Case Study Rogers Park Montessori School Chicago
Rogers Park Montessori School has grown with the Chicago community for over 40 years. Starting initially as a storefront preschool and day care for 3 and 4 year olds, it expanded to toddler care and eventually early elementary school and middle school grades. Rogers Park Montessori School was having difficulty keeping children in the school system, as parents were continually thinking their children would need to transition to different schools for Junior High anyway. RPMS wanted to expand to 8th grade to provide a continuous learning path, rather than one broken by moves to and from various schools. Early use of church facilities was cost effective but posed problems. The churches were often short on cash and should a boiler break, the church often did not have money to repair the boiler. RPMS would have to pay to fix the boiler then deduct the cost from their rent. Their goal for a new facility was to have spaces which encouraged casual interaction. Dedicated parents 74 │ KIPP Facility Guide for Early Childhood and Elementary Schools
were known to hang around the school and talk with teachers at pick up and drop off. The new space would encourage this to continue by providing a play pit at the entry for younger siblings to be entertained. In Chicago, the school could not reside in a commercial building due to zoning laws, and often found themselves competing for residentiallyzoned land against for-profit residential developers who could afford to pay more for property in the economic boom of the 90’s and early 2000’s.