High Park Centennial Montessori School

My daughter attended HPGMS for the 2012-2013 school year. She transferred in from another Montessori school (which we loved) when we moved to the neighborhood. It was a very disappointing and frustrating experience. The school was under construction all year and the Acting Principal/owner did a terrible job of communicating plans and setbacks with the parents (the regular principle, Lee, who I am told in fairness is wonderful, was on maternity leave). We were told when we enrolled that construction would be completed by October but it went on and on until June. The grounds were a disaster all year and often unsafe for parents and children alike. More problematically, my daughter's casa teacher was abruptly fired on a Wednesday in October, with no explanation provided and no real opportunity to discuss it with my child before she showed up the next day to discover that her teacher was gone. Overall, we were very disappointed with the school and found it to be very poor value for money (they will nickle and dime you for before and after school care, even if you are just 5-10 minutes early). We moved her to Humberside Montessori this year and it has been superior in every way (at 2/3 the price!). We met some lovely families, but think carefully before chosing HPGMS.

some good , some bad.
nice parents...friendly group.
But, the principal is defensive when approached about difficult challenging situations, or just plain old ideas. The enrollement is dropping off. Parents are not satisfied. (this stems from different reasons for different families.) Very little extra curricular...all of that said, I could live with stuff like that, if the principal were not juvenile and defensive. The principal is the captain of the ship...and they need to steer it well. Not be so friendly with teachers. It is like a high school clique.

Small class sizes, good teachers - a good community with good academic program.

Prepares students. Very nurturing environment. Amazing staff. Wonderful Montessori Programme.