Cougar Mountain Montessori

I'm also sad to report my findings and experiences of Cougar Mountain Montessori. I have discovered that they don't have a license and that means that they don't have to have insurance either like a licensed day-care or montessori would. I believe their license was pulled some time ago. I encourage anyone considering enrolling their kids at CMM to get information about this from the state licensing department (State Department of Early Learning). This is probably why she has grown from just having the East/West (main) and North campuses, to also include a third location to serve kids that she can no longer have at the main campus (because she's not legal there). I was surprised by this as I always thought she was upstanding and did everything by the book but apparently this hasn't been the case for a long time! more

I'm sad to report that we had a horrible experience. We registered our 5 year old to start school at Cougar Mountain Montessori in the fall of 2011. Since this was a new school, we also decided to have her attend two days a week during the summer session. Our child was initially excited, but a couple weeks into it we began hearing that she didn't want to go. This was unusual, but we assumed she was still adjusting. One morning before school in August she started listing specific complaints about the school and one teacher in particular. These ranged from what we would describe as inappropriate comments toward our child, to physically being dragged across the floor. I then recalled that upon being picked up from school one day she had nursemaids elbow. This is an injury of the elbow that is caused by having your arm pulled on. She was unable to use her arm and was crying. We had to have it popped back in. Upon recalling this I went to the school that same morning and spoke with the owner's daughter. I then had an additional meeting the next day with the owner and the teacher. Of course the teacher denied everything and the owner essentially said our child made the whole thing up (""children embellish""). The school took no responsibility whatsoever. We notified them that we would not return in the fall and we demanded the tuition back that we had prepaid for September based on our bad experience. They have refused and ignore our multiple attempts to try to come to a resolution. They don't even respond to us. We found a new school and our child was terrified to meet the teacher for her placement evaluation. It took us 5 minutes to get her to separate from me. Once school started she was fearful for two weeks, and now loves her teacher. Based on the change we saw in her behavior and the complaints she gave us, combined with the physical evidence of the elbow injury, we feel something very negative went on at this school. There are too many other great schools in the area to risk it. It is very disappointing and a shame that the school has chosen to ignore us rather than try to come to an amiable resolution. more

We were new to the area last Jan 09 and were previously in another montessori school. I thought we were at a good school previously but after a short 1-2 months my kids were taking in much more learning and showing so much more progress at their age level. Cougar Mtn. Montessori staff are wonderful to work with and the teachers are truly committed to the learning process. My son is in his 3rd yr and my daughter in her 2nd year of montessori school. They love the additional enrichment programs as well including yoga, tumble gym, & music. more

Both my children attend CMM, and I couldn't be more pleased. They are both excelling in social and academic areas. Plus, they love going to school. What more could a parent ask for? more

We love Cougar Mountain Montessori. The teachers are great and our daughter is excelling in both reading and math. We wanted a program that was enriching in both social and academic development, and CMM has both. They also have special music, movement and yoga programs. \r \r The children leave after kindergarten far ahead of public school, and it seems like many gone on to gifted programs or schools, for example Openwindow and the Prism program in the Bellevue School District. (In talking with other parents, these are 2 schools where they have an older child who went to CMM during preschool). So I am very encouraged about this too. Pros: Caring, well educated teachers Cons: Only goes through kindergarten more