MTS Strategic Vision

During the pandemic, the portables were introduced as a temporary method to create smaller classroom environments in response to public health concerns. Over this time, the shift to these smaller class sizes has been highly rewarding for our students and teachers. Our amendments to the use permit would allow this new learning model to become permanent at MTS.

Our enrollment increase would happen over time. We would like to increase enrollment by 15 students per year for the first three years and then 10 students in the fourth year. This phased approach will allow us to adapt to each increase and effectively manage school operations.

In addition to smaller classes, the increased enrollment will create additional revenue that the school plans to use to be a good neighbor and enhance our academic institution for families from Mill Valley and around Marin County. The school is committed to using the additional revenue to:

• Increase salary and benefits for educators. Educators are essential to the success of schools. As the cost of living continues to increase in Marin and the importance of the work of educators only grows, we must pay our educators appropriately.
• Increase investments in transportation management. We plan to increase van or bus shuttles to school. We would also like to work with neighbors on investments that benefit the neighborhood.
• Increase socio-economic diversity. Our tuition makes MTS inaccessible to many families. Because we value socioeconomic diversity, we offer approximately $1.4M in need-based tuition assistance per year. We would like to increase this to ensure our school is accessible to a greater number of Marin’s families, regardless of their economic status.
• Increase attention to student mental health. The pandemic has drawn attention to a mental health crisis here in Marin County. Across schools – public and independent – students need more support dealing with the mental health impact of their lived experience. The funds available from more students at the school will allow us to grow our mental health support services.

With ~26 students in each grade level, the classrooms would need to be split into two classes of 13 students. This model is not economically sustainable given the requirements for teacher staffing, new learning spaces, and student resources. Classes of this smaller size also do not best serve the social-emotional needs of the students.

We strive to be a good partner with the local neighborhood in maintaining a safe and efficient passage during peak school hours. During daily arrival and dismissal, we currently run one-way traffic control to manage the flow of school-related trips. In the afternoon we add personnel at the school gate to maintain safe, efficient passage up adjacent roads.

Working with traffic experts, MTS has identified a number of ways to improve our current transportation management as part of this application. We plan to use a number of strategies to reduce traffic through such tools as:

• Increased bus and van service to the school. With many local families in our school community, we have the ability to run a Mill Valley shuttle service that would reduce traffic in the neighborhood. Such a shuttle could also use wide roads from Mill Valley to campus by approaching the school from the south – Shoreline to Loring to California.
• Remote drop-off. We are able to use shuttles to bring students to campus from remote drop-off locations in less traffic-impacted areas.
• Increased carpooling. Currently carpooling is informal and we have a significant opportunity for a higher utilization rate. Using both technological tools as well as geographic research by our staff, we have the ability to proactively create carpools that would reduce trips.

We view our application as an opportunity to create a dynamic transportation management plan to enhance our operations. We would look to use the best combination of these strategies to appropriately reduce our impact on the neighborhood.

No. We are not proposing any changes to the Grove as part of our application with the County of Marin. The proposed campus enhancements would replace our existing portable classrooms with permanent classrooms and add 950 square feet to our administrative building.

Over the past 30 years, school operations have evolved since the original use permit was drafted. As part of our application, we are also seeking necessary updates to school staffing and our kindergarten program. 

On average, our local, independent K-8 schools have one employee for every 4.5 students. We are applying to have one employee for every 5 students, which conforms with the ratios of other schools similarly situated throughout the County. 

At all schools, Kindergarten has become a core academic program that establishes the foundation for long-term student success. What used to be a year of just exploration, Kindergarten is now a year focused on fundamental literacy and numeracy skills. Our application requests a change in our Kindergarten from a half-day to a full-day program, which is the standard in today’s school environment.