Orono Montessori School

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Orono Montessori School (OMS) is a gem of a daycare & preschool. We moved here from the east coast in 2007 and OMS came highly recommended as setting the bar high for infant-toddler-preschool care (6 months-6 years). I remember our lengthy tour and conversation with the owners and knew immediately that indeed this was the place for our firstborn. He thrived under the gentle and guiding teachers and support staff and went from a shy, reticent 18 month old to a confident 5 year old. Fast forward to 2014 when our second son began at OMS (6.5 year age gap), a sensitive but social whirlwind, a very different personality than his older brother. He too, has grown by leaps and bounds under the committed eye of OMS' certified teachers and their assistants and always asks "is it a school day?". At 4 years old now, my husband and I are continually amazed at his growing academic abilities and sense of self, all components fostered under the independent child-focus of the Montessori method he is routinely exposed to.

All of the staff at OMS are responsive, accommodating, loving/caring and deeply dedicated to their students. We have experienced very little turnover in staff during our nearly 10 years there. The teachers move around rooms when there are immediate needs and some support teachers have moved out of the Twin Cities area but compared to other teacher/student ratios and inconsistent staffing at nearby daycares/preschools that our friends/neighbors have used, we are very lucky to have a consistent presence at OMS.

We live in St. Louis Park and OMS is located opposite our work destinations, but it is worth every mile driven to know that our sons were/are in the very best of hands. Kudos to OMS for running an exceptional preschool.

P.S. The huge fenced-in play field and playground you won't find anywhere else in the metro area. Let the kids run and breath in the fresh air. Yes!

We are absolutely thrilled with OMS and would not entrust our children to anyone else. The owners, Leena and Michael, treat each child as if the child was their own. The classrooms are bright and inviting, and the grounds of the school are amazing. We currently have one child enrolled at OMS and had another child graduate from OMS and, for each child, the school exceeded our expectations both in terms of the education but also in terms of their treatment of the children. It is unfortunate that the prior reviewer had a bad experience and has told members of the school community that she intends to "destroy the school's reputation"; if one were to poll other parents of the school, however, it would be clear that the great majority of families love OMS. The majority of the children who enroll at OMS come from families who have had other children go through the school or by word-of-mouth, which speaks volumes about the quality and excellence of the school.

Don't let the positive reviews fool you. These people don't care about children. They care about their business. They literally pick and choose who they want to teach, which we found to our dismay that they do not "work with special needs kids" as they forced our 4 year old to leave because in their words, "he needed a diagnosis, to be evaluated, and that something wasn't right." Turns out, something right, but not with our son, with the school. We had our son evaluated for autism/ADHD, among other behavioral disorders and cognitive disabilities, based on the schools recommendation and dis-enrollment -- yup, they kicked our kid out for being different. This evaluation cost a small fortune and to our delight, we found out that our son DOES NOT have any type of disability, disorder or diagnosis. In fact, the tests showed that he is in fact above average. The psychiatrist said that "your son is most likely bored." Which was our initial concern when the school informed us of their issues. But the worst part of this whole story isn't that we found out our son isn't special needs, or that we no longer have to deal with these uncaring people, it's that other kids have suffered the same consequence for being identified as special needs. They spoke very lovingly about a boy that attended their school since he was an infant and that after a few years, when they noticed something was wrong (he ended up with an ASD diagnosis according to them), they kicked him out too. Basically, this school does not support equal opportunity education and picks and chooses who they want to teach. And as relatives of an autistic child, we find this to be disgusting. And even outside of this whole debacle, we were never truly satisfied with what our child was learning or how he was being treated. His teacher, the owner of the school, actually created a rule for him that he couldn't play with his best friend. They couldn't "work" together at the same tables and my son was devastated because of it. So in summary, know that this school isn't regulated. They can kick you out at any time, they don't make any type of extra effort - not even an email before a field trip, and they don't put children before the needs of their business.

We love this school and couldn't be happier with how our kids have grown and matured while going through the OMS program! We have experience with the baby room, toddler room, as well as the preschool program and have always felt their staff is happy, caring, and love what they do every day... which is evident in how well they retain their staff. The school is run with integrity and from the heart. We have our seen our kids gain independence, confidence, and a love for learning... everything we could ask for when preparing our little ones for KIndergarten and beyond! Would highly recommend!!

After having previous daycare/preschool under our belt, we switched to this school. And it is the worst. They are terrible at communicating with parents. They have a sign-in book at school, but never call if you're late or don't show up. They've been cited 11 times just this past December for not having enough certified teachers. They've also gotten into trouble for not watching the kids: a few kids left the classroom to go to the bathroom and the teachers had no idea. The people that work there are not very happy. They never smile or talk to you. They're like zombies taking care of your kids. We moved out from this train wreck as soon as we found another montessori with a more credible reputation. If I were you, I'd look at a different montessori or even public preschool would be better than this. Wish no stars was a rating option.