Rain Lily Montessori School

Welcome to Rain Lily Montessori School, a Wildflower School in Fernandina Beach, Florida.

Rain Lily Montessori School in Fernandina Beach, Florida, provides an authentic Montessori education for preschool children ages 3-6.  Our beautiful child-centered Montessori environment offers young children the opportunity to learn and grow in a nurturing and peaceful classroom community.  We are an intentionally diverse community of learners, with equity and inclusivity at the core of our guiding principles. We believe that all families of young children in our community should have access to a high quality Montessori Education regardless of financial means.

We are a member of the Wildflower Network of schools. Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Wildflower aspires to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey.

Please contact us to receive more information about our school.

Our Teacher Leaders

Kati McClurg (she/her/hers)

Rain Lily Montessori School Founding Teacher Leader

Kati McClurg has served as an Early Childhood Educator for more than 30 years. Six years ago she discovered her love of Montessori education and has since focused her passions on this methodology. Kati holds a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from the University Wisconsin-Stout and attained her American Montessori Society (AMS/MACTE) Primary Credential from Summit Montessori Teacher Training Institute in Davie, FL. Kati brings a wide variety of experiences with her as an educator, having taught in three African countries, a small Alaskan Yup’ik village, and a variety of US schools as well. She is passionate about both environmental and place-based education, which partner beautifully with the Montessori methodology of teaching.

In her free time Kati enjoys time with her two teenage daughters; exploring nature, taking their dog for long walks, spending time at the beach, and gardening.

Kati is honored to be the founding teacher leader of Rain Lily Montessori School and looks forward to the opportunity to bring Montessori education for all to our Amelia Island community. Rain Lily Montessori is proud to offer equitable access to high quality Montessori early education and will ensure that our school community is diverse, equitable, and inclusive.

Tania Castro (she/her/hers)

Rain Lily Montessori School Co-Founding Teacher Leader

Tania is originally from Cuba, but she has lived in the Fernandina Beach area for the past nine years. She holds a B.S. in Exceptional Student Education from Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas in Cuba and her AMS Montessori Primary Credential from Duhovka Montessori Training Center. Tania began her teaching career in 2006 as an educator in Cuba. Once she discovered the Montessori philosophy of teaching, she knew she had chosen the right path. For Tania, Montessori is not just a philosophy, but a way of life. Tania is a lifelong learner, and it is her passion to instill that same love of learning within all of the children she teaches. She enjoys reading, cooking and going on beach walks with her children in her spare time. Tania looks forward to providing her students with a learning environment that cultivates their desire for a lifetime of learning and inspires them to transform both the world and themselves.

Tania is honored to be one of the co-founding teacher leaders of Rain Lily Montessori School. She looks forward to offering the opportunity for Rain Lily Montessori children to have exposure to a second language by teaching Montessori inspired Spanish language lessons as part of her philosophy of bringing together diverse children and families.

Rain Lily Montessori’s Commitment to Equity

We are committed to growing a school that provides an accessible and inclusive Montessori education for a diverse group of families.  We are driven by the Wildflower principle of equity and believe that all families in our community should have access to high quality, authentic Montessori early childhood education.  “As Montessorians, we believe children’s unique capacity to adapt to their environment makes childhood the key to the long-term improvement of society and our greatest hope for a more peaceful world. We cultivate that capacity in schools that include people of different racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds and seek out ways to make our schools more accessible to all families; we celebrate diversity and foster inclusivity; and, we consider the unique opportunities and challenges facing every child and commit to giving each student what they need to find their purpose and fulfill their potential.”

We are working to live up to this promise by adopting a Family Individualized Tuition Model, as well as equitable enrollment policies.  We want to work with your family to make Rain Lily Montessori Accessible to all!

We welcome all Florida scholarships/education support funds and offer VPK as another way to make our program affordable for all.  Please see links to these resources here:

School Details

Full Day

Monday – Friday, 8:30 AM -3:00 PM

Extended Day Program

Before-Care Monday – Friday, 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

After-Care Monday – Friday, 3:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Primary (3-5 year old children) 

7:30 am – 8:15 am Before Care
8:15 am – 8:45 am Arrival at the garden gate
8:45 am – 9:15 am Outdoor Time
9:15 am – 12:00 pm Morning Gather / Work Cycle
12:00 pm – 12:30 pm Lunch
12:30 pm – 2:30 pm Work Cycle / Quiet Time
2:3o pm – 2:45 pm Outdoor Time
2:45 pm – 3:15 pm Dismissal at the garden gate
3:15 pm – 5:30 pm After Care

Click to view and download our January-July 2023 School Calendar

We provide a healthy morning snack and children should bring a healthy lunch from home each day.

Enroll Now

Attend an Information Session

The application process begins with attending an Information Session where you will learn about Rain Lily Montessori School and the Wildflower Network.

Complete an Application

Please fill out our online application.

Meet our Teacher Leaders

After filling out an application, you will have an opportunity to sit down one-one-one with our Teacher-Leaders to learn more about our school. We look forward to getting to know you!

Non-discrimination Policy

Rain Lily Montessori School is a nonprofit organization and does not discriminate by race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, sex, disability, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or status with regard to public assistance. Furthermore, Rain Lily Montessori School admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Contact Us

Contact

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (904)432-7341

Address

2898 Bailey Road,
Fernandina Beach, FL 32034

Now Enrolling for the 2023-24 School Year!

News & Events

Community Events

Open Houses

*Now enrolling for the 2023-24 academic year.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates.

Resources

Learn about the Wildflower network from its founder, Sep Kamvar

Montessori from a father’s point of view

Consider a charitable gift to Rain Lily Montessori School. We believe educational opportunities should be available to families in our community regardless of financial means. We appreciate any support you might offer our learning community as we strive for social justice through quality, authentic Montessori education.

Donate

Rain Lily Montessori School is a 501(c)3 nonprofit school so all donations are tax deductible.

Our Board Members

Katrina Robinson-Wheeler, LMHC, LPC, MCAP, SAP

Rain Lily Montessori Board Member

Katrina Robinson-Wheeler is the Director of Outreach and Education and Mental Health First Aid Instructor at Starting Point Behavioral Healthcare, a community-based behavioral health treatment agency in Northeast Florida, where she has worked for the past 22 years. She served as a therapist for 11 years, specializing in Women’s Substance Use Disorder and Trauma treatment. She developed and implemented Starting Points Women’s Program.  Katrina is a graduate of the National Council for Behavioral Health’s Inaugural Addressing Health Disparities Leadership Program, and a graduate of the Leadership Nassau Program. She has also been a part of the Partnership for a Healthier Nassau since its inception.  Katrina completed training to be a Mental Health First Aid Instructor by the National Council for Behavioral Wellbeing and has trained over 4,000 Mental Health First Aiders in the N.E. Florida Region.

Melinda Kozo (she/her/hers)

Rain Lily Montessori Board Member

Melinda Kozo is a Teacher Leader at Magnolia Blossom Montessori in Louisville, Kentucky.  Each Wildflower School Board includes a Teacher Leader from another Wildflower School within the network. Melinda is serving in that role for Rain Lily and we are so grateful that she is willing to be a part of our journey and so freely offer her support and advice!.  Melinda is originally from Hungary.  She is excited to be a part of the extremely important work that Magnolia Blossom Montessori has been doing in the field of early childhood education!

Linda Batts (she/her/hers)

Rain Lily Montessori Board Member

Linda Batts is a retired Exceptional Educational Needs Teacher, originally from Buffalo, NY.  Now residing in Yulee, Florida, just off Amelia Island, she is a true people person, always quick to lend a helping hand and share a warm hug!

Robyn Nemes (she/her/hers)

Rain Lily Montessori Board Member

Robyn Nemes lives with her husband near Tucson, Arizona after living on Amelia Island for 14 years. She is a former public school educator and Park Ranger and, during her years on Amelia Island, taught after-school music classes with Arts Alive, coordinated the Wild Amelia Junior Naturalist Program and began the Seaside Strummers youth ukulele program. She is passionate about nature, photography, holistic wellness, music, and creativity in myriad forms!

Wildflower Schools

Rain Lily Montessori School is a member of the Wildflower Schools Network

About Wildflower Schools

After the first Wildflower school was created in January of 2014, there was intense interest in the school and the approach. This interest led us to open-source the model and help other family groups and teacher-leaders to create new Wildflower schools. Each teacher-leader at each Wildflower school serves on the board of at least one other Wildflower school, creating a community of schools that are linked by both a shared philosophy and a network of shared relationships.

Our aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between home and school, between scientists and teachers, between schools and the neighborhoods around them.Our schools are small and teacher-led, with deep parent engagement. At the core of Wildflower are 9 principles that define the approach.

Our network is supported by a foundation that works to build capacity, systems, tools and research to grow and strengthen the network.

Learn more about our story.

Our Principles

Our Nine Principles describe critical ways that our schools bring our purpose, values and norms to life. They are not the only way a community could seek to pursue our purpose and live into these values and norms, but they articulate the choices we’ve made about what to collectively uphold and by extension the aspirations that define what it means to be a Wildflower school.

Read about them here.

Our Network

At Wildflower, we are committed to the liberation of every human being, every community, and the human spirit, so that we may all live in harmony with our individual purpose and the world around us, free from oppression and able to follow life’s unfolding journey.  We value connectedness among all people, all of nature, and all facets of ourselves, as the pathway to peace.  We value growth along one’s evolutionary path, the blossoming of one’s inner essence, for children, teachers, families, all of our partners, and the whole world.

View our network.