Middle School Program

     Island Village Middle School offers a technology-driven curriculum for middle school students that shares our 8-acre campus in Venice. Island Village Middle School is designed as a feeder school for our elementary programs (a new elementary school is also open in North Sarasota County), but will accept new students as space becomes available.

     Enrollment will top off at 88 students in the 2007-2008 year, which will meet the class size amendment ratio of 22 students per classroom. In addition, there will be specialists to provide planning time for head teachers as well as give opportunities for students to learn art, music, Latin, library science, modern foreign language, dance, and more.

     For core subject areas, students will work on a computer-based curriculum, which is aligned with the Sunshine State Standards for middle school but allows flexibility and individualized pacing that is consistent with our Montessori philosophy. In the first year, IV Middle School spent over $50,000 on computer hardware and approximately $20,000 on software. We have budgeted additional money for hardware and software to complete four classrooms by the third year.

     In addition to core subjects being offered using this multi-sensory approach of computer technology and hands on materials, Island Village Middle School students will have opportunities to design and manage websites, learn important skills such as using spread sheets, managing databases, experimenting with simple CAD type software, and learning to work with video and photo editing software.

     Our staff will also be trained to use Montessori lessons that are appropriate for the upper elementary/middle school level in order to provide important hands-on practice. We have budgeted for Montessori equipment as well as middle school appropriate literature to add to our library over the next two years.

     Middle School students make use of nearby county parks, located one mile from our campus to participate in soccer, basketball, and other sports. Students also attend health education classes to learn the importance of good nutrition and sleep habits, and daily exercise.

     Our students will graduate from the middle school program fit, doing well on the FCAT and ready for the 21st century work force.

     Dr. Paul Czaja joined our staff as Curriculum Director for the Middle School program. Dr. Czaja was on the founding faculty of the Whitby School, The American Montessori Center, in Connecticut. He worked closely with Nancy Rambusch, founder of the American Montessori Society, who was founding director of the school. After 8 years as a Latin and Language Arts educator, Dr. Czaja became administrator of the school for another 10 years.

     Dr. Czaja also had the great fortune to have worked with Dr. Montessori’s American protégé, Helen Parkhurst, who developed the first contract system for secondary programs in the United States that followed the principles of Dr. Montessori’s philosophy of education. Ms. Parkhurst wrote a book on her work, entitled the Dalton Plan, which is currently referenced in textbooks on curriculum.

     We are honored to have someone of Dr. Czaja’s caliber on our staff as we continue to blend our emphasis on technology and the Internet with the principles of choice, personal responsibility, and academic excellence. We believe that our middle school program will soon become an example for the nation of how Montessori principles can work in a modern secondary program.

     We look forward to having your child participate and benefit from such a program.