Auction raises $2,700 for Montessori tuition at Buena Vista

       An open house/silent auction for the Montessori program at Buena Vista Elementary April 14 was a “huge success,” according to Principal Alan Rasmussen.
       About 80 people attended and all the donated items were sold, resulting in $2,700 being raised. That will be enough, he said, for a scholarship to cover the tuition costs for one student between the ages of 3 and 5 in the Montessori program. Tuition is necessary because School District 11 only pays full educational costs starting at age 6, Ras-mussen pointed out.
       Top priority for the scholarship, as well as for other tuition assistance that can be gathered, will go to “Buena Vista neighborhood kids,” he said. Registration for next school year shows about 30 percent of the students in the Montessori program coming from the Buena Vista attendance area, with the other 70 percent permitting in from other attendance areas or school districts, he said.
       Rasmussen said he believes the outside interest in Montessori is the main reason Buena Vista's enrollment has gone up this year - its first as the only public school offering Montessori in the region.
       According to statistics in the current issue of the Tiger Times, the Buena Vista newsletter, the school's enrollment in 2003 was 174, and this year it is 190. In 1992, the school's enrollment was 350. Since then, it had decreased every year until this year.

Westside Pioneer article