Rock Hill school leaders OK name for Montessori, Ebenezer combined campus
The new Montessori school campus in Rock Hill will offer new programs, but its name will still invoke the long history of that area.
The Rock Hill school board unanimously approved Monday the name Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School: Traditional, Montessori, Inquiry.
The name was chosen after a committee of parents, teachers and school administrators gathered input from other parents, the school administration, district leaders and community members.
Paul Holmes, a Rock Hill parent and member of that committee, said the name was chosen based on a desire to tie the new campus name to the history of Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School and represent both choice and traditional students on the campus.
“We wanted to make sure we kept it as historical as possible,” Holmes said when he first presented the name to the school board on Oct. 9.
Montessori, a hands-on learning experience focused on peer learning and student choice, soon will have a dedicated space on the campus of Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School. The approach includes mixed-age classrooms. The program, one of Rock Hill’s school choice programs, has been housed at The Children’s School.
The Rock Hill school board unanimously agreed last year to build a new Montessori center at Ebenezer Avenue Elementary School.
The new Montessori center will be designed specifically for the Montessori program, to serve children from prekindergarten to second grade.
Montessori students in third to fifth grade have already been moved from The Children’s School to Ebenezer Avenue, where an inquiry program has been launched that includes many popular features of Montessori.
The Children’s School will continue to serve Montessori students in K3 through the second grade until the new building is ready.
The $8 million building is expected to be completed in January 2018.
Amanda Harris: 803-329-4082
This story was originally published October 24, 2017 at 11:14 AM with the headline "Rock Hill school leaders OK name for Montessori, Ebenezer combined campus."