---

OPEN LETTER TO THE SCHOOL BOARD

by Kelley Litzner, Vice President of the Arlington Montessori Action Committee

June 10, 2021

Members of the School Board and APS Community, my name is Kelley Litzner. I am a member of the Arlington Montessori Action Committee (AMAC), and I rise today in support of the School Board’s proposed plan to include a PreK-8 Montessori Public School of Arlington (MPSA) as part of the Capital Improvement Plan. I urge all members to vote in favor. 

I am the parent of three elementary school children, all of whom will attend MPSA this Fall. We, like the hundreds of families who currently attend MPSA and Arlington’s public Montessori satellites, are members of this community. We are your neighbors, friends, and fellow taxpayers, and all of us care deeply about the success of the entire APS school system. APS Montessori has successfully served early childcare needs in the community since 1971 – that’s 50 years and counting – and demand for this learning model continues to grow. 

While my AMAC colleagues and I have spoken with each of you individually and to the APS administration, I want to summarize five key points here for the record:

1. Montessori is a choice program that reserves two-thirds of the slots in each Montessori classroom for children whose parents' income is at or less than 80% of the median family income in Arlington. This ensures that our program draws from a wide pool of Arlington families and enhances diversity and equitable access for children throughout the County.
2. Despite common misperceptions, MPSA’s per-pupil cost ranks in the below the median for the 24 elementary programs in Arlington based on 2019-2020 school year data, making each additional seat a cost-efficient option for the County. 
3. MPSA and public Montessori Satellites generate over $1.14 million in PreK tuition each year, which goes into the overall APS account and directly benefits all schools. It’s important to add that this money is not used to offset MPSA or Satellite costs-per-pupil. If it were, the cost-per-pupil would be even lower. 
4. Centralizing Montessori learning by combining the Gunston grade 6-8 program with the current MPSA frees up seats at a neighborhood school while creating cost savings through rehab and expansion of the Arlington Career Center Campus without the need for an entirely new building. This also provides the County and neighborhood schools and communicates with flexibility in determining which classrooms remain in satellite locations and which can be absorbed into a consolidated MPSA. 
5. The Montessori learning model necessitates one instructor and one assistant per classroom. This construct yields the ability for MPSA classrooms to absorb additional students in the face of the APS seat capacity crunch, functioning like a “thermostat” that APS can use to dial up or down in order to help alleviate neighborhood school seating issues and balance resources across the County.
   

While MPSA is centrally located for PreK-5th Grade students, the existing APS Montessori programs are dispersed throughout the county. The CIP does not create a new program but rather unifies some of these existing programs into a centralized location. There are cost benefits and revenue-generation benefits to doing so, not least given MPSA’s cost-per-pupil and other pedagogical efficiencies that may be gained by slight increases in class size and the fact that Montessori classroom materials are less technologically-based than standard school materials and last for years without the need for a yearly refresh.

Additionally, the existence of a unified Montessori program is critical to earning Montessori certification for the APS program because the 6th grade must be included in the upper-elementary cycle with 4th and 5th grade for full credentialing. This certification represents a public obligation on the part of APS, since the County’s Montessori classrooms trade on the premise of a fully-certified pedagogy and program when advertising this option school to prospective Arlington families. This certification also acts as a galvanizing feature for the APS Montessori community, including future families, who will see the unified MPSA as beacon for Montessori learning and student development. Certification also greatly enhances APS’s ability to recruit and retain a qualified staff of Montessori educators and assistants. 

In closing, it is worth noting that APS already has all of the Montessori elements that I’ve discussed. They are simply dispersed amongst several schools for ad hoc reasons. This CIP represents a prime opportunity for APS to capitalize on the decades-long success of these Montessori programs, gaining long-term cost savings by using a unified PreK-8 MPSA to help address larger system-wide challenges. This plan will open more opportunities for underserved APS families and free up neighborhood seats using a centrally located, existing APS facility. Simply put: this plan is the right thing to do for APS Montessori students and teachers as well as the broader Arlington Public School community. It will be successful on Day One, and it will pay back dividends in cost savings and revenue generated every year afterward. 

Thank you for your time and consideration

February 6, 2021 Letter to the School Board