Hill Country Montessori School, Inc. (HCMS) began its journey as a parent initiative to provide early childhood education to the Boerne community. It is the successor organization to St. Helena’s Montessori School, which was founded in 1981.
The South School Street campus in Boerne was purchased in 1990 and allowed us to expand our programs from early childhood through elementary. After adding our Upper Elementary class in the fall of 2007, it became apparent a larger campus was needed to meet the needs of our growing student population. That journey brought us to our current Hill Country Montessori School campus, constructed in 2009, nestled on 10 acres in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. It continues to serve children from preschool through 8th grade.
As a school community committed to providing children of the Texas Hill Country with an excellent Montessori education, we put great emphasis on remaining true to the Montessori philosophy and true to our mission. We accomplish this by continual self-evaluation and school improvement via professional development of our faculty, staff, and board and extending that new-found knowledge to our families through various community meetings and events.
Hill Country Montessori School is an American Montessori Society (AMS) accredited, non-profit school located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. HCMS is situated on 10 beautiful acres between Boerne and Spring Branch on State Highway 46 and offers an authentic Montessori education to students from preschool through 8th grade.
All of our lead teachers hold credentials from AMS or AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) recognized training programs, ensure the Montessori tenets and pedagogy remain true, and integrate lessons with specific Montessori didactic materials.
Our authentic Montessori classrooms group students into multi-age environments, which generally span three years of age. This allows younger students to model the behavior of older students and older students, in turn, exercise leadership skills. The multi-age groups also allow teachers to spend more than a single year with students, ultimately developing a greater bond and sense of community.
Our beautiful and refined Montessori classrooms allow children a large degree of autonomy when selecting lessons. Our teachers provide lessons to students individually or in groups and then observe the child as he/she works to master the concept. HCMS teachers ensure that students receive a complete education by guiding them through lessons of their choice, at their desired pace, which develops independence and self-discipline.
As a result of the dedication of all our community members, HCMS is proud to have achieved the following accreditations: American Montessori Society (AMS), May 2008, National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA), August 2019, and Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) through Cognia, December 2005.
The American Montessori Society (AMS) is the foremost advocate for quality Montessori education in the United States. AMS sets the high professional standards for Montessori education as practiced in AMS-accredited schools and taught in AMS-affiliated teacher programs.
Cognia is the largest community of education professionals in the world. They are a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts rigorous, on-site external reviews of Pre-K-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential.
HCMS currently is the only AMS accredited Montessori school in the San Antonio metropolitan area and one of only seven accredited Montessori schools in the state of Texas. We are licensed through the Texas Health and Human Services, Childcare Licensing Division, which sets forth regulations concerning our Toddler program.
