Montessori for All: Everbloom’s Innovative Approach to Affordable Childcare | Daycare & Early Childhood Education Series

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (12:15.049)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Codaspote and today we have two guests who are with Everbloom Montessori school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We have Kate Robinson, who’s on the board of directors and holds the title of executive director of strategic growth. She has 10 plus years of experience in the startup business and nonprofit space.

She is a design strategist and partner at Further Degree, a strategy and innovation studio. And we also have Emily Jacobson, who is the director of education at Everbloom. She has 28 years of early childhood education experience and is an AMS certified infant toddler guide. And I’m gonna ask her what that means. But before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency.

where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cashflow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency .com. Now, back to our guests today, Kate and Emily. I appreciate you making the time to share your story

Kate & Emily (13:43.008)
Thanks for having us. Yeah, we’re excited to be here.

Anthony Codispoti (13:45.607)
So let’s start with the origin story of the business. How did each of you come to find your way to

Kate & Emily (13:53.878)
Great question. It’s an interesting one, I would say. So my eldest son, who is now seven, but was three at the time when I met Emily, was enrolled at another Montessori school during the pandemic. And spring of 2020, they closed those classrooms down, decided to not reopen them in the fall for the infant toddler age. And we all sort of went.

what’s everybody going to do? We have, you know, 20, 30 families, maybe more than that, that were going to have no childcare that fall of 2020 and through the year, and at least 10 to 15 staff members that found themselves out of a job during, you know, the height of a global pandemic. And so I, as a person who can’t really stay in my lane, was calling

people in texting and wondering like, what’s everyone’s plan? Are you going to do something else? Should we start something ourselves? And we ended up organizing a series of in -home kind of cohorts at different households. So Emily and another Montessori teacher came and worked at my house. Four days a week, we’d converted two rooms of the house into classrooms. We bought Montessori materials and I got

four other families together. And we had eight kids four days a week for what ended up being an entire year through the pandemic. There were two other households that did something similar with a single teacher and a smaller group of families and kids. And then, you know, that was a great sort of interim solution, but we knew that wasn’t sustainable for the long haul.

I think I was like, are you gonna do your own thing after? Would you like help? I can help if you want help. And then we spent nights and weekends for about a year, six months or so. Well, I guess it was shorter. Yeah, it was probably about six months from idea to open. We sort of stepped back and said, if you could make your own version, what’s the most beautiful, true to you version

Kate & Emily (16:13.078)
childcare and Montessori that we could make, let’s do that. And so we started what we started doing some Zoom sessions with parents to float some ideas about how we were going to structure things. Because one of the most important aspects for us and for you, especially, and the other teachers was to make Montessori more accessible and more equitable. And so we came up

a tuition model based on household income that would make it dramatically more financially accessible for families to join our program. And we were just very upfront with people about that and asked if they would, you know, if people that made more money would be comfortable paying more money so that people that made less money were able to pay less. And we got an overwhelmingly positive response. And so we worked on licensing and finding

and then we opened in the fall of 2021.

Anthony Codispoti (17:10.341)
So Kate, you didn’t have a background in childhood education. Tell me what your background is and how that has added to this whole experience with

Kate & Emily (17:22.26)
Yeah, yeah, my background in training is in design and communication, innovation consulting. I did serve for a short period on an environmental science school board. So I had a little bit of governance experience and had some back end understanding. my personal professional practice

focused on design thinking. And so we do a lot in different industries to understand problems and kind of make the implicit more explicit and then, you know, kind of use all the information available to solve problems. And so it was kind of a natural fit to say, childcare is another one of those industries I can learn about and use those skills to help problem solve. So Emily and

other co -founder, you were our subject matter experts and I just basically facilitated them through understanding what they wanted and what they could achieve and helped give them the confidence to implement

Anthony Codispoti (18:33.765)
And so, like Kate said, have, you you’re one of the subject matter experts. You’ve been in early childhood education for 28 years. Is that right? How did that begin?

Kate & Emily (18:44.084)
Yes. Yep.

It actually began, I was taking early childhood classes in high school and able to start to do like a work program through them. So I was working in early childhood program in my senior year of high school. And a teacher from the other Montessori school that I worked at for 25 years called the teacher that was heading that program and asked if they have.

had anyone that they would recommend coming to work for them. And I fortunately was the name that got mentioned. I’d never heard of Montessori. I didn’t know what it was. I was just graduating and getting ready to start my college career in early childhood. I’ve always loved children from when I was a child myself trying to take care of other children. And I

so fortunate and thankful every day that I was the one that she mentioned. can’t say that if I wouldn’t have found Montessori at 17 years old that I would still be in this industry. It is a way of life. The philosophy is everything and it’s so different. I think I would have been burnt out so quickly in a traditional and not that there’s anything wrong with it, but just for me personally and my personality.

how I mesh so well with Montessori is how it all started from age 17.

Anthony Codispoti (20:13.924)
So for those people listening who aren’t familiar, as you previously weren’t, can you explain what Montessori is, how it’s different from maybe a traditional education environment?

Kate & Emily (20:25.448)
Yeah, so, well, it’s a lot of people are even confused a lot of times about Montessori and that word itself. I think a lot of people assume it’s a religious belief or don’t really even understand that. So it is after a woman named Maria Montessori, who started this in the 1800s in Italy, working with children that were viewed as not

able to be educated and so she started working with those children and realized if when she gave them sensorial materials where they could actually feel things and not just be talked to and presented things to them differently in small groups and individually and so she was able to build this whole philosophy and specific materials for them that are still used in the classrooms today but overall

it’s just a when I asked when I’m asked to give a definition of Montessori I always say respect is the best way for me to describe it. It’s respect for the environment, it’s respect for the other children in the classroom, it’s respect for the adults and it’s not it’s a mutual respect. So for instance in most Montessori classrooms all children or all teachers are referred to by their first names. So it’s not

you’re older than me, so I give you more respect. We’re on the same page and we respect each other. So even from an infant, how I talk to them is very kind and respectful. Like, I’m going to pick you up now. I’m going to change your diaper. Like, we’re explaining things to them. But they’re also very orderly, peaceful classrooms because the children are so engaged and they’re not being told what to do all day. They’re actually learning how to be independent, capable.

that one day will hopefully become independent capable

Anthony Codispoti (22:24.117)
And explain for us a little bit why this format of education has you more energized. You you mentioned that if you had been in a more traditional system, you feel like you wouldn’t have lasted this long. Why is

Kate & Emily (22:38.41)
Yeah. So a lot of in traditional there’s like your lesson planning and you’re coming up with all of the things you think are best for the children because you’ve been given a book or whatever on what you should be doing every week with the children. In the Montessori classroom you’re following the child and the children in the room. So when we put

what we call work in a Montessori classroom, which are the activities that the children are working with. It’s based on what they’re actually interested in at that time, the skill levels that we see them at, and following their lead. And so we’re actually watching the children and what they want to be doing and how they’re learning instead of me just sitting down and saying.

here’s our lesson plan for the week. We’re all going to learn about the color blue or just some random thing. Instead, they’re all individualized works for them that will help teach them from math to language to culture, geography, science. All of those things are built in, but more on the individual basis. So that eliminates a lot of the chaos, a lot of the…

I was going to say, I think it eliminates a lot of friction. Yes. Like there isn’t like a power struggle in that environment because children are engaged in making decisions. And so you’re kind of like crafting that environment around their needs and desires and not in a overly permissive way, but in a way that is respectful to the fact that they are full fledged humans that have desires and preferences and curiosities. And it’s really about

like nurturing and maintaining that curiosity and love of learning.

Anthony Codispoti (24:31.074)
So Montessori has really begun to increase in popularity. I’m curious if you’re aware or familiar with any studies that show the benefits for kids long

Kate & Emily (24:44.64)
That’s a good question. I don’t know that there’s a lot of really recent academic work focused on Montessori. It is rooted in the scientific method and in academia from the start. So there are anecdotal longitudinal outcomes you could look at to say like these people look at how much they’ve achieved and know, very

famous folks have been Montessori kids. And they’re some of our most creative problem solvers. I wouldn’t say that that’s enough to make the case for it. But there’s certainly a lot of long -term evidence for the success of kids that have gone through Montessori. I would also add to that, just even in the smaller regard,

Anthony Codispoti (25:31.425)
Clearly.

Kate & Emily (25:36.384)
When children typically leave our classrooms and enter like a more traditional public school setting, the feedback from the teachers that the families will share is like, you’re a Montessori child. Like they are not depending on the adult to tell them what to do. They push back and ask questions, even if it is of the adult. And they’re self learners, like they’re capable of figuring things out on their own instead of just being.

like sitting and waiting for an adult to tell them what to

Anthony Codispoti (26:08.492)
But that says a lot right there. you mentioned something, Kate, I think it was you who talked about the sliding pay scale that you introduced. This seems like kind of an unusual approach. How did you come up with this idea?

Kate & Emily (26:10.496)
Mm -hmm.

Kate & Emily (26:24.744)
Yeah, mean, how did we come up with the idea? I don’t know. was just sort of a felt like a no brainer. mean, sliding scale pay isn’t, you know, revolutionary in general. But in the childcare and Montessori space, it’s less common. But, you know, one of the criticisms I would say of Montessori is that it can be seen as very elite and expensive and difficult to access. And one of the, you

other environments that we had been in was that. And so one of the ways that when we were kind of thinking about reinventing this, we wanted to say, how do we turn that on its head? so, I mean, it’s a very basic model right now. We sort of said, what’s the break even rate we think we need across the board? Well, can we increase that by a percentage and decrease?

by that same percentage the other direction. And we’re just keeping averages, honestly. And we just thought that if we align people’s values with their spending and with their financial model, that we would have a more values -aligned community that would come together. And that seems to be the case.

Anthony Codispoti (27:47.68)
Because this really feeds into something that’s important to both of you, this idea of child care being financially accessible to

Kate & Emily (27:56.926)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I mean, the child care crisis, right, is not unfamiliar to most people. think during the pandemic, especially we saw how important child care is as infrastructure. We know the economy essentially can’t run if there aren’t people taking care of children. And so we just wanted to figure out how to make that a more equitable space. so.

It just seemed like a very easy way to just literally put our money where our mouth is and start with that in mind. if it didn’t work, we always knew we could pivot. we thought we’d, know, it was a hypothesis. I like to joke that we’re a high fidelity working prototype and are constantly, you know, making adjustments and learning new things and challenging the status quo and conventional wisdoms in this space.

Charging only top dollar for every slot was one of those conventional wisdoms that we wanted to challenge.

Anthony Codispoti (29:00.682)
Say more about the childcare crisis. Is this a lack of childcare? Is it a lack of affordable childcare? What’s going

Kate & Emily (29:10.614)
I mean, it’s all of the above. There’s a lack of slots, know, just spaces for children. There’s a low supply of people willing to work in the industry because it is so poorly paid in most cases. Child care just generally is unaffordable for families and expensive to run. There are state laws that require a certain number of trained adults.

heard number of children. And so there’s just really difficult math that has to happen. And yeah, I mean, I could give some examples where we are here in Grand Rapids in Michigan, Kent County is where we live. There are 50 ,000 kids age zero to five. And there are 30 ,000 spots for child care for that age. Only half of those are considered high quality.

Kent County is on the better end of the spectrum of a lot of places, definitely in Michigan. So it’s one of the more resource places. We have a county -wide millage that’s focused on early childhood intervention and support. that’s the only, it’s the first in the state and I want to say maybe nationally. So it’s, there’s a lot of work being done, a lot of focus on it, but there’s just, the economics are bad.

Anthony Codispoti (30:35.911)
Is there a way to fix

Kate & Emily (30:38.934)
I mean, I think there’s a lot of opportunities to fix it, but it has to be a multi -pronged approach. I mean, it can’t be child care workers and parents left to sort it out because that’s where it’s been for so long. The resources are thin there. Families pay dramatically more, like a higher percentage for child care annually than they should, frankly. I mean, it’s comparable to housing.

And so my mindset coming into this as a person who, you know, background wasn’t in education, but I’m a parent and I happen to have a set of skills that work, but that we need to have this like multi -disciplinary, multi -industry approach to solutions in this space because I mean, children are everyone’s responsibility. It’s the future of our society, right? Like it’s like not to be dramatic, but that

what we’re doing, we’re raising the next generation. so, you know, businesses need to be engaged. I think there’s a state level solution that could be, you know, could be a part of solving the issue. But folks have to be willing to put money into the effort because it’s everyone’s outcomes that we’re supporting.

Anthony Codispoti (32:03.752)
Say something about the perception and the way that your staff is

Kate & Emily (32:10.326)
So I think it’s the norm in the general population for when you meet someone who works with children under the age of six to just view them as someone who plays with kids all day and gets labeled as a babysitter. And so there’s definitely a negative stigma that comes with it. I often have said

even being in the industry for 28 years, knowing how important this job is and how much brain development happens and that we’re setting basically the entire foundation for a child’s life. I still feel embarrassed to this day to say that I am a toddler teacher. I was for 28 years, it was recent that I moved into the co -director role full time.

Once you say that, you’re just kind of dismissed and like, okay, I’ll move on. You know, like you’re really not that important. If you were an elementary teacher, middle or high school and up, then you have some sort of value. So we’re working really hard because that’s so important at changing the mindset of that and really getting people to value individuals who choose to work in this industry because it is so important.

to try and get them at a livable wage to be quite frank, because most are not. Most are working multiple jobs to be able to just work with children because they love it so much. And yeah, so we have lots of work to do. We’re doing a lot of work in advocacy just around that in itself outside of Everbloom. So,

Anthony Codispoti (34:00.99)
So I’m curious to hear more about where you think that negative stigma comes from, right? Because you’re somebody who’s been in that role for over 20 years yourself. I appreciate that you admit that you’re embarrassed to share what you do, or the role that you were in for a number of years. Where does that come from? How was that started?

Kate & Emily (34:25.588)
Yeah, think that people honestly, I Kate mentioned with the pandemic, people kind of opened their eyes a little bit like, this is what it’s like to be at home with my child all day. wow, it takes a lot of work and a lot of energy. And not in addition to what they were doing at home. These people are putting together

for them to be doing that actually is meaningful and is helping to develop their brain and social emotional support. All of the things, you know, like we have degrees and we’ve spent time learning about brain development and like, but most people don’t think about that when they think of little kids, they think like, you carry them, you put them to sleep during the day and you give them some food and you move

I think that’s just the perception that a lot of people have. And so while the pandemic was, you know, for a lot of reasons, really hard for a lot of people, I think it also helped at least our industry. People are talking about it now, they’re realizing, and they’re starting to understand like we need to invest in that age group and the individuals who are working with them every day.

Anthony Codispoti (35:46.704)
You know, and Emily, I’m glad that you touched on the whole COVID experience and, know, how that, you know, kind of brought some realizations to a lot of folks, because that was part of my inspiration for wanting to do a series, you know, specifically on childcare centers, because I had boys who were of that age, they were, you know, in a, in a childcare center that were run by, you know, friends of ours. And I saw just

man, the strife that they went through trying to keep the doors open, trying to keep parents happy. You got some that want a mask, some that don’t want a mask. You’ve got to do contact tracing. It was like there was a lot going on. And right in those times when our kids couldn’t be there either because there was an outbreak or because there was a rule in place locally that prevented them from being open.

You know, my wife and I are trying to juggle our jobs and take care of our kids at the same time. It was just madness. Now, fortunately, you know, we were one of the lucky ones. My oldest was going into a kindergarten in that fall of 2020 that was open. And so he got to go to school in person. My younger son, who was still in a daycare center, child care center, he was able to go back in in person most of the time, you when they

have an outbreak. But I talked to lot of parents who were not that fortunate, you know, and they had to juggle their full time job while being at home with their kid and in some cases also trying to juggle their online learning. And it was just a tornado disaster. And so I think you’re right. think I don’t know of anybody who maybe didn’t appreciate their child care center before

they had a whole new level of appreciation for the services that are being provided by organizations like yours.

Kate & Emily (37:43.838)
Yes, it’s it’s interesting. So I like to say when we’re talking about sort of the origin story that it was the best and worst time to start a child care facility because all of the, you know, the many things that had to be juggled that you already mentioned. And but then people were grateful. They wanted to be there. They wanted a place that they knew that they aligned with

some of those issues that you mentioned, masking or closing for different reasons and whatever your policies were, we were very in a good position to be able to be very upfront and frank about our position on things. And that allowed people to feel more comfortable and be really invested in the safety and…

just like respect for community, which was really valuable and I think has given us a really great foundation going forward because we have people that we’re in. I mean, we were all in such an emotional space. It was just high stress and people wanting to do everything they could, but not really knowing what to do. And so whenever there was an opportunity for folks to contribute or to be good members of a community, they took it. And that’s been really, really beautiful.

Anthony Codispoti (39:04.131)
Yeah. And, you know, I think something that lot of people maybe don’t realize is that, you know, part of a big contributing factor to the childcare crisis was COVID because a lot of childcare centers did not make it through that time, right? They had to close their doors. And a lot of the ones who did make it are still trying to shovel out of debt that they took on just to keep the doors open, to keep their staff there so that when

it was okay for families to come back that their doors were still open. So tip of the hat to you all. Thank

Kate & Emily (39:40.278)
Yeah, I think Michigan, I don’t know if it Michigan or Kent County, there was something like 10 ,000 childcare centers closed in 2020. And yeah, I will give our state some credit to the, they did childcare stabilization grants for all licensed facilities across the state of Michigan. And that really dramatically helped a lot of places stay open. And there’s been a lot of investment in trying to support

more entrepreneurs in opening child care businesses. But, you know, there’s still a big gap.

Anthony Codispoti (40:17.124)
Do you have expansion plans? You’ve got a nice foundation in place. There’s a gap in the marketplace and any desire to grow what you’re doing.

Kate & Emily (40:27.222)
Yeah, we’re actually right kind of in the middle of working on that. right now we are in two different buildings that are adjacent to one another. We serve about 85 kids, ages three months to six years. And we are in the process of purchasing a new facility. We’re leasing right now and moving just a few minutes down the road in order to add another 50 slots to our program. So we’ll be at about 135 kids.

ages 0 to 6. we’re, yeah, we’re, we’re excited to do that. And I think there will likely be growth beyond that at some point. We want to, you know, do it mindfully, because it is hard work to, to, you know, be the folks in classrooms doing, doing this daily thing. And it takes a certain kind of person that is dedicated and sort of emotionally

emotionally prepared for this kind of space. So we try really hard to keep our turnover low. And so we want to grow mindfully as

Anthony Codispoti (41:34.137)
How do you keep the turnover low?

Kate & Emily (41:36.342)
Great question. So one of the things that we did intentionally at Aberbloom is that we follow a school calendar. So that in itself is also working towards changing the mindset on childcare. And it’s not always easy for some families, but we try and be upfront about that before they enroll that we follow school calendar. So we do close for like, obviously all the major holidays, we take a two week winter break.

we take a spring break, also in comparison to what you would see once you send your child to kindergarten, right? So trying to close that gap between, you’re just preschool and that you’re a teacher. So you are a teacher. We call them guides in our classroom. But even if you’re teaching an infant and you deserve that time off, just like another teacher would to have that mental reset.

and to be with your family and to just have some downtime so that when you’re in the classroom, you’re fully present and you’re ready to go. And so that’s one of the biggest things that we do, I think, to help retain staff. In addition to that, we do our best. know Kate mentioned we’re just starting. We’re going into our fourth year as a nonprofit, but to pay a little bit above average wages for our teachers.

and then offering benefits and PTO in addition to the time that we’re closed. Like those are really big things that help keep our staff. And then just in addition to that, in our environment, we really strive to support them. It helps that myself and my co -director, Annie, have been in classrooms. We know what it’s like. We’re able to support them and care for them and let them know they’re valued.

And not only does that come just from us, but it also really comes from our parents and the families that are involved in our school. They also value and take care of our staff. And that makes just a world of difference. So valuing them from inside and then valuing them from the outside and even just the advocacy work that we do, I think that shows them like we’re

Kate & Emily (43:55.786)
We’re pushing for change, not only just within Everglom, but within our entire society. And that makes them feel like someone cares about them and other people that do the same work they do.

Anthony Codispoti (44:07.734)
It’s so interesting what you’re doing with aligning with a more traditional school schedule, right? You’re taking two weeks off for the winter break. You’re taking the major holidays off. And these are things that a lot of other daycares are not doing. And I’m curious if you have a sense from the staff if that has contributed to your goal of sort of reframing the value of

childcare workers, of preschool workers.

Kate & Emily (44:42.11)
Yeah, for sure. have a lot of our staff obviously come from other child care centers and almost all of them are like, we’ve never had this time off with our families. We’ve never been able to travel to see, you know, family or just take a personal vacation. And that has made a huge difference to them. So, yeah. It’s helped with attraction too, right? Like we as we’ve hired folks from

other centers, they tell their friends, you know, that what we’re doing is unique. And so it, you know, the evidence seems to be there. obviously we, we always want to be doing more and we’re always looking for new opportunities to make our, you know, our model more sustainable and, you know, planning increases as soon as possible. And whenever we can for staff, do bonuses, things like that, but it’s not just about the money either. We, it’s really about that.

caring environment that really is elevating the importance of the work that they’re doing.

Anthony Codispoti (45:46.403)
Emily, you it’s interesting you’ve spent so long being an educator, being in the classroom with the kids and more recently have moved into a co -director role, moving probably, would I be correct in assuming you’re not so much in the classroom anymore?

Kate & Emily (46:02.462)
Yeah, as of June that has happened.

Anthony Codispoti (46:04.083)
This is really new. This is really fresh. We’re recording this at very end of July. So this is, you know, maybe two months old for you. How are you doing with that transition?

Kate & Emily (46:13.462)
That is also a great question. I think I’m still so for the three years that we were open, myself and Annie, my co -director were in classrooms as lead teachers and were the co -directors. So we were doing two full -time jobs for three years.

Kate & Emily (46:37.448)
that obviously had its challenges, but we were able to do it. mean, just like opening Everbloom, we just figured it out and we did it. But now that I have just had a short of eight weeks, I think it’s just finding out what that new norm is and really stepping into this role full time. I love children. I love working with them. I love that I can still go into the classroom and see them.

whenever like I’m having an overwhelming day or I’ve been on the computer too long I will just go sit in the classroom because it re -centers me and it reminds me of why we’re doing this work because there’s so much beautiful things going on that when I’m able to take a step back and just observe that it’s so helpful for me. But I think the biggest thing is is that I’ve had the same routine for 28 years so I

I get up in the morning, I do my thing, and then I’m in the classroom and I’m preparing my room and I’m greeting children, I’m talking to families. And so now to come in and go to a computer is definitely different. So I do that for about 30 minutes, then I’m outside at our car line and greeting children and talking to families. So I think this year really in general will be that transitional time where I’m able maybe at the end of this year to give you a better answer to that question.

But I also have said for 28 years, there’s clearly been a lot of wonderful, beautiful, amazing things that have happened and lots of relationships that I have gained. But there’s been a ton of challenges also. And I’ve served on lots of boards and committees and capital campaigns and all of the things that I’ve done that I didn’t fully probably understand while I was on that path. I can see now has led

to where I am now so that I can help support other teachers that we have in Everbloom and outside of Everbloom, but also to just share with our families, parent education, and all of the things have really gotten me to this point for that reason. I think that it’s a natural move and progression for me to be able to move into this role and share more with more people than just the children in my classroom and the parents in my classroom.

Anthony Codispoti (49:00.384)
This challenging, the challenges of the transition that you’re describing, I hear a lot of, right? People who started an organization, they started a business because they enjoyed or they were good at delivering whatever that product or service was. And as the organization starts to grow and they have to sort of reinvent themselves into a new role, a leadership role, a management role, it takes them away from doing those things that they really enjoyed and really loved.

And so yeah, there’s a little bit of kind of getting into, you know, feeling what your new space feels like. So just to say, you know, give yourself some grace as you’re going through that transition. It’s normal to feel a little uncomfortable in that new skin.

Kate & Emily (49:40.316)
Thank you. Yeah. Yes, thank you. That’s definitely needed. think that would, it’s probably one of the other things. I was so good at that one role. And so now like having meetings and talking with people and like all the things I didn’t have to do, I have to remind myself like you’re just learning some of those things. It’s okay to not know as much as everybody else at the table that has been doing these things.

So yes, thank you for that.

Anthony Codispoti (50:11.967)
Growth comes at the uncomfortable edges of life, Emily. So that’s where you’re sitting right now. So talk to me about why you think anyone is capable of solving problems.

Kate & Emily (50:15.466)
Yes, for sure.

Kate & Emily (50:26.068)
Hmm. That’s a good moment for that segue because I think, you know, everyone’s capable of growth, right? And problem solving takes growth, I think, and being curious and putting yourself in spaces that you may or may not know a lot about. But I think there’s a lot of, you know, need for trusting your experience and where you’ve come from. Because I think I think people

know, think they have to be experts to solve problems. And it really doesn’t take an expert in many cases. mean, thinking back to, you know, thinking about my consulting work and then also all the work we’ve done the last several years, it was actually really important that I wasn’t an expert in this space to be able to help solve these problems because I’m bringing perspective from other industries and other, you know, other business models and things to the table.

and I got to learn a lot along the way and ask somewhat naive questions sometimes. And that’s really helpful when you’re trying to do something new or if you’re trying to solve something in a new way. You can’t look at it from the same angle all the time. So not being an expert is a really important part of solving problems. If you have lived experience, if you have adjacent experience, you know, it’s a really important

component of problem -solving. I’ll take it from a little bit of a different angle and it kind of goes back to a little bit of one I just touched on but I believe anyone can be a problem solver because I watch it with a three -month -old. I watch it with a one -year -old and a two -year -old and on up to six years old in a monosaur environment.

We also are not there to solve the problem of the child, but to help them have the tools to solve their own problems and only step in when needed. So our job is to observe and step in when needed and then back out so that the child can figure it out from themselves. so when I talk about when I go back into the classroom and I’m seeing these beautiful things happen, those are the reminders, like, that infant on the floor who really wanted that ball.

Kate & Emily (52:52.168)
And the teacher didn’t just bring it to them and problem solve them for it, but sat back and watched and let them scoot their body and then figure out how to do it themselves. Just centers me and reminds me like that was a really big thing for that child that could have very easily been solved if an adult would have just given them that ball. But instead they sat back and let them figure it out on their own. And I can do that too.

And so those are my reminders.

Anthony Codispoti (53:25.543)
That’s a really cool example of taking it down to, I’m going to call it more base level of right, letting just a three month old figure out how to move their body across the floor to get the thing that they want. I’m curious how you help to instill that same sense of confidence in your staff that, Hey, you are empowered to make decisions. You are a capable person. You don’t have to come to me for

Kate & Emily (53:51.47)
Well, I was just going to say that I think it’s a really interesting point about Montessori in general. if you follow it kind of continuously through adulthood, you arrive at sort of a similar place, right? Like we’re creating environments that are like age appropriate challenges and safe spaces that are like low risk for kids to develop those skills or that, you know, muscle strength or

whatever it might be. And over time, that gets more and more complex, right? You kind of allow more challenges and wider range of community that they’re working within. And I mean, if we’re doing that well with staff and with our, with our community, we’re doing the same thing. Like we’re, creating opportunities for them to build their own strength and build their own set of tools over time. And I will say, and I don’t know how you feel about this,

we’re, it’s a process, right? Like, yes, we’ve been around for three years, but we’ve only been around for three years. And to help staff and families understand that they have agency and an ability to contribute to the outcomes of, you know, the environment and the community that we’re building takes time and, and capacity as the, you know, the folks guiding this community, which, you know, is, is not,

or it’s at a premium, right? Like time and energy and all of that is challenging. So it’s a slow process, but doing that same kind of like creating a prepared environment, allowing people to learn for themselves, have successes and failures along the way and be there to step in as needed, but also step back out and look and continue, I think is the goal. Yeah, I can add to that a little bit to your specific question.

It’s not always easy, especially when our staff come from more traditional centers. Or hierarchical environments. Yeah, they do expect that someone will help kind of micromanage them. will tell them what to do. And so that’s where that comes in, in my role as a co -director in our onboarding and our staff training that we do, our professional development that we do.

Kate & Emily (56:13.65)
in helping them to understand like it’s okay to just come in the classroom and sit on the floor and do nothing. What? You know like that to me is more important than you trying to entertain a child all day and get them to do what you want. I say do nothing. observe. Observe. Yes, which is actually a lot doing a lot. But to most people would be viewed as doing nothing. Thank you for clarifying. But

In the classroom, we talk about freedom within limits and that is true for the adults in our environment as well. Like you have freedom within limits. Like obviously we have expectations of our teachers and we want to make sure they’re meeting all of the goals of the children and child development and developmentally and all of those things and the work that they’re preparing. But they have the freedom to show us that they understand that and that they can follow the child and prepare those environments for them.

So it definitely takes a lot of work. It’s of a natural fit too. So even in our interviewing we talk about that. Would you feel comfortable in an environment like that? Because it’s different. Some people would rather be in a more traditional where someone’s telling them what to do and those types of things. So we try to be upfront

individuals that come to us for that and explain the differences. We have them observe our classrooms to see how the adults interact with children.

Anthony Codispoti (57:47.058)
I want to shift focus for a moment to the parents. What are some of the most common concerns that parents have when starting their kids at a new school like yours? And what can you tell them to help put their minds at ease?

Kate & Emily (58:04.515)
Most want to know child and adult ratios. So like how many children will be in the room, how many adults will be in the classroom with them, hours of operation, those types of things. But also just like how long has the teacher worked with children? What is their experiences?

What are your, how do you discipline children is another big one. A lot of. How do you do potty training? Yeah. lot of questions That’s a whole other podcast. Yeah. We offer parent ed on toilet learning is what I call it.

Anthony Codispoti (58:45.147)
Do you offer potty training there?

Kate & Emily (58:56.022)
We don’t train children. We help them learn. Yes. And again, that’s more so. They do. And I have had to change a lot of these. You’re doing so well with them. But yeah, there’s just helping them understand really why we do the things that we do. And then just having conversation with them and connecting with them.

Anthony Codispoti (59:02.627)
Again, words matter. Thank you.

Kate & Emily (59:24.5)
We care about you and your child and your family and want you here as part of a community and not a place that you just drop off your child and pick them up at the end of the day, which some of our families have to do. But also we just kind of take all expectations from the families and make it that it’s OK. Like we just want to be here in community with you and help raise your child with you and you as a parent and you help us grow too. So it’s really interreation.

relational in a lot of ways. Yeah, I mean, we have this sort of we’re inspired by the cooperative model and trying to bring everybody’s contributions and keep everyone’s growth in mind. And so we extend that into the parent and family community as well. And really try to encourage that engagement. I don’t know how

it compares to a more conventional environment, but I think there’s a lot that people don’t necessarily know about Montessori. They either are coming to us because they know Montessori and that’s what they’re looking for, or they’re just parents trying to find a good place for their kids to be. so trying to help them understand kind of what they’re getting in this environment is a big thing. And sometimes they’re curious and sometimes they’re not. know, people are busy and trying to balance a lot of things.

to sort of meeting people where they are and kind of helping them grow from that point is our biggest goal.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:51.129)
Can you share an example or two of a particular success story of a child who was with

Kate & Emily (01:00:58.9)
Yeah, I think about this one a lot because there’s plenty of stories to share on that front. But I think it really can come down to a more bit of a generalized scenario, especially coming out of the pandemic. Children were having a lot of one -on -one with their parents or grandparents and not a lot of social exposure.

So a lot of fear around being away from them and coming into our environments and a lot of dependency on the adults and a lot of emotional, I don’t want to say issues, but. Terminol? Yeah, they just weren’t allowed a lot of time to have self -regulation opportunities. And so when coming into our environment

this could be prior pandemic as well, but particularly at Everbloom, just seeing a child enter environment from infancy through five years old and seeing some of those children who hadn’t ever been in a community environment with other children and other adults taking care of them and really having an emotionally hard time with that and struggling and feeling anxious and nervous and

And you could sense that from the adults too, right? Because a lot of them had these babies in the pandemic and had never allowed someone else to take care of them. And so those children and those families entering our environment and knowing all of those things. And now I see those same children who have been with us for three years and I barely recognize them. Like one of our infants who…

Like, it was closer to a year when she started with us. You know, it was really hard for her and she wanted to know where her mom and dad were. you know, it took her a while to transition into our environment. And now I open her car door in Carline and she reaches for us and she gets out and she carries her little lunchbox and waves by to dad. And she’s not even quite two yet and walks into the building and is like ready to start her day and happy to see her friends.

Kate & Emily (01:03:23.914)
And there’s so many kids that have started with us that had that kind of same experience. And now I see them and they’re just like these independent, self -confident, I’m here to be with my friends and learn. And every time I see those kids, that’s a success story for me.

Anthony Codispoti (01:03:44.854)
That’s so neat to see that progression. know, Kate and Emily, I’m curious to maybe explore an example of either a personal or a professional challenge that you’ve overcome and some of the lessons that you’ve learned through it coming out the other

Kate & Emily (01:04:00.982)
I mean, this whole thing has been a personal and professional challenge, if I’m honest.

Anthony Codispoti (01:04:09.814)
Let’s pick a certain element, something that really puts you through the wringer, some things that you learn coming through

Kate & Emily (01:04:19.498)
That’s a great prompt. Do you have something that comes to mind first?

Kate & Emily (01:04:30.391)
Specifically, I think you can talk to one of your questions, like wanting to grow. That has definitely is not easy, even if you want to and you want to be doing better and offering more spots and doing all the work. I say all the time, and this is why Kate is literally in the role she is right now, trying to be able to do that and like all of the things that are required.

outside of just like financing it and finding the building and all of the things, it literally takes one person being in a full time position to make connections and just do all the things. I’m gonna let you talk more to that. Yeah, I mean that kind of ties into what I was thinking about which is that, so when we started with this cooperative model in mind, we knew that keeping the overhead super low was gonna be really important to getting off the ground. We didn’t have any investment capital.

paid for our business licenses out of pocket and all that. We did this very like, we threaded the needle very carefully. We opened applications and they had a small fee and then we did confirmation of spots and that had a fee and that was our first few thousand dollars and then we signed our lease. So we did this very like out of order thing. But to do some of that, we had a lot

parents and family members volunteer. So I started out in a volunteer board role. And one of the challenges for me was like over time, I just became more more passionate about this. And I was giving more of my time to that than to my consulting work. And knowing when to ask for help or to say, I can’t keep doing this without being paid. It was really hard. think

started a board meeting in tears and one of the other board members said, okay, we can’t accept your free labor anymore. need, and like for this work to continue, we need someone that’s dedicated full time to it. And so that like valuing my own time and my own skill that I was bringing was really challenging because I knew, I know how much hard work that

Kate & Emily (01:06:49.376)
teachers and guides and directors put into this that I wanted every penny to go to that work, which is critical. But there’s back office and infrastructure things that have to happen. I mean, we’ve been looking for a new facility essentially since the day we moved into the one we’re in. We only signed a three year lease. We’ve done a one year extension because it wasn’t our ideal facility. finding space.

and staying within the service area that we’re really focused on. We’re focused on the center of the city where childcare spots are lowest and need is highest. Just like balancing all of those things and knowing how to value my contributions as much as the day -to -day that’s making the wheels turn in the building has been a challenge and finding that balance.

keeping things going without burning ourselves out in any one direction has been hard. I would say that. sorry. I was gonna say, I would say that that it has been the biggest challenge to this. It’s basically been a 24 seven job. You know, we don’t do like a nine to five. We’re we’ve been working on this since the day we decided that we were going to do it.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:49.569)
When you touch on something, sorry, go ahead, Emily.

Kate & Emily (01:08:13.394)
evolving and growing and all the things have continued us on that path. So taking time like for ourselves and for our families, unfortunately has been a struggle. It’s one of the things we advocate for, but being myself, Kate and Annie, in particularly the three that it kind of feels like this is our baby and that we’re responsible for, we have poured

and our souls into this and don’t expect a lot in return. Kind of like Kate mentioned, we would rather give than take anything from it. And so just having that reminder, which we probably still need to get a lot better at, to take care of ourselves has been the biggest struggle.

Anthony Codispoti (01:09:07.561)
And this is so common with young businesses, small businesses. There’s so much work to do, right? There’s so many different hats to wear, so many different roles that the leaders, that the founders need to fill that it’s easy to feel stretched really thin, you know, until you can get to a point where you can afford a little bit more of that infrastructure, a little bit more of that staff support to take, you know, some of that off of you. And, you know, during these early, you know, growth times,

watching the balance sheet, watching the P &L becomes even more important. As a business leader, you’re trying to find ways to increase sales, you’re trying to find a way to decrease costs. I’m curious if there are particularly creative strategies that you’ve tried with either one of those levers that would be interesting to share.

Kate & Emily (01:10:03.548)
That’s a good question. mean, I think we’re always looking for kind the most values aligned solution. It’s part of why we are a nonprofit currently instead of a traditional for -profit because

we are building sort of all of our costs into the model versus trying to have money left over that we can take, you know, take out of the business. So I don’t, I don’t know that I have any like brilliant tricks other than to say like, we just try to lead with our values as much as we can and find certain, you know, we have various like platforms that we use and things

are aligned with sort of the work that we’re doing and trying to find, you know, opportunities where those are lower costs. We do make a lot of our, I think we’re lucky because we do have a really engaged community of parents. So like our finance person has been a parent volunteer for a long time. Like he’s the guy running the spreadsheets to help us make sure that we’re, you know, hitting the numbers that we need to and, you know, know when we can.

add increases for staff wages and things like that.

Kate & Emily (01:11:24.182)
I don’t know if I have any brilliance other than like find people that you know care about the mission that you’re focused on and try to invite them into the work as well. Learn from their experiences. we’ve also gotten very creative with our resources. So from finding a former Montessori teacher, actually the one that hired me originally at 17, she went off on her

had opened her own Montessori three to six year old classroom and decided to retire at the same time we were opening and like having that connection and were able to buy like her entire classroom instead of going out and buying everything brand new and like creative ways that we’ve accumulated things has definitely been helpful. Well and I think some of that’s relationship based too right? Like so I think investing in the community and the relationships that you have goes a long way because

there are less direct ways that that ends up impacting the bottom line.

Anthony Codispoti (01:12:30.868)
Kate and Emily, have just one more question for you, but before I ask it, I want to do two things. First of all, if you’re listening today and you like today’s content, please hit the like, share, or subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. I also want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you. We’ve got your website, everbloommontessori .com. Is that how people should reach out to

Kate & Emily (01:12:54.026)
Yep, you can find us there. You can find us on Instagram, Everglow Montessori. If you ever want to reach out via email, it’s just hello at everglowmontessori

Anthony Codispoti (01:13:04.093)
Right. Last question for you. I’m curious how you see your industry evolving in the next five years. What do you think some of the big changes are that are coming?

Kate & Emily (01:13:17.324)
I’m hopeful. with just more funding in general, with some of the advocacy work that we’re doing, we’re meeting with state representatives and county commissioners and really starting to just really have those conversations with them about what it looks like to help out more at the state level or the county level.

for families like Kate mentioned, like this isn’t just the issue for the families that have children. It’s an issue for the employers that need employees who can’t find childcare so then they can’t work. I, outside of financially helping those families as well as the people who work in the industry so that they have those higher wages, but also just more people that…

have the resources to be able to open and provide more early childhood education to families. I know personally, I would not be at this position without Kate and her knowledge and her expertise and what she’s brought into this. just having more resources available, I hope that within the next five years, all of those things come to fruition and that

in a much better place in this industry to support the families and the people that work in them. I’m sure you have more to add. Yeah, I mean, I think a couple of things that are essentially tied to what you’re describing. there’s, you know, I think a big, there’s a big conversation around the economics of childcare, right? So the state of Michigan, there was a, the National Chamber of Commerce Foundation, I think, released a study.

last year that said Michigan’s economy loses 2 .8 billion with a B dollars annually due to the lack of child care. so I, yeah, yeah, billion with a B every year because of a lack of child care. So the conversation is really getting elevated to the business community and being quantified in a way that is undeniable. And so I’m hopeful that more

Kate & Emily (01:15:31.264)
public private partnerships are going to come to the table where employers are sponsoring childcare facilities, where they’re investing in their workers, the cost for their workers. There are a few things in Michigan right now. There’s a thing called the Try Share Program, which is a new initiative, which has yet to really take off, but is a three -pronged approach where the employee pays a third of the cost.

Kate & Emily (01:16:01.619)
employer pays a third of the cost and then the state contributes a third of the cost of childcare. Things like that where the employers are understanding the value of the consistency and support for their employees I think is a big opportunity. There’s definitely some momentum around that. And just overall like state funding that is focused on stabilizing the industry.

It’s not really any different than K -12 education. In our opinion, it’s maybe more important because of that zero to six brain development. so you’re seeing a lot of things like universal pre -K come online around different states. That’s one of the priorities in Michigan. That is, I think there’s a lot of potential in the public -private partnership space. The thing that I’m most hopeful about though is

The standardization of funding doesn’t cause a monoculture of options and ways that people can choose to do early childhood for their families because there really isn’t one right way. If I’ve learned anything in working in this space is that there are as many

different needs and wants and preferences as there are families out there because everyone’s situation is very different. So maintaining flexibility in that is going to be really important.

Anthony Codispoti (01:17:36.667)
Well, those are some fun developments to follow. I’ll have to check back in with you in a year or two and see if there’s been progress on those fronts. But Kate and Emily, want to be among the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate

Kate & Emily (01:17:52.638)
Yeah, thank you so much for having us. Yeah, this was fun. Thanks a lot.

Anthony Codispoti (01:17:56.528)
Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.