Thevenet Montessori School expands

By Daniel Stimpfle
HIGHLAND MILLS — The Thevenet Montessori School in Highland Mills is looking to expand after the school received property two years ago from a religious retreat center.
The latest addition is the school's fourth grade classroom, which has been converted from a chapel dating back to 1911 and is the latest in a series of expansions the school administration has planned.
Associate School Director Mary Sopranos said that the school, located on County Route 105 in Highland Mills, is going through development “one year at a time,” meaning that the school will be building planned additions according to the number of students who are enrolled each year.

Next year the school will offer it’s first fifth-grade class and, if student enrollment grows, then the school will go ahead on approved plans to build a separate classroom for fifth and sixth grade classes on the second floor.
In addition to classroom space, school administrators are hoping to clear an open space on the property which would become an outdoor classroom where teachers will be able to create activities and classes to support student imagination and teach them how to take care of the natural environment.
The Montessori school itself is run by members of the Religious Jesus and Mary, an international congregation of Catholic Nuns. At the Montessori school, the members of the congregation seek to run a school that will provide an alternative from most schools which often work with large classrooms and standard curriculums.
Fourth grade teacher Samantha Avenengo explained that the Montessori School operates differently.
Montessori schools seek to give children the freedom to explore their individual interests. The classroom features different stations where the children can work on their own research projects and activities.
Avenenengo described it as a “moveable classroom," each classroom is designed to allow students to explore different stations where they are allowed to work freely on different topics from geography, social studies, math and even more specialized courses.
The school also has computer stations where the children can learn how to code on scratch.org, a free computer coding website and gain experience working with programs such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word.
Carin Nardone, a parent who has three children enrolled in the school, said that she and her children like the school. Nardone said after placing her oldest child through public school she sees a difference.
Nardone sees that her children who go to the Montessori school enjoy what they are learning more and go further because they are allowed to. Nardone said she believes that this has a lot to do with the non-pressure environment, where children are not subjected to standardized tests. Instead, her children are placed in smaller classrooms allowing for more attention from teachers to work more closely with the students as they work on their own projects.
“The reward is an inner reward, it’s the satisfaction of a job well-done,” she said. "It's not about needing a stamp of approval."