Doors on Montessori School not quite closed

Don’t close the doors just yet on plans for the opening of a New Hope Montessori School in Maricopa.

At Tuesday evening’s council meeting, Shannon Johns, who along with his wife, Kari, had originally proposed the school, spoke during the call to the public. Johns asked council to revisit the planned school. He said the project, terminated on Sept. 6, is worth revisiting. “It is important to the community,” Johns said.

The couple had said earlier this month that opening a temporary site within a “Special Planning Area” on Maricopa’s General Plan proved to be challenging. They noted that added costs required by the city to construct half street improvements prior to opening would not be financially feasible to operate a business.

Shannon Johns noted Thursday morning that everything is on hold until the couple can get in front of city council.

“I was surprised to see that council took more of a serious look at our situation than what the City’s planning and development department had done,” Johns said. “They’re willing to do whatever it takes to get more options here in Maricopa for preschool education. Hopefully, we can get it through.”

Johns said that since the couple withdrew its lease ($6,500 per month), they would have to go into negotiations with the landowners to see if they would like to still work with them. “We would focus on a fall 2008 opening since we’re probably looking at December/January now if we were to get approved,” Johns said.

Originally, the couple thought they could file for a temporary use permit but were later told to file for conditional use, being led to believe that perhaps they could place the half-street issue on as a condition to be met at a later date.

“Unfortunately, towards the end, we could not get half-streets placed on as a condition, and the added costs for constructing the improvements would not allow our business to operate in the black, even at capacity,” Johns told inmaricopa.com earlier this month.

The couple said earlier this month that when they envisioned opening a Montessori school four years ago, and put that plan into action when moving to Maricopa in late 2005, they thought getting in on the ground floor within a new up-and-coming city would be a welcoming venture. “We thought wrong,” the couple said.

Now, it appears there is hope on the horizon, with the city looking at a second chance to make the school happen.

“After the meeting (Tuesday night), I did speak with a few of the council members as well as Amy Haberbosch (planning director) to see what we can do to get this approved,” Johns said. “Our original meeting was set for October 16, but may have to be tabled to give the city more time to prepare.” Johns added that he has submitted a written request to the city to reinstate the project.

On another matter, Johns, who earlier this month announced his resignation as a member of the Maricopa Unified School District school board, told inmaricopa.com he will be rescinding his resignation letter with the district today. He’s doing that until the couple can get more information from the city as to the status of the Montessori project.