History

We believe that when families walk through the doors of Bridgeview Montessori School, they feel the many hands that have created the scaffolding that allows children to grow towards being authentic human being with confidence, integrity and grit and families to blossom into a community with shared responsibility, loyalty and trust. It is palpable.

Our school was founded by parents – parents who wanted an inspired Montessori education for their children. Jean Rice and Palmer True had witnessed the power of Maria Montessori’s pedagogy when their sons were in a Montessori Children’s House, but when the boys were ready for their elementary years; no option existed in our community. Thus in 1999, Bridgeview Montessori came to be.

In those early years, we grappled a bit with our identity like any growing being, but we never questioned our existence. We knew we were providing something essential for our community, a school where many different types of learners can feel inspired, be authentic, build confidence, have voice, learn peacefully side by side, actively listen, and appreciate quiet.

In 2007, our founder Palmer True encouraged us to become a not-for-profit organization. Originally when he and Jean started our school, they wanted to get us up and running as quickly as possible so we started as a small business. In 2007, however, Palmer recognized that for he and his late wife Jean to guarantee the longevity of their wonderful school and to ensure that we maintain their vision and mission, the school needed to be a non-profit independent school run by a board of trustees. After 8 months of hard work, our design team made up of parents, faculty, educators and community members created and filed our charter and all the needed documentation to gain us our 501(c)(3) status… An emblematic piece of our history as this very process speaks to the passion, dedication, wisdom, perseverance and good ol’ grit that we see each day in our classrooms, in our outdoor learning spaces, in our offices, and in our parking lot with our families and caregivers! Having first leased our building from Palmer, the board was soon able to secure the financing to purchase our building.

We continue to be a vibrant community of learners who strive to hold dear to our past but also look with bright eyes to the future.