10 - Morrisville and Preston Progress, Thursday, March 27,1997
Sterling
preparing
for new year
By Mary Bath Phillips
Staling Montessori School, one
of the first charter schools in North
Carolina, will be accepting applica
tions on April 1 and April 15 for
the 125 slots that will be available
this fall.
Since the ^proval on March 13,
Andrea UzzeU, director, has hit the
ground running to obtain a grant for
busing, hire additional teachers,
and oversee completion of the
school playground, among other
tasks.
She is also looking into obtaining
a loan to expand the program in the
future, especially at the kindergar
ten level.
The first round of student ap
plications was accepted on Satur
day, March 15, two days after the
charter was announced. Ms. Uzzell
will request from state officials that
the applications be approved on a
first come, first serve basis instead
of in a lottery as the state requires.
The lottery would be held in sub
sequent years.
Ms. Uzzell will meet with state
officials on March 26 to resolve
that and other minor issues about
the charter.
"We are most concerned about
having our own students be able to
continue in the program," she said.
"We’re going to do our best to
work with the state, to do every
thing that they require, but not give
up what we’re doing."
She hopes that the state will allow
"first refusal" to the four-year-olds
already in the program for the kin
dergarten spaces. "All of the public
Montessori schools in the country
do that,” she said.
Sterling Montessori was selected
from a list of 65 applicants by the
Stale Board of Education in early
February, Thirty-five schools made
the first cut. All 35 were approved
on March 13. They are Ae first
charter schools in North Carolina.
The charter status allows children
to apply and attend the private
school as though it were a public
school. The state will pay M,200
per child per year.
Mrs, Uzzell said she initially ap
plied for the charter in order to
make the school available to all
children.
"We wanted it to be available to
anyone who would want to come,
regardless of financial availability,"
she said. "Since we had this op
portunity, and it went along with
the foundation that we had set up a
few years ago to do scholarships, it
fit right in with our philosophy."
Some of the preschool children
have left the Montessori program to
go to public school because of the
cost of continuing, she said.
The two large, new buildings near
Treybrooke Apartments opened
February 3 and March 3. About 63
students moved into the first build
ing in February and the other 151
moved from tlie Cary Montessori
school in March.
Ms. Uzzell said she would have
been doing many of the jobs she is
doing whether the charter was ap
proved or not.
"The busing grant is about the
only thing I wouldn’t have been
doing,” she said.
She is in need of three teachers,
who will have to be both state
certified and Montessori trained to
qualify for the charter.
"I have several state certified
teachers already," she said. "It
won’t be like starting from
scratch." She also must hire several
assistant teachers.
"We would have been a success
ful school without the charter,” she
said. "I think the most that this is
going to change the school is it will
require more paperwoik for me,"
she said.
Under the Montessori program,
students work individually at their
own level with support from
teachers, and grade levels are not as
firm as in a traditional public
school. Often students of several
ages are grouped together.
Ms. Uzzell hopes to add 37 more
kindergarten spaces in the future.
Under the charier, there will be
30 kindergarten spaces available
this fall, 30 first grade spaces, and
then the number will taper off for
older elementary children.
"The bank is asking us if we want
to borrow more money to continue
building," she said. There arc cur
rently two large buildings on the
campus.
Ms. Uzzell is considering build
ing another classroom building to
house additional students.
Eventually, she hopes to build a
cafeteria and gymnasium.
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