Why does BMS fundraise when it also charges tuition? Great question! Because we strive to live by our school values, and we try not to fulfill one at the cost of another. BMS values include:
- A love of learning
- Nurturing peaceful, self-reliant, empowered citizens
- Care for ourselves, each other, and the Earth
- Open and honest communication
- Working hard and working together as a welcoming community
- Awareness and appreciation for all of the ways in which humans are diverse and active work toward equity
Our work toward equity includes making a Montessori education accessible to as many children as possible. This includes making tuition as affordable as possible. We dream of scholarships or sliding-scale tuition to include even more families from our community, but we cannot raise tuition to fund these scholarships because that would be a hardship for many of our current families.
We dream of a sustainable and Earth-friendly campus that helps children learn to care for the ecosystem through being an active member of one. However, sustainability improvements such as solar panels are expensive and we cannot cover this by raising tuition or we will be decreasing our accessibility and equity.
We dream of sending our teachers and staff to every available high-fidelity professional development opportunity, to create the most qualified and inspiring team possible to foster your child’s love of learning. But we know we must balance this with the reality of the burden of tuition on many families.
We are a non-profit. We are a school. We are a movement for social change. We must constantly balance our desire for access and equity with our dreams for continuous improvement. Our tuition and budget are based on our necessities. Our continuous organizational improvement, our momentum toward our dreams, is fueled by our fundraising.
If you are not able to participate in a fundraiser, we understand and we are so glad you are here as a part of our community. If you are able to participate in one or more fundraisers, any amount makes a difference. Either way, we are grateful to every member of our community. We would not be the organization we are without your support through tuition, volunteering, and fundraising/donations.
