Tuition
Regular Tuition
$750/month
Grades
We started with K-3, and are offering more grades as our students grow.
Year
Grades
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21
K, 1, 2, 3
K, 1, 2, 3, 4
K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Enroll
Print out this form and return it, along with a $200 enrollment fee per child. $100 of this fee will be applied to first month's tuition.
This application is not a guarantee of placement at Bluestem Montessori. Families must still complete an application and interview process to secure placement. We will begin this application and interview process at a future date.
Wait List
You may also join the waitlist, for 2019 and beyond.
Print out this form and return it, along with a $50 wait list fee per child.
Staff
Executive Director & lead teacher
Laura Erickson
Laura is our Executive Director and is also our Lead Teacher .
Her own Montessori education developed a life-long love of learning that has led her to a BA from Hastings College, an MA in Medieval History from the University of Washington, and most of the way through a PhD (oh that pesky dissertation!). In 2008 she became a Fulbright Scholar, and took her husband and baby daughter to study medieval manuscripts in Germany. She has taught hundreds of college students as a teaching assistant and then as an instructor, and was recognized by her department for her excellence in teaching.
In late 2015, Laura decided that she was done wishing for alternative elementary education in Lincoln and decided to do something about it. She quit writing her dissertation and began work on what would become Bluestem Montessori Elementary, gathering friends and likeminded folks to start brainstorming. Since then she has learned all about founding and managing a nonprofit, Montessori education and philosophy, and educational administration.
Laura is a Girl Scout leader and a mother of two spirited girls, and thoroughly enjoying her Montessori training at the Mid-America Montessori Teacher Training Institute.
ASSISTANT teacher
Em Warner
Em is our Assistant Teacher here at Bluestem Montessori.
They are no stranger to alternative education. They attended the Science Focus Program here in Lincoln for two years during their high school career, which is where they fell in love with student led learning.
Em attended University in Colorado where they earned a Bachelor’s Degree in General Sciences and became certified to teach middle and high school science. They spent a semester student teaching for a STEM middle school program and spent a year working with preschoolers in Community Action’s Head Start program.
Em also had the privilege to travel to Rwanda in 2013, and Indonesia in 2017, to visit children that they sponsor there through letter writing and paying their school fees.
OFFICE MANAGER
Sena Bollman
Sena is our Office Manager here at Bluestem.
Sena grew up here in Lincoln and spent her middle and high school years volunteering at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo, Tabitha, and the Food Bank of Lincoln. When Sena had her son, she learned about the Montessori philosophy and fell in love with it. She chose a Montessori preschool for her son and spent time volunteering there. In 2014 Sena and her family moved to Ashland, NE and Sena began working as a special education paraeducator at Ashland Greenwood Elementary School. When Laura opened Bluestem Sena jumped at the chance to be a part of something that would change the world.
When Sena isn’t at Bluestem she spends her time gardening, volunteering at the local dog rescue, cooking, reading in her hammock, and taking care of her family’s one dog, two cats, five fish, and two millipedes.
ADVISoR
Tim Fickensher
Tim is a retired Montessori teacher and our advisor on all things Montessori and classroom related. Having founded Omaha's Roberts Academy (a Montessori secondary school), Tim has years of experience running a classroom as well as with the difficulties which face a new school. Tim spends one day a week in our classrooms, and the children always look forward to his visits.