Cincinnati Public Schools is adding a new school in the fall. On Thursday's Cincinnati Edition, district Superintendent Shauna Murphy announced that many of the students and staff from the former Xavier Montessori Lab School will move into the Bramble Nature Campus building in Madisonville and join Cincinnati Public Schools.
The Montessori Lab School at CPS was approved by the Board of Education Monday. It will become a magnet school for students in Pre-K through the 8th grade from around the city.
CPS acquired the former Bramble Elementary School building in 2023 to open a neighborhood preschool and increase enrollment in the area. State data shows that in its first year, 30 students attended Bramble.
From the archives: CPS to open a new preschool in Madisonville this fall
Xavier University announced in December that its Montessori Lab School would close following the end of the school year and transition into the non-Montessori Xavier University Lab School for the 2025-2026 school year.
Xavier says the new Pre K through 6th grade school aligns better with its programs in the School of Education. The university says the school will utilize the latest research on learning, the brain, and human development to teach students.
The Xavier University Lab School is reserving 50% of its seats for the children of Xavier employees and students. Employees, students, and Xavier alumni who enroll their students in the new school will get a 10% discount on tuition.
Some Montessori educators leaving their jobs at Xavier University are expected to be hired for the new CPS school. Murphy says when she met with families from the school, hiring the right staff was a top priority.
"We've had several conversations about how we can make this work, and last night we began the hiring process for many of their staff members," she said.
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Murphy sees the acquisition of the school as a positive step for the district as it will help the district meet the demands of families in the community who want more Montessori education options. The superintendent says the lab school will also serve as a training ground for Montessori educators within the district and may assist in the development of a new Montessori high school centrally located in Cincinnati.
"Right now we have Montessori high school on the east side of town in Clark Montessori and on the west side of town in Gamble Montessori," Murphy said. "And the vision is that we would build out a central corridor Montessori structure that would be Pre-K through the 12th grade."
The new Montessori Lab School is set to open on the first day of school for CPS in the fall of 2025. So far, the school district says 75 students have already registered.
