Montessori Research
Scientific research has shown the benefits of the Montessori Method on children's long-term learning and future successes as children, teenagers and adults.
Keeping It All Straight
The Orcas Montessori School is a preschool serving children ages 2 & 1/2 to 6 years. We're located at ll47 North Beach Road. There is also a Montessori program in the Orcas Island Public School that serves children from grades 1-3. This public school program was founded by parents who were delighted with the education their children had received at our Orcas Montessori School and who wished to keep their children in a Montessori program as they transitioned to grade school. The public school program is sometimes known as OMPS or Public School Montessori.
Our Board Members
President
Arthur de Hann
Arthur has served on the OMS Board of Directors since January, 2016. He recently retired from a 25 year career with Microsoft. In his last role there, Arthur was a Corporate Vice President in the Windows Services Engineering team. Arthur is a now self-employed as a private business owner and property manager on Orcas Island where he lives with his wife and young children who attend the Orcas Montessori School.
Madie Murray
Madie has served on several Orcas Island boards since moving here in 2004 including the Education Foundation, Food Bank, Olga Strawberry Council and Food Co-op. She was also Coordinator of the Farm to Cafeteria Program from 2006-2016. In her words, “healthy food and kids matter.” In 1985, she started her own business providing professional development courses for teachers until it was sold in 2011. Madie enjoys doing graphics, web development, marketing and advertising for many entities here on the Island.
Treasurer
Jeanne Morris
Jeanne moved to Orcas Island nearly 30 years ago. Her son went to this Montessori school when he was 4-5 years old....25 years ago! She believes that the Montessori approach is excellent for young children to develop an awareness of themselves and others and a curiosity of the world around them. She believes in this process which facilitates self guided exploration and discovery.
Mary Anne Owen
Mary Anne comes from a family of educators. Her mother taught English for over 40 years, and her father taught history and civics at Roosevelt Hight School in Seattle. She credits her excellent liberal arts education at Whitman College for the ability to work in many new areas over the years, including teaching English and management consulting before training as a Psychotherapist. When she and her husband moved to Orcas Island, she returned to her childhood love of art, working with multi-media collage. She writes that “The fine education I received allowed me many opportunities, and my work on the Montessori board is my way of paying that good fortune forward to the children of the Orcas Montessori School.”
Alison Sanders
Robert Hall
Maggie Vinson
Secretary
Jeanne Morris
Jeanne moved to Orcas Island nearly 30 years ago. Her son went to Orcas Montessori when he was 4 years old....25 years ago! She believes that the Montessori approach is excellent for young children to develop an awareness of themselves and others and a curiosity of the world around them. She believes in this process which facilitates self guided exploration and discovery.
Kyle Carver
Kyle is a filmmaker and photographer living with his wife and daughter on Orcas Island. Growing up in Texas, he moved to the Northwest after graduating from the University of Texas in Austin. In 1995 he started Free Road Films, a NW based production company, with a focus on documentaries. He has directed work for The Gates Foundation, Swedish Hospital, Fred Hutch and Starbucks among many others.
Mary Anne Owen
Mary Anne’s first career was in education, teaching at a number of colleges and universities. During her second career as a management consultant, she led the support systems for attorneys in the Washington Public Power Supply System litigation. She then completed another master’s degree and clinical internship as a psychotherapist and organizational consultant and returned to teaching in an Antioch graduate program. She is delighted to now be involved in early education with OMS.
Elizabeth Guerry
Orcas Montessori receives 6% from all Amazon.com purchases!
We're big fans of shopping local, but if you can't find it on Orcas help out our school when you shop online. Sign into your Amazon account, then click the Amazon logo to shop. You must be signed into Amazon beforehand for the link to work! The link only lasts for 24 hours, so make sure you come back through our site each time you make purchases.
Ways To Help
Donating to Orcas Montessori is an easy way to help the school!
Each school year brings a new challenge for fund raising for our small school. We cannot do this alone. It is with the generous and heartfelt support of many friends and families that we have been able to provide scholarships, improve our energy efficiency and meet our operating expenses.
School Supplies
Coming soon...
Take a look at our catalog for specific items needed for our school and choose a part of our program you'd like your donation to support. Garden, art, lunches, Montessori materials, etc.
Orcas Montessori is a non-profit 501C3:
Tax ID #91-1490036