change of term and their refusal to update us with next year policies. The Principal responded with a threat to sue us for the full yearly tuition of both kids as well as the school legal fees. Apply to MSD and this will be your partner in a time of crisis.

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