Starved Rock Country Community Foundation partners with Trinity Rose Montessori School of Ottawa

The Starved Rock Country Community Foundation is helping to create the Trinity Rose Montessori School of Ottawa.

SRCCF will provide fiscal sponsorship for the school opening in fall 2025 under the guidance of the Association Montessori Internationale and Executive Director Suzannah R. Walter.

A Montessori teacher for 31 years, Walter is director of children’s services at Trinity Lutheran Church and is Ottawa High School’s drama director. Walter, who grew up on a five-generation farm in Grand Ridge, taught for more than 25 years at Near North Montessori in Chicago and Joliet Montessori School.

Also spearheading the endeavor is the school’s organizational team of Patricia Reed, Mike Pubenz and Kevin Evensen, along with Trinity Lutheran Pastor Philip Potaczek and instructor Casey McGrath.

Walter lauded SRCCF for making the school possible.

“I do not know how this would have happened without the foundation,” Walter said. “Once [SRCCF co-founder] Pamela Beckett spoke to our group, we were sold.”

The Ottawa school will begin with students ages 3 to 6 and hopes to eventually serve more than 20 at a time, Walter said. Students will learn mathematics, language, biology and the arts, among other subjects.

The Montessori movement was begun by Italian physician scientist Maria Montessori (1870-1952). Today, there are more than 66,000 Montessori schools worldwide serving students from 6 weeks old through high school.

For information about the Montessori School, email Walter at suziewalter71@gmail.com. For SRCCF information, contact Director of Operations Janice Corrigan at janice@srccf.org or 815-252-2906, ext. 2.