Guidepost Montessori re-opens for children of essential workers

While many schools are temporarily closing as communities mobilize around coronavirus response measures, Guidepost Montessori in the Chicago area is reopening this week with additional health and safety measures and significantly discounted tuition to ensure that local essential workers do not lose crucial child-care services during the crisis.

Guidepost Montessori's Emergency Care for Essential Workers program has the capacity to serve children from infant to 12 years old, with limited spots available for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, as well as elementary students.

Part of the heightened health and safety measures include much smaller peer groupings with no more than 8-9 children in one classroom, daily health screenings, and reorganized classroom layouts to provide more space for social distancing.

"We are honored to open our doors for the purpose of providing a safe, calm and engaging environment to children of essential workers in communities around the country," said Erin Hennigan, senior director of School Success. "This program is open to all families working in essential industries, regardless of previous enrollment within our network. Our educators are eager to serve and dedicated to providing continuity of care for families during an otherwise trying time."

Guidepost Montessori schools in the Chicago area are among 30-plus schools in the Guidepost Montessori network that have been rapidly reopening across the country to serve essential workers on a national scale. In Chicago, this program is available at Naperville, Wicker Park, West Loop and Magnificent Mile.

"To successfully address this global pandemic, we inescapably rely on certain critical workforces, and these essential workers in turn rely on accessible, reliable, and pedagogically exceptional child-care for their own children," said Ray Girn, CEO of Higher Ground Education and founder of Guidepost Montessori. "Our country is and will increasingly be challenged by an emerging crisis in child-care capacity. The gravity of this unique circumstance cannot be overstated, and a different solution is needed."

This program is open to all essential industries, which include but are not limited to public health and safety, food and agriculture, transportation and logistics, military services, manufacturing and distribution, engineering, public works and infrastructure, communications and information technology, and more.

To get started, whether at an existing campus or to propose a new location of need, email emergencycare@guidepostmontessori.com or visit our website at guidepostmontessori.com/programs/emergency-care.

Guidepost Montessori is the world's largest dedicated Montessori network comprised of nearly 50 schools that serve over 3,500 families from birth through middle school. Owned and operated by Higher Ground Education, Guidepost and Higher Ground are dedicated to bringing high-fidelity, next generation Montessori to the mainstream. The educators are trained in-house through an MACTE-accredited Montessori teacher-training institute, The Prepared Montessorian.

Founded in 2016 by an experienced team of educators and innovative entrepreneurs, Higher Ground functions as a hyper-scaling, tech-enabled school operator. In addition to running Guidepost Montessori and The Prepared Montessorian, Higher Ground also runs the Academy of Thought and Industry, a Montessori school network for grades 6-12. It has grown into a diverse team whose goal is to elevate the educational establishment with a suite of educational offerings, ensuring that teachers have the training and tools they need; schools have the infrastructure and resources they need; and that parents have the support and partnership they deserve. It is from this collaboration and inclusivity that we can elevate the establishment of education - and through it the children of the world - to a "higher ground."