Racine Montessori School (Wisconsin)

Racine Montessori School is a private located at 2317 Howe Street in Racine, Wisconsin, on the northeast corner of Howe Street and 24th Street. It is located just inside the city limits of Racine, and is surrounded by the village of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin on the northwest, west, and south. The school opened in 1963 inside the DeKoven Center, and moved to its current location in the former Lakeside School in 1996.

History
The Racine Montessori Society, an organization promoting Montessori education in Racine, was founded in May 1963, holding meetings at Dominican College to organize the city's first Montessori school. The DeKoven Foundation donated classroom space in the DeKoven Center to the school, which opened in late September 1963 with 33 students. The school's first teacher, Ena Lynch, was trained by Dr. Maria Montessori herself, and had had 20 years of experience teaching with the Montessori method in England.

Rose Hartman, a former teaching assistant at the Racine Montessori School, founded Rosehart Montessori School in nearby Caledonia in 1965.

The school expanded significantly in fall 1968 to make use of seven classrooms at the DeKoven Center. That year, the school added third grade classes and enrolled over 100 students.

In 1996, Heartland Properties began planning to develop apartment housing in the DeKoven Center complex, forcing Racine Montessori School to leave the complex and find a new location. The school agreed to purchase the former Lakeside School building from, which had been using the building as office space since 1979.

As of 2005, tuition at the school was $4,800 per year. In September 2005, the school added classes for seventh and eighth grade students.