For some time, parents of George Washington Elementary School (GW) students have come to meetings of the Board of Education to accuse Kingston City School District (KCSD) officials of undermining the Montessori program, dating further back than a two-year plan to improve academic achievement. This week, Superintendent Paul Padalino argued that the district is finding its way forward under difficult circumstances.
“We’ve invested a lot of time, money and human resources, and we spend more per pupil at GW than the average of every school in the district,” Padalino said. “So as far as us not providing the support, that’s inaccurate. I mean, is it as fast or as perfect as one would want it? It’s not going to be. We’ve invested a significant amount of money, significant amount of time, significant amount of human resources to try to make this work. And we continue to do so.”
The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector identifies over 500 public Montessori schools across the United States. But despite being the fourth most populous state in the U.S., New York has just 12, including PS 482 Albee Square Montessori Public School in Brooklyn, which opened earlier this year. George Washington’s Montessori program was phased in beginning with the 2008-09 school year, and Padalino this week said it has sometimes struggled with balancing a traditional free-flowing Montessori environment with the rigors and demands of public schools in the state.
According to data from the 2022-23 school year published by NYSED, George Washington’s student population is around 80 percent white or Hispanic/Latino, with the numbers split roughly down the middle. The student population is also 62 percent economically disadvantaged, 24 percent English language learners, 22 percent students with disabilities and 5 percent homeless.
Some parents who aren’t satisfied with the implementation of the Montessori program have organized their efforts through a group called Save Montessori at GW. They and others have taken to public comment periods at school board meetings to accuse the district of, among other things, putting educators in classroom positions they’re not qualified for and endorsing an atmosphere that encourages longtime teachers to leave.
Padalino countered that no teacher in the district is unqualified, adding that there is no New York State certification for Montessori teachers.
“When we hire teachers, we hire teachers for the Kingston City School District, not for GW or Edson or JFK or any of those,” he said. Montessori programs in the state’s public schools are always faced with having to adapt the philosophy to meet state achievement requirements in ways private schools are not.
“We are working to implement a Montessori philosophy school within a regular public education system,” Padalino said. “There’s a reason you don’t see many of us, and why most Montessori schools are private schools.”
Padalino said that critics of the program may not understand the difficulty in maintaining a Montessori program in a public school.
“Just because we call this school Montessori, we aren’t relieved of our responsibilities around the State Education Department, around testing, around identification for student performance,” he said. “We are still mandated to follow the New York State standards for education. We spend so much time building crosswalks between the standards for the state and the testing for the state and the Montessori philosophy, and it’s a challenge to do so.”
Padalino added that George Washington has more teacher assistants than any other elementary school in the KCSD and has a full-time instructional coach.
“No other building has that,” Padalino said, adding that the district has further incentivized its teachers to train in Montessori education, but due to contractual issues is not able to demand it.
The superintendent added that many parents are happy with George Washington.
“When we’ve done our climate and culture surveys over there, we have responses that students love to come to school, that attendance in the building is good and other indications of things that are positive,” he said.
Padalino said he understood where the parents who are unhappy with Montessori at George Washington are coming from, but said that it may not be possible to meet their expectations fully. He added that he believes there is a future for Montessori in the KCSD, even if it isn’t exactly what some parents are hoping for.
“We’re doing what we can within the constraints that we have to try to make this as much of a Montessori school as we can. Maybe that’s not enough for some and that’s unfortunate. But we continue to invest, we continue to put a lot of time and money into that building to try to make this happen and make this work…But I think there needs to be an understanding that we have to find a middle ground.”
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