Montessori center moves HQ to New Rochelle hotel tower

The Center for Montessori Education/NY has relocated its corporate office from its longtime location on the Burke Rehabilitation Center campus in White Plains to the Radisson Corporate Towers in downtown New Rochelle, where a new training center has opened for Montessori teachers and administrators.

Center for Montessori Education/NY CEO K.T. Korngold said the 24-year-old Montessori Children”™s Center will remain on the Burke campus in White Plains. Opened in 1992, the child care center serves Burke employees and other working families in Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

Korngold said Burke officials needed Montessori”™s corporate office space on campus “for their own purposes” and the educational center “decided to use the opportunity to create a state-of-the-art year-round adult training facility for Montessori teachers and administrators” in New Rochelle. “We have a great relationship with Burke,” he said.

The new headquarters is in the corporate office tower of New Rochelle”™s Radisson Hotel at 1 Radisson Plaza. The first group of Montessori school administrators to train there will start July 11. It includes public school administrators from Washington, Texas and North Carolina along with independent Montessori school leaders from Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

The training center will draw adult learners from across the U.S. as well as from China and other countries, Montessori officials said.

“Having on-site hotel accommodations makes this location a win-win,” said Korngold. “We are able to provide a state-of-the-art educational leadership experience in an accessible location.”

In addition to the course for administrators, CME|NY also offers year-round training in New Rochelle for Montessori teachers of infants and toddlers. Melanie Pappas, registrar at the center, said there is “a tremendous shortage of Montessori toddler teachers right now. Every week we get calls and emails from schools asking us for certified Montessori teachers.”

The year-round training schedule starts July 25, giving schools a little extra time to identify potential candidates for training, Pappas said.

The new office will also host the annual Pathways to a Peaceful School Conference on July 21. The keynote speech, “Peace in Our Schools,” will be given by Linda Lantieri, an expert in social and emotional learning, conflict resolution and intergroup relations and author of “Building Emotional Intelligence: Techniques to Cultivate Inner Strength in Children.” The conference is open to Montessori teachers, administrators, parents, and anyone interested in Montessori education.