Our History

We are the brainchild of 11 families who wanted the finest quality Montessori education for their children.

Since our inception in 1963, the physical structure of Marin Montessori School has evolved immensely, but its commitment to AMI Montessori pedagogy has remained steadfast. 

Our first accommodation was literally a school “house” with 18 children in a converted San Rafael home. As the student body grew, MMS moved to larger sites throughout the 1960s. It finally found its current home on Paradise Drive in 1970, thanks to the generosity of MMS parents Jim and Nancy Kelso. 

Situated next to the bay with a living marsh, a large field, and teaching gardens, MMS’s Paradise Drive site offers an exceptional environment for indoor‐outdoor education. 

Three primary classrooms were built throughout the 1970s with a fourth classroom added in 1984. MMS accommodated the burgeoning elementary program by purchasing the Domes on the east end of the grassy field in 1984. A few years later an after‐school program was added. 

By 1991, MMS was ready to enroll toddlers in the new Sandpiper classrooms. MMS completed its vision for elementary education by constructing the upper elementary building in 1995.  

Two decades after moving onto the Paradise Drive location, MMS went from a preschool for 3‐to 6‐ year‐olds to a school that educated children from 18 months to 12 years of age. This thoughtful and progressive evolution inspired an ambitious building project completed in 2005 that created updated classrooms, administrative offices and conference facilities that serve the entire MMS community. 

In 2009, after many years of planning, MMS launched its junior high program at St. Vincent’s in San Rafael, serving students from 12 to 15 years of age. 

In 2015 the school purchased the waterfront property adjacent to our Corte Madera campus. Owned by a MMS alumni family, Jack and Kay Keohane, the school transformed the property into two Lower Elementary classrooms that sit amongst verdant gardens.

Today, MMS is a school with a modern face that not only physically complements the beauty of the land, but also complements the ideals of AMI Montessori education. MMS is admired worldwide as a preeminent Montessori educational facility.