Montessori partnership with Public Schools of Petoskey likely reaching its end

PETOSKEY — An educational partnership lasting more than a quarter of a century may come to a close at the end of this school year.

Since 1997, the Petoskey Montessori Children’s House (PMCH) has partnered with the Public Schools of Petoskey, allowing the district to serve as the elementary guide’s employer and for the students at the school to be counted as Petoskey students and receive per pupil funding from the state.

Until the current school year, the agreement was to take the money from students’ enrollment and hold onto 20 percent of it. Then, the district would remove the cost for an annual audit fee and the costs to employ the guide — including things like salary, insurance and FICA taxes. The leftover balance would then be sent to the school for them to manage.

Nicky Byron, president of the PMCH board, said she would like to see the same agreement continue on, but with the school district instead retaining 5 percent of the funding instead. The Montessori is operating under this agreement for the 2023-24 school year.

More: Petoskey Montessori to mark 50th anniversary with fundraising celebration

The agreement, set to expire Aug. 31, will likely be the last one, Petoskey Superintendent Jeff Leslie said.

The agreement, signed by Bryon in October, Leslie said, will keep the agreement operating through the end of the school year, though the contract had language saying the current school year is “anticipated to be the final year of the contact."

Leslie said the decision to end the agreement came after a summer of negotiations with Montessori officials.

"We just got to the point we just couldn't get together in terms of the financial arrangements," Leslie said. "We just said 'Look, instead of taking the 20 percent like we traditionally have, we'll drop that down to 5 percent, and then this will be the last year of the agreement.' So that's what was signed."

Byron said while negotiating, the Montessori tried to work with the district to come up with solutions to have a fair partnership, including offering to retain a spot in their child care program for a new hire's child, should someone from the district need one.

During a series of meetings, Byron said various issues were brought up from the school district — including concerns about how the Montessori would handle the funding to curriculum — but no concerns that were directly related to the management fee, she said.

Leslie told the News-Review that the management fee helped pay for other things within the district and that reducing the fee could take away funding from other areas.

If the agreement ends, the Montessori will need to find another funding partner, which could be with a charter school from outside the area, in order to continue offering tuition-free Montessori teaching options. However, one of the main concerns with leaving the district would be the possibility that the Montessori would be unable to retain their current elementary guide, Russell Carpenter, who has worked in the school since 2000.

“He's beloved — he's absolutely phenomenal,” Byron said about Carpenter. “Honestly, it's a little offensive that it seems like ... there's not a whole lot of thought into what happens to Russell and what happens to these students. The whole thing has been very disappointing.”

Subscribe: Get unlimited access to our local coverage

Byron said she feels there has been a lack of transparency coming from Petoskey district officials regarding why the partnership is approaching its end.

"I think that everyone in this community realizes that diverse educational options are important," Byron said. "Children learn differently — some will thrive in Montessori, not everyone will. But we offer a trade program at the high school — we offer culinary, we offer home building. The Petoskey public schools board recognizes that diverse education options are important or they wouldn't continue to fund those programs. To me, I think that this is just continuing that concept."

The Public Schools of Petoskey Board of Education is set to discuss the partnership with the Petoskey Montessori Children’s House at 7 p.m. on Feb. 15 at the Spitler Administration Building.

— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Montessori school, Petoskey district likely to end partnership