History

         Back in 1978 our visionary founders started out on the path to create Cedar River Montessori School. The founders were husband, wife and sister team of Narda and Bill Farrell and Melissa Baker. The choice of Montessori education was made by Narda who trained for this purpose after studying Dr. Maria Montessori’s book, The Absorbent Mind. Narda was driven to start the Cedar River Montessori School in order to create an alternative to the educational opportunities then available in the Renton, Washington area. She was convinced that those opportunities were limited to repetitive variations of traditional teacher-centered education. Like Dr. Montessori before her she concluded that these forms of education didn’t allow children to learn as well as they could if given the alternative. So after four years of preparation and hard work the school was founded on its present site. They chose this site because of its incredibly beautiful location and because it allowed for teaching in a home-like atmosphere. These qualities have been continuous since our founding.

    From 1981 until the Spring of 1987 the school was a proprietary business owned by the founders. Growth in school enrollment, combined with the ever growing demands of day-to-day business resulted in a change in the governance of the school. On June 2, 1987, the school was incorporated as a non-profit corporation under the governance of a Board of Directors. Day-to-day operations were under Narda Farrell who (among other things) was Head of School from 1981 until the end of the 1995-96 school year when she retired.

     Cedar River Montessori School has used the Montessori method as its educational basis ever since it was founded but it was never affiliated with any national organizations. Recently the school transitioned to an American Montessori Society (AMS) affiliate. This took place at the start of the 2002-2003 school year but had taken several years to accomplish due to the stringent requirements. By affiliating, the school had aligned itself with the professional  expectations of American’s top Montessori educational organization. It is your guarantee of  our commitment to the best in Montessori education.

                                                                                                                                         Back to top