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Mount Tamalpais School is a coeducational, independent, elementary school, a non-profit (501) c (3) public benefit corporation, founded in 1976 by current head, Dr. Kathleen M. Mecca. MTS is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and the school is a member in good standing of CAIS, WASC, BADA, ERB, SSATB and NAIS.
The architecturally award-winning MTS campus is situated on more than 12 acres in the Marin Terrace area of suburban Mill Valley, 15 minutes north of San Francisco. We are close to the Pacific Ocean, the San Francisco Bay, Highway 101, and Scenic Route 1 leading to Mount Tamalpais and the coast. School facilities include three light-filled classroom buildings, Founder's Hall (featuring a full gymnasium and theatre, a dance/gymnastics room, a piano room, a music room, two instrumental/individual instruction rooms and a hospitality kitchen), the 15,000-volume Rappaport Library Learning Center, and a main computer lab, housing 20 student work stations and two faculty/staff work stations. There are also several computer mini-labs throughout the school, plus three portable carts, each of which hold 20 laptop computers. All teachers have desktop
or laptop computers at their desks, and the entire campus has wireless access to our network. The school grounds also include a large grass playing field and blacktop area, along with a well-appointed play structure, and a smaller grass circle area, a top level observatory and street the Cypress Grove outdoor learning area of more than one acre.
Drawn primarily from Marin County and San Francisco, Mount Tamalpais School students are a diverse group of academically capable, socially responsible children who thrive in a challenging, departmentalized program that requires intellectual curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, initiative, independence and collaborative learning. The student body is socioeconomically and multiculturally diverse. For a variety of reasons - some philosophical, some practical - MTS has a uniform policy, and there are a number of attractive, sturdy, good-quality, comfortable uniform options for families to choose from. (Click here for a photo of the school uniform.)
MTS is a departmentalized K-8 school, which ensures that faculty are able to teach and inspire students in their main areas of interest, training and expertise. The school is committed to personalized, small-group instruction and to helping each student maximize his or her academic potential and individual promise. An average teacher/student ratio of 1:8 ensures that students and teachers develop close, meaningful relationships over the years and maintain close ties well after graduation.
MTS teachers are chosen for their love of children, their commitment to education as a life work, their expertise, training and experience in their particular subject areas, their enthusiasm for elementary level education, their ability to work cooperatively with other teachers, and their ability to serve as guides, mentors and role models for our students. We seek teachers who are not only trained to work well with children and to instruct in a particular curricular area, but who are firmly grounded in principles of child and adolescent psychology as well as the creative, moral, cognitive and social development of children. The average tenure of a teacher at MTS is more than twelve years, indicating both a strong commitment to education as a career and to teaching as a vocation.
The MTS school day begins at 7:30a.m., when students and teachers may begin to arrive on campus. At 8:10, when the morning bell rings, homeroom teachers take attendance and announcements are made with lans for the day. Students have three instructional periods in the first part of the morning, followed by a 15-minute recess; then, after two more periods, students eat lunch and have an extended lunch recess. After three final afternoon periods, students are dismissed at 3:00 Monday through Thursday and at 2:15 on Friday. Most students do not go home immediately after school, and many participate in a wide range of school-sponsored and supervised activities, including athletics, music lessons, drama production rehearsals, study halls, library time, and other trimester enrichment classes. After-school care is available until 6:00 p.m.,
Monday through Friday. MTS families typically are very committed, participatory and involved. They are supportive of faculty, staff and administration; they value the strength and closeness of the school community, and they recognize the level of care and attention given to their children. A spirit of volunteerism is encouraged through our community service learning program, through family volunteer committees and projects, and through Student Council-sponsored drives, fund raisers, service times and special activities. Informal family and school events include Founder's Weekend in the fall, which includes Grandparents' and Special Friends' Day, Family Picnic Day, and the Faculty Fun Run, and a Gratitude Day in the Spring. These activities, along with neighborhood parties, school concerts, recitals, dance and drama productions, and year-end commencement exercises, reflect the value that MTS places on community, character, continuity and ritual.
Mount Tamalpais School seeks to provide students with a solid academic foundation and to foster genuine enthusiasm for lifelong learning through an intellectually stimulating, creative and challenging program. Working within a departmentalized curriculum and with teachers who are specialists in their subject areas develops students who are inquisitive, thoughtful, determined, independent, intellectually curious, creative thinkers and well-integrated human beings. The school's curriculum is designed to focus on the mastery of skills and concepts at each grade level, in each subject, while integrating query, investigation, problem-solving and high-level thinking skills. We want students to challenge themselves, to grow in creativity, to question, to seek information, to work well independently and to work well with others in a cooperative and
collaborative manner. It is our hope that each student will find and explore his or her individual strengths, interests and creative outlets and will be committed to contribute to the greater good for the rest of his or her life.
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