Common Roots Montessori School

On Give to the Max Day, every donation you make gives Common Roots Montessori School the chance to win even more support! Your generous gift of any amount may help us win an extra $1,000 for our work in the community.

A love of children and a desire to share Montessori with other families was the driving force behind the birth of the school. Common Roots Montessori School (formerly Cathedral Hill Montessori) opened its doors for the first time in November 2011 with eight children.

After many years of subsequent growth, CRMS widened the scope of its mission to include concerted efforts toward increased accessibility, diversity, inclusivity, equity, and belonging. Operationalizing these values will be a lifelong endeavor that will transform the nature of our operations and community over time. We started with the establishment of our 4-Star Parent Aware rating, which allows us to accept county and state scholarship programs. We increased professional development efforts to prepare our staff through Anti-Racist/Anti-Bias education, trauma-informed care, and understanding learning differences and how to support them. We incorporated Equity & Inclusion work into All Staff meetings and professional development, and began a partnership in the 20-21 school year with the equity consultancy firm Amazeworks to help move our work forward and examine our policies and practices through the lens of Anti-Bias education. 

Continuing that work, CRMS worked over several years to find a new location suited to help us serve our mission well into the future and work toward eliminating barriers to high-quality Montessori education, while still being able to maintain our close-knit community. We collaborated on a vision to prepare authentic Montessori environments and design the space to fit our community’s needs. CRMS underwent a rebranding and renaming process in 2024 and became Common Roots Montessori School in preparation for our move to newly constructed Montessori environments in the Bandana Square building. CRMS looks forward to furthering our partnerships with board, staff and families in equity work and putting roots down in a new community of Saint Paul. 

Our mission is to provide a safe, beautiful and authentic Montessori learning environment; to serve an inclusive community of multicultural and economically diverse families; and to support children in becoming confident, independent, and compassionate members of society.

Common Roots Montessori School is associated with the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI) and AMI/USA.

Common Roots Montessori School is a nonprofit organization with 501c(3) status.