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Dr. Sherry O’Donnell, Administrator
Montessori Schools of Central Texas 1302 S. 27th Street, Temple | 254-771-1116 5610 E. Centex Expy, Suite 2, Killeen | 254-680-7500 centraltexasmontessori.com
Dr. Sherry O’Donnell has spent her entire professional career ensuring children reach their potential. With 31 years of classroom teaching experience, Sherry also taught Sunday school, which put her on her current journey positively affecting the lives of children. “A young girl came to me when I was teaching at the church and told me I should be a teacher,” Sherry said. In 1982, Sherry set up a preschool in her converted garage in McGregor. But the school did not progress as she hoped. “The children were all uniquely different, as all children are,” Sherry said. She then discovered the Montessori approach that allows students to work at their own pace and the teacher to introduce new activities and materials unique to each child. Sherry attended training in the Montessori-style teaching method and did an internship in a Waco Montessori school. She was encouraged to become certified through the Association of Montessori International. She prayed about it and learned the certification was available in New Braunfels. “I could not believe how close (the schooling) was. God had made it available to me,” Sherry said. After seven years, she closed her preschool in McGregor and moved to Temple, hoping to start a Montessori school. “We kept driving around looking, and we finally found the building through prayer. It was a stately building from the 1800s and had a sign that it was for lease,” Sherry said. She opened the school in Temple in 1989 with God once again showing her the way. After 13 years of teaching and overseeing school operations,
Sherry decided to retire and turned the Temple school over to her daughter. But she still showed up the first day of school ready to go to work. “My daughter told me that I did not work there anymore and that I had turned the school over to her. But I could not bear to let everything go. So, I opened up the Killeen school in 2004,” she said. Montessori Schools of Central Texas, with campuses in Temple and Killeen, is a family business. Sherry is the administrator of the Killeen campus. Her husband, Dr. Jerry O’Donnell, is the administrator of the Temple campus. Her son handles maintenance work for both sites and also teaches sports on both campuses. Her daughter is a former director at the school. Sherry, 70, earned her education degree at Baylor University as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate degree. She is also certified by the American Montessori Society. Even as an administrator, she cannot stay out of the classroom and still teaches on both campuses.
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I’ve really put my heart into it.
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Dr. Sherry O’Donnell
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