Strategic Plan 2024-2029

Mission (Revised February 2024)

Monarch Montessori offers all families who seek it a vibrant, diverse learning community where children of all backgrounds thrive through a high-quality Montessori education, optional bilingual programming, and immersive outdoor experiences.

Vision (Revised February 2024)

Monarch Montessori offers an engaging Montessori experience to families in an inclusive and thriving community that fosters whole-child development including linguistic, cultural and outdoor experiences, academic excellence, and a peaceful environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

See the Complete Plan Here!

Our Montessori Values (Revised February 2024)

A prepared student – 

  • Love of learning
  • Self-discipline
  • Intrinsic motivation
  • Language development
  • Academic excellence in all domains

A prepared environment – 

  • Beauty and peace
  • Outdoor opportunities
  • Mixed age groupings
  • Holistic
  • Child centered education

A prepared guide – 

  • Montessori trained leads
  • Culturally responsive teaching
  • Professional growth
  • Teacher leadership

Executive Summary

Founded in 2010 by passionate Montessorians and educators, Monarch Montessori (Monarch) offers a unique dual-school experience under one roof, to deliver a high-quality Montessori education to all families who seek it:

  • First Steps at Monarch Montessori: First Steps at Monarch Montessori is a private, tuition-based program for infants through PreK4, serving approximately 150 students ages 6 weeks to 5 years old. 
  • Monarch Montessori of Denver Elementary: This free public charter Montessori school through Denver Public Schools, serves approximately 260  students in kindergarten through 5th grade.

Building on the success of its dual-language and outdoor education programs, which have become pillars of its mission, Monarch’s Governing Board of Directors (BOD) embarked on a strategic planning process in August 2023. This plan outlines the school’s direction for the next five years, from 2024 to 2029.

During the planning process, the BOD affirmed Monarch’s four strategic priority areas that are essential for the school to establish goals, monitor progress, and ensure accountability against: 1.) Academic Excellence; 2.) Peaceful Environment for the Whole Child; 3.) Talent; and 4.) Sustainability. The performance scorecard (pg 5) and 5-year strategy (pg 8) are both organized within these four priorities. Over the next five years Monarch will focus considerable efforts in each of these areas, to achieve a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) to:

Position Monarch Montessori to expand to middle school beginning in the 2028-2029 school year. 

This BHAG builds on Monarch’s mission, ensuring a strong ECE through middle school feeder system for Montessori and Dual Language education for the community. The following summarizes the key strategic goals and initiatives, sequentially, over the next five years:

  • Laying the Foundation (2024-2026):
  • Maintain our Green rating on the SPF by upholding academic excellence and continuous improvement.
  • Renovate the current building with thoughtful design to expand First Steps and Elementary, in anticipation of accommodating a middle school program by 2028-2029 and in anticipation of increasing affordability and accessibility of First Steps. 
  • Develop a high level vision for a potential middle school and determine location.
  • Prepare and launch recruitment, training and retention strategies to attract and retain an exceptional teacher and leadership pipeline for First Steps and Elementary.
  • Building the Bridge (2025-2027):
  • Increase affordability and sustainability of First Steps to preserve diversity and improve integration with the elementary school.
  • Develop a comprehensive action plan for the middle school model, including curriculum, staffing, budget, and facilities.
  • Gather community input and secure necessary funding through grants, fundraising, and strategic partnerships.
  • Extend recruitment, training and retention strategies to attract and retain an exceptional middle school teacher and leadership pipeline. 
  • Elevate student voice to foster greater student agency, autonomy and leadership. 
  • Engage Upper Elementary students in the design of the future middle school.
  • Opening the Doors (2028-2029):
  • Inaugurate the first cohort of middle school students while celebrating this milestone expansion.
  • Implement the rigorous Montessori curriculum with a focus on social-emotional learning and personalized learning pathways.
  • Maintain First Steps diversity and affordability to ensure it better serves the Montbello community.

These strategic goals and initiatives not only support Monarch Montessori in achieving its BHAG of expanding to a middle school by 2029, but also supports Monarch in meeting its mission to provide a high-quality Montessori education to all families that seek it. Pages 8 through 10 outline the full plan, from which Monarch and the BOD will develop action items for the upcoming year and beyond.