We've had a really great experience with Spokane Valley Montessori…read more Before enrolling, we saw the older Yelp reviews and had the same concerns any parent would. It's worth calling out clearly that this is not the same school or leadership. The school closed and reopened under completely new ownership and administration. Our experience reflects the current team, not what's described in those older reviews. We have two kids enrolled. One started just after turning 2 and is now 3.5, and the other started just before 5 and is now 5.5. Both of them genuinely love going to school. There are plenty of days where pickup turns into a negotiation because they don't want to leave. The teachers are engaged and do a good job tailoring learning to each kid. Our older child is on track to be very well prepared for kindergarten, and our younger one is developing quickly across the board. From a safety and communication standpoint, we've had 0 concerns. Staff is attentive, administration is responsive, and we've never had any issues with how the school is run day to day. The community is also a plus. Good group of kids, normal and engaged parents, and an overall positive environment. Bottom line, if you're reading older reviews, just make sure you understand they reflect a different version of this school. Based on our experience with the current team, we would absolutely recommend it.

My daughter attended SVM for nearly nine months, and until recently, I genuinely loved our…read moreexperience there. Unfortunately, today's interaction completely changed my opinion. The school notified parents that it would be closing early due to the smoke and that all children needed to be picked up by 12:00 p.m. I had a work meeting from 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. that I could not miss. I immediately contacted the school, explained my situation, and let them know I was actively trying to find someone to pick up my daughter. I have no family in town and a very limited support system. Instead of being met with understanding, I was told by Alexa that if I wasn't there by 12:00 p.m., no one would be there to watch my daughter and it would be considered child abandonment. I have attached the messages so others can read the conversation for themselves. I completely understand that emergency closures are difficult for everyone, and I respect that staff have obligations too. What I cannot understand is threatening a parent who is communicating, being transparent, and actively working to solve the problem.

This is Literally the best school ever. They have a great friendly engaging staff and they are…read morealways therefor you. My daughter has attended here for 8 years and she has never been better.

Due to covid, I was unable to observe classes or visit. I had to trust the staff, blindly. My one…read moreyear old cried at every drop off and pick up and we couldn't figure out why he hated it so much. After a month of attendance, we realized that they weren't feeding our son the bottles we provided. They were literally starving him after accepting the bottles we handed to the staff at every drop off, only a month later telling us that they can't make bottles from scratch, even though at start, we were told an exception would be made for my son as he wasn't on solid foods yet. They ignored my sons basic needs, pure negligence and poor judgment!

This is a review of an actual experience at Montessori Central as a parent whose children attended…read morethe school over the course of four years. Montessori Central is a welcoming, nurturing place for all children. Young children learn about the world through hands-on, stimulating, colorful lessons they choose for themselves. I was repeatedly amazed at the things my children learned at such a tender age. One night before bed, when my oldest was four, I said, "I love you to the moon." My child, in a squeaky, little voice, replied, "I love you to the Democratic Republic of The Congo. That's very far!" Then she told me she loved me to the Crab Nebula. :) To this day, that's what we tell each other at bedtime, and she's 17. In terms of the love the owner has for children, I never saw anything to suggest that she or the other staff would single kids out based on ethnicity or nationality. The school does not "use" minority or immigrant children to teach American-born white kids about their culture. These kids are ages three to six. They are just learning to use the potty and eat lunch together. One of my daughters had a first best buddy who spoke no English when she started at Montessori Central. They played together and communicated through that play and through their laughter. Her mom and I became friendly and visited each other's homes while the girls played. We recently ran into that girl at a high school chess tournament; it was so sweet to see how both girls have grown. I will always be glad my kids attended Montessori Central. It is a fine place to give children a rich, warm, welcoming first experience at school. I would hope most people would take a one-star review based on quick judgement with a grain of salt. It was disheartening to stumble upon today while searching for something on Yelp, so I wanted to balance it with input from someone who actually experienced the school for more than 30 minutes.

This review is for a preschool interview process. We didn't end up choosing this place for our…read morechild, but we did a tour, etc. so I thought I'd review that process and get the info about the school more easily accessible. Also, I wanted to make it public that the person we interviewed with implied that she was happy to be serving more wealthy, white children, instead of the poor, brown children which she used to work with in her past. That was a major turn-off in our book. Granted this preschool is located in a more wealthy area of Spokane, and maybe she was trying to sell us on that, like "Oh, hey, it is fancy here" but it was just really off-putting. But, I hesitated to put it in the review, because maybe it was just an offhand misunderstood comment. I think we all say things sometimes that are misunderstood, but then I checked out their website.... and they have this nonsense... "We like to have children of minority races enrolled so that the children can learn about all people and how to exist together happily." So that, to me, was implying that "the children" are white kids, and it is just SO condescending. And that also implies that the "minority race" kids will be singled out to be teaching the other kids about their race. Just kind of weird to me. Anyways, save your time parents, and if you care about enrolling in a truly inclusive preschool I think not. Also this place was majorly expensive! Sept-June half day program was $4200, all day program $7600.