History

The History of Cathedral Hill Montessori School

Cathedral Hill Montessori School opened its doors in 2011 in the historic Cathedral Hill neighborhood of St. Paul. The founders, Whitney and Andrew Blessing, worked to restore a Victorian mansion and former boarding school on the property to a bed and breakfast and Cathedral Hill Montessori School. The school opened with two classrooms, a Toddler Community and a Children’s House, and has grown to include a second Children’s House.

Beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, CHMS widened the scope of its mission to include concerted efforts toward increased accessibility, diversity, inclusivity, equity, and belonging. This is an evolving set of goals that will continue to transform the nature of our community and operations over time. We started with the establishment of our 4-Star Parent Aware rating, which allows us to accept County Child Care Assistance and state scholarships through Think Small. We increased professional development efforts to prepare our staff with Anti-Racist/Anti-Bias education, trauma-informed care, and understanding learning differences and how to support them. We formed an Equity and Inclusion group as a standing committee of the staff, and began a partnership with an equity consultancy in the 2020-2021 school year. Continuing that work, our next efforts will revolve around further inclusion of families in equity work and additional community outreach.

Cathedral Hill Montessori School is a nonprofit organization with 501c(3) status. If you would like more information on how to volunteer or contribute toward our effort to bring high quality Montessori early childhood education to the community, please contact us at 651-222-1555, email us at info@chmschool.org, or click here to learn about other ways to give or participate.