- December 15, 2025
An application for a new charter school in Flagler County, to open for the 2013-2014 school year, is currently in the works, according to Crystal Colletti, president of the Coquina Montessori Foundation Inc.
“We are currently in the process of putting our application together for the state and the school district,” Colletti said, of the Montessori Public Charter School, which is projected to accommodate 75 student its first year. By the second year, the goal is to increase to 300 students.
The school’s deadline for application submittal is Aug. 1.
The school plans to begin with grades 1 to 3, then incorporate grades 4 to 6 in its sophomore year, following the three-year age cycle of Montessori schools. Two classrooms of 30 to 35 students per teacher, and one teaching assistant, are also expected.
“This class size is possible because the children learn from each other and stay with the same teacher for all three years,” Colletti said. “This class size helps to create much independent work and peer teaching and eliminates the possibility of too much teacher-centered, teacher-directed work.”
Montessori is an educational system that encourages learning based on a student’s natural interests and development, allowing for more individualized study geared toward each specific student.
Despite its learning model, Montessori students are held to the same academic standards of any public school, Colletti added. And there are already two privately owned Montessori schools in Flagler County: Montessori School of Palm Coast (for 18-month-olds to 6-year-olds) and Flagler Beach Montessori (for students up to 9 years old).
There are more than 20,000 schools using Montessori techniques throughout the world and, in Florida, there are more than 20 Montessori charters.
Within their first five years of operation, Colletti added, most Montessori schools reach full elementary school enrollment.
As far as facility location, Colletti has her eye on filling one of Flagler’s empty storefronts.
“With such an abundance of vacancies here in Flagler County, we are confident that we will be able to secure a location that is suitable for our needs once our charter is approved,” she said.
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