The Building Project --
 


Gloria Dei Montessori School
Montessori education for ages 18 mos. to 12 Years 615 Shiloh Drive, Dayton, OH 45415
937-274-7195

 

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A QUICK LOOK AT OUR LAST 45 YEARS

Gloria Dei Montessori began back when Ginny Varga, a UD graduate and teacher, was bitten by the Montessori "bug". In 1961 she and her husband Don moved to Greenwich, CT, where Ginny enrolled in the country's first Montessori training program. Returning to Dayton, OH in 1962 they incorporated Children's Laboratory Schools and began their first classes in a rented house on Kenwood Ave. Not only was this our first Gloria Dei class, but it was also the first Montessori class in Dayton, and only the second in Ohio. The class was made up of the children of some friends who were excited about this new venture and children of members of the year-old Dayton Montessori Society, a parents group interested in Montessori education. Ginny taught the class, assisted by her husband and Lois MacMillan.

In 1963, with the help of Mason Bagwell, Sr., Gloria Dei moved into rooms in Shoup Mill School. A class for six year olds was added there in 1965. Also in 1965 Gloria Dei began the first Montessori toddler class in the United States. All this growth began to demand more space, so in 1967 the school moved into rooms at Valerie Elementary. Later in 1967 the school left the spaces in the Dayton schools and started the "church-basement" years. In the lower level of the First Church of God on Salem Ginny conducted classes for children 18 months to 9 years old. A few years later they moved the whole operation into the Salem Lutheran Church at Catalpa and Norman. In 1975, after adding a middle school, Ginny and Don purchased the present building on Shiloh Dr. and turned it into a Montessori school. In 1991 the school was able to complete work on a second building on Shiloh Dr, that is home to two 3-6 year old classes.

Gloria Dei has a long list of "firsts" in our first 45 years; first Montessori class in Dayton, first toddler program in the U.S., and one of the first 6-9 year old and 9-12 year old programs in the U.S.

Today Gloria Dei Montessori is run by Christina Allen who is a former student at the school. Christina took over the reigns at her alma mater in June of 2003 to carry on the traditions of excellence and inovation at the school she loves far into the twenty-first century.