Tuskawilla Montessori Academy

I am currently a sophomore in high school. I was at this school for 10 years, and my sister has been attending since pre-k. Honestly the best years of my life were spent here. All of the teachers worked with me amazingly and I thrived in the hands on, specialized learning. This school has set me up exceptionally well for high school. I have built a very close relationship with all of my teachers and my mother trusts them all with her life. It honestly makes me very upset to see some of the bad reviews posted because, as someone that did go here and attended during covid, I know these accusations to be false. I love the faculty members here and they will always be my family. 💗

There’s obvious favoritism by the owner of this school. Anyone who saw the 8th grade graduation ceremony this year could see that. There were two boys graduating and the owner completely favored the one boy over the other because he had been there longer. She also favors certain families, such as those with multiple children (more money). This school (and especially the owner) have horrible communication with the parents. The owner's main goal is to make sure certain families stay happy, while allowing the children within these favorite families to spit on and bully other kids. Lack of options for private schools might make this place tempting, but with the fact that there is no real leader running this school and the owner believing that anyone who is not one of her favorite families is expendable, it’s not worth the trouble. My child seems to have learned just as much as his public-school friends.

During the past school year I have learned much about the Montessori education through my own research while also learning about Tuskawilla Montessori. The Montessori methods are effective, but this particular school functions within a definite hierarchy and major flaws. The top echelon comprises those students who bring the most money to the school or make the school look more diverse. This is done in two ways. Some have siblings enrolled in the school and/or have been in the school since pre-k or earlier. This group, apparently, can bully, tease, or ostracize others. The owner turns a blind eye to their bad behaviors. This group is entitled. The second group are those students who are quiet, doing everything without complaining, and not drawing any attention to themselves. The school does not need to do anything special with them or be creative to work with them, since they stay in the background. In the third group are the students who have no siblings in the school and arrive at the school in kindergarten or later. Because their monetary value is low, and they are in a position to "prove themselves," their status is low at the school, and this is made obvious starting with orientation where new parents are not told important things (e.g., what building is for aftercare or where the classroom is located). These students are corrected and blamed for any situations that arise. The owner does not care what the teachers' opinions are or what the report cards reflect. The owner is only concerned about what the upper echelon parents think. This analysis is based on personal observations of what has occurred at this school over the past year, and as Will Rogers said, "You can learn a lot by just looking."

I have nothing bad to say about the school and the staff. One of my kids just finished his first year at TMA and we had a good experience. Next school year my other kid will start too. In this school teachers care about the kids, they know their strengths and weakness and they work with the kids on that knowing each kid is different. The principal Ms. Delong is also so involved and you can reach her anytime without any hassle. As others have pointed out, the communication between the school and parents sometimes may be slow. So it is the only that I would like to be different.  Other than that this school is so far what we were looking for my kid.

My daughter has attended TMA since 2019 and is in 2nd grade. My son joined her this year in the preschool. This has been a very loving and excellent learning environment. Montessori allows kids to intrinsically love learning rather than being forced to do it. TMA has always been accommodating and helpful.

My sister thought she was making an excellent choice by sending her child to a Montessori school, but Tuskawilla Montessori proved to be a disappointment. Parent orientation was the first clue. This event was both unsocialable and uninformative. On the first day a girl told her child that his water bottle was ugly, and this girl continued to bully him all year. The teacher and administration were fully aware of what was going on and did nothing to stop it. Issues like this surfaced on a regular basis. Personally, I thought that he should be removed from the school when I found out about a lawsuit that had been filed against the school, and the school losing the lawsuit. Tuskawilla Montessori lost the lawsuit because they were inadequately supervising several of the younger children, leading to an incident in which the parents sought legal advice and decided to sue. I would definitely not trust this school to oversee young children. Even though my sister had concerns about this school throughout the year, she tried to make things go smoothly, but there was such a lack of communication from both the owner and between the owner and teachers. According to the teachers everything was always great, but the owner seemed to be persuaded by others and had it in her head that her child was not a &#34;good fit&#34; for the school. However, the owner never communicated any of this until days before school was over. This school has horrible communication, is not able to ensure the safety of their children, and has no regular parent-teacher meetings, which should probably include the owner since she thinks she knows the children more than people who are actually with the child every day. Overall, this school does not put the needs and safety of the children first.

This school confirmed all of my initial concerns. They have a complete lack of communication with the parents and between each other. The teachers will tell you one thing and the owner another. The owner favors certain families and students over others, allowing those children to be bullies, and she has no leadership abilities, she only strives to make certain families happy. The classroom size grew to twice the number after the holidays and none of the parents I spoke with even knew. The children were left to find their own work with little guidance and the teacher indicated that it was going out of her way to have any one-on-one time with the students. They have no regular communication with the parents and the owner is very confused by the concept of parent-teacher meetings. The owner also shows no concern for the well-being of the children, only the happiness of certain families.

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