Parents, teachers press Kingston board to preserve George Washington Montessori as district rolls out CKLA

Parents, teachers and school leaders pressed the Kingston City School District Board of Education on Monday over the future of the Montessori program at George Washington Elementary and the district’s plan to implement the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) curriculum across elementary schools.

A petition circulated by George Washington families and submitted to the district “in five days” gathered widespread signatories, parents said. “We have 217 community members who stepped up in 5 days to say how much they agree,” said a parent representative. Organizers later described the petition as having “more than 200 signatures, including 88 current parents,” and asked the board to adopt a dual-track model that would allow Montessori teachers to continue using Montessori-aligned reading curriculum while CKLA is implemented elsewhere.

The petition and public comments followed a district announcement that CKLA would be implemented at George Washington. At the meeting, several parents and former/current staff said they had not been given clear information about whether Montessori-trained teachers would be permitted to keep using Montessori reading materials next year and asked for clearer communication and transparency from the district.

“Parents and guardians are not merely stakeholders,” said Yanna Fisher, a George Washington DLT representative and parent, arguing that the district…