Montessori World of Discovery Needs Your Help to Thrive

Montessori World of Discovery is a private Montessori School and Daycare Program located in Buffalo Grove IL. We accept children ages 6 weeks to 10 years old both full-time and part-time year-round including summer camp. The school was first established in Long Grove, IL in 1990 by the original owners and is now celebrating its 34th year in the community. The current owners purchased the school from the original owners in 2016 after working for the school for 26 years as a long-term full-time employee. The school is both female and minority-owned. We have experienced many changes since owning the school. The Pandemic really took us for a loop and we had to close the school for 3 months due to mandatory school closures by the Governor of Illinois in 2020. We lost many students and staff during this very difficult time. Many parents were afraid to send their kids back to school and long-term staff were not able to return to work due to health and safety concerns. We had to close our second location in Buffalo Grove in March 2020 which housed our elementary after-school students and move the remaining ones to our main location. We were never able to re-open that location but got stuck with a lease and utilities fees for over 3.5 years even though the building sat empty with no revenue coming in. They were never able to find us another tenant to take over our remaining lease and the building still sits empty to this day. As you can imagine we lost a lot of revenue which we are still trying to recover from to this day. Our building rent, property taxes, supply and food costs, building maintenance and repairs, utilities, insurance, and staffing costs continue to rise greatly each year and it is getting increasingly hard for our school to keep up with these rising costs to operate a school.

We are currently still waiting for the remainder of our last government pandemic funding to come through now for the last 15 months, and the State of Illinois is no longer helping small private schools with less than 15% of their student population receiving government aid or DHS Payments. We are also located in school districts that offer only full-day kindergarten Options and Early Childhood Preschool Programs at reduced monthly costs, this has hurt the Daycare and Private School Industry greatly in our area and nationwide. We are also servicing many special needs students since the pandemic who require many additional services and care. We service a very diverse school population of students in our direct area and we still have a lot of parents who are working at home or remotely, on short-term work contracts, and other family members living in the home who are helping care for the children instead of sending them to school or needing after school care programs. Our school has suffered greatly in the last several years due to the above circumstances. We are trying to raise money for our school to remain open and in the same location, we have occupied in Buffalo Grove for the last 20 years and provide funds to do the necessary repairs and updates to our school building. These funds will also help us with inventory, supplies, rent, and utilities. Thank you for considering our school for this fundraiser that would benefit our staff and students on a daily basis and for many years to come.

The Montessori Philosophy of Education is one of respect for others and the environment. We offer an individualized program of learning so that each child learns at his or her own pace. We encourage cooperation instead of competition. We endeavor to be partners with students and their families in the education and care of all children of all ethnic backgrounds and individual needs. Please share our story with everyone or anyone who values education and the future of current and future generations to come.