OUR STORY

BACK IN 1985

The Cornerstone School was incorporated in December 1985 as a non-profit organization to meet the growing need for a non-traditional private preschool and elementary experience in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire. Parents of Montessori students immediately joined to establish the school and continued to work in support of the school's mission.

Classes were first in session in September of 1986. The school opened with two classes: one primary and one elementary. The founding student body was comprised of forty-two students ranging in age from two and a half to twelve years of age. We have added to the original classroom building to accommodate our growth at all levels and to provide a quality before and after-school care setting for our students. In 1992, additional class space was completed to house the expansion of the elementary program. The Common Room/Gymnasium and classrooms were opened to students in the winter of 1997. Renovations during the summer of 1999 provided an opportunity to establish the 'Junior House' in the center of our facility. The three-year playground renovation was completed in 2009.

Although we have enjoyed rapid growth, we are committed to a school that is small enough to maintain a feeling of community. We currently enroll approximately 180 students in the facility at High Street. This number allows diversity within both the student body and faculty. Thus we can maintain individual attention and foster the development of each child in our care. While the faculty maintains individual memberships in several different organizations, the school is affiliated with the American Montessori Society (AMS). In order to qualify for that standing, the school must meet national standards for the faculty and the facility.

Margaret Rice is the founder of The Cornerstone School and was its first Head of School. In the early 1980s, in response to her search for a different and better model of education for her own three children, Margaret enlisted the help of a few dedicated parents with the same educational concerns for their children. This group started Cornerstone with a handful of their own children as students after becoming incorporated as a non-profit educational institution in 1985. Margaret’s father, Dr. Carl Walter was instrumental in securing the financial health of the school in those early years. During this busy time of raising children and starting a school, Margaret undertook the rigorous training involved in becoming a certified Montessori teacher and received her Early Childhood and Elementary I and II Montessori credentials. Gradually, the school grew to its current enrollment. After overcoming the hurdles and hardships involved in procuring a building and accommodating such growth, The Cornerstone School became the model of excellence in Montessori education that it is today.

Margaret retired from her role as Head of School in 2004 and currently lives in North Hampton with her husband. She can be found in the Cornerstone driveway on many days picking up any one of her four grandchildren who currently attend The Cornerstone School.