Following weeks of parents asking for options, and months of accusations of deliberate undermining by district officials, the Montessori program at George Washington Elementary School will end later this month.
The board of education last week voted 8-1 to end Montessori, citing numerous issues, including costs and underperformance. Anthony Fitzpatrick was the sole vote against.
District officials began testing the new Core Knowledge Language Art (CKLA) program in several elementary classrooms this year, including at George Washington, with plans to fully implement it districtwide by the 2025–26 school year. CKLA aims to boost reading and writing skills by weaving literacy instruction into lessons from other subjects — like math, history, science and the arts — so that students encounter vocabulary and other concepts in more meaningful, connected ways.
George Washington parents last month said the rigidity of CKLA contradicts the student-led Montessori learning program, one which they’ve claimed has been systematically undermined by the district in recent years. The National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector identifies over 500 public Montessori schools across the United States, but in part due to the testing rigors and curriculum demands of the state, there are just 12 in New York, including PS 482 Albee Square Montessori Public School in Brooklyn, which opened earlier this year. At the start of the 2025-26 school year, that number will drop to eleven.
George Washington’s Montessori program was phased in beginning with the 2008-09 school year, serving 20 students aged 3-5 before eventually encompassing the entire school. In the 17 years since, district officials have often acknowledged it has sometimes struggled with balancing a traditional free-flowing Montessori environment with the linear framework of public schools in the state.
But even early on, the praise parents and George Washington staff had for the Montessori program were contrasted by test results. Students across New York in grades 3-8 were given a second round of math and ELA assessments during the 2010-11 school year that reflected more lofty expectations than in years past. In Montessori, traditional grade distinctions don’t exist, so the tests were administered at George Washington to those kids who would be between grades 3-5 in any other school in Kingston. How those students performed on the tests was significantly lower than the averages across the district.
In an August 2011 interview, Superintendent Gerard Gretzinger, who led the Kingston City School District (KCSD) at the time of Montessori’s arrival, noted that students of traditional 4th and 5th grade age at George Washington only had one year of Montessori before being given the tests, and said he expected the numbers would rise the longer the program is in place.
“I wasn’t surprised, but I will say that I certainly would have liked to see higher numbers which were more comparable to the rest of the district,” Gretzinger said. “That didn’t happen this year, but I do think it will be a few more years before we really see the benefits of the Montessori program at the testing level.”
Gretzinger retired in early 2012, and his successor, Paul Padalino, has been superintendent ever since.
Last week, Padalino said George Washington has continued to struggle with the demands of a non-Montessori educational system.
“I presented 17 years of data to the board, showing little or no improvement at George Washington compared to the district’s six other elementary schools,” Padalino said. “In fact, the school performed better before Montessori was implemented, and at the time, it served over 400 students, with a significantly higher population of economically disadvantaged students.”
From the start, the cost of running a Montessori program at George Washington stirred controversy. Back in 2009, it became clear that the roughly $300,000 the district was expecting to come through State Senator William Larkin’s office wasn’t likely to arrive. Instead, they sought outside funding, some of which came through a $100,000 bullet aid grant through the office of Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, with further funding coming in the form of between $60-70,000 in the state legislature’s disbursement of federal stimulus money and around $75,000 in grants for staff training.
In August of that year, trustee Maureen Bowers voted against accepting the money from Cahill’s office, stating her preference that it be used elsewhere in the district, such as helping fund an alternative education program. The comparative costs of educating students at George Washington and students at other elementary schools has long dogged the Montessori program, and is still present now.
Last week, Padalino highlighted that the program now costs approximately $2,000 more per student than any other elementary school in the district. George Washington Elementary employs 22 general education teaching assistants — more than twice as many as John F. Kennedy Elementary, which has the next highest number at eight. The staff-to-student ratio at George Washington stands at 1:1, in stark contrast to JFK’s 1:39.
Additional costs include a dedicated Montessori instructional coach, with an annual salary exceeding $110,000 — an expense not incurred by other schools. The district also pays $36,000 annually for a consultant to evaluate the program, and Montessori-specific teacher training costs around $10,000 per teacher.
Despite this significant investment, academic concerns remain. George Washington is currently the only elementary school in the district flagged for underperformance among English language learners.
“The spending imbalance between schools can’t continue,” said trustee Herb Lamb. “We cannot keep throwing bad money after bad.”
Trustee Marystephanie Corsones, formerly the district’s assistant superintendent for finance and involved in the original Montessori grant proposal, voiced her disappointment.
“No one wanted this program to succeed more than I did, for the benefit of our students,” she said. “But we must honor our commitment to delivering the best education possible for all students. Continuing this program no longer aligns with that mission.”
In contrast to the voices supporting Montessori heard at previous school board meetings, speakers at the June 4 meeting expressed support for the CKLA pilot program.
“I’ve heard from other teachers and it has increased student engagement,” said Bonnie Van Kleeck, a special education teacher at Chambers Elementary School and president of the Kingston Teachers Federation. “Educators have reported that there is heightened enthusiasm for their language arts. Their students are demonstrating more active participation in their reading and writing activities.”
Van Kleeck also lauded CKLA’s structured instructional framework.
“Its organized comprehensive design has supported more focused instruction and classroom management,” she said. “The curriculum is aligned with the science of reading principles, emphasizing a systematic explicit practiced and assessed instruction. It’s also culturally, culturally responsive; the program context forms cultural awareness and appreciation through diverse texts and inclusive topics.”
Van Kleeck said that the proof was in the CKLA pudding.
“The data shows measurable gains in literacy, including reading fluency, comprehension and vocabulary acquisition,” she said. “Exposure to complex and diverse texts has cultivated students’ ability to analyze, infer, and engage in evidence-based reasoning.”
Jackie Nelson, a second grade teacher at Chambers, agreed.
“In my experience, CKLA is one of the most effective tools I’ve ever used in my classroom,” she said. “The level of engagement it creates is amazing. Students are excited to learn, they ask thoughtful questions, and they genuinely look forward to each lesson. It builds background knowledge in history, science, and literature, which gives students the foundation they need for strong reading comprehension and critical thinking. I’ve never seen students make such meaningful connections across subjects.”
Nelson cited an example of a student who, during a lesson about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a student recalled a lesson about Confucius from four months earlier after realizing both historical figures believed education should be available to everyone.
“That kind of cross topic thinking shows real depth of understanding,” Nelson said. “And it’s happening regularly in my classroom.”
Join the family! 
