Mountain West Montessori

Unfortunately this school was not for us. For what they charge I would have expected a much better experience. They present themselves as an environment of freedom and creativity, but they are strict and mean in the classrooms. We trusted them with our three children who all left the school quite compromised emotionally and academically. I do not recommend this school mostly because if you have a problem and you try to address it with the staff and administration, they will do nothing to help resolve it and when your kids won't stop crying about how much they hate the environment and you stop going, they will charge you anyway, even though they did not hold up their end of the agreement to be an attentive truth filled school at all, or try to repair anything when you are overwhelmed and quit. Very disappointed that places like this that lack integrity but sell you a dream are out there.

I moved to El Paso eight months ago and my toddler had been dealing with a lot of adjustments like being away from family and his usual environments. My son has never been in school but he's been doing great with child care at gyms and at church so I figured let's try getting him into school. I tried Mountain West Montessori, hoping this would be a better option than taking him to a typical day care. The staff was great up until it was time for the child's visit. When my partner and I arrived for the visit with our son, we didn't get a warm welcome. A guide came to grab my son to take him to the classroom but my son wasn't comfortable with leaving with a stranger especially in a place that's unfamiliar to him. I was able to walk him back to the classroom but when I walked back I noticed there was a lot going on in the classroom, seemed very busy. I was told the ratio is 2 guides per 24 kids in the children's house (3-6yr) classroom which is what the ratio is for a typical day care. I thought Montessori schools were supposed to have less students in a classroom so a child could get more one on one attention from his teacher but I was mistaken. Anyway, I waited in the front office during the visit and twenty minutes went by and a different teacher came back with my son and a lady in the front office just told us someone would call us later that day and that we could leave. It was just a very odd experience. I have 4 years of experience working at a daycare and never was a child taken away from the parents during a visit. I never received a call so I had to call them to ask what was going on? The next day they sent me an email saying my son was denied. I don't understand how a school can make a proper judgement if a toddler is "fit" for their school based off 20 minutes especially when a toddler is an entirely new environment. I'm not happy with this school and in the end I'm grateful I went through this experience because I wouldn't want my son to be a part of a school who manages things in this way.