Kenosha Montessori School History

Kenosha Montessori School was founded in 1967 by a small group of parents as a quality educational alternative.  These innovative parents met the challenge to locate and retain a qualified Montessori directress and to provide a unique classroom structure, dynamics and materials that sets Montessori apart from other educational approaches.  It was necessary for them to meet the initial materials shipment, coming from Holland, at the dock in our own Kenosha harbor.

The school was established as a not-for-profit corporation in response to the needs of the community. KMS is a private, nonsectarian school which is affiliated with the American Montessori Society.

Serving only 16 students at it’s inception, the school steadily grew and eventually found it necessary to offer both morning and afternoon sessions of Pre-school in order to accommodate its growing enrollment.  The mid-1980s brought continued growth and an expanding kindergarten forcing the school from its downtown location in the Episcopal church’s Grand Hall, at which time KMS began leasing space from St. Joseph High School.  This facility allowed room for a before and after school program as well as an enrichment program with the added benefit of further expansion capabilities.

Many KMS parents, having a strong belief in the Montessori method and a desire for consistency in their children’s education, petitioned the school for an elementary program, which was implemented in 1991.  In a mixed age classroom, the school’s “upper level” students experience a combination of freedom and structure that includes individual instruction and independent learning.