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Montessori Makers Toolbox
The Montessori Makers Toolbox is a growing library of downloadable resources for school leaders — handbooks, policies, surveys, frameworks, and leadership tools designed for real Montessori schools, not generic education systems.
Start Here
Free Resources
These free guides reflect the same rigor and specificity behind every paid tool. Download them, use them, and share them.
Fifteen progressive HR policies built for the real culture of Montessori schools — covering compassionate separation, mutual accountability, flexible work, and the employment practices that reflect the values you hold for children.
For: Heads of school, directors, and HR leads
Share with your community — montessorimakersgroup.org
A framework for building staff wellness and school continuity through a shared guide role that floats across classrooms. Covers the rationale, implementation, and what to look for when hiring for this role.
For: Heads of school and leadership teams exploring staffing models
Share with your community — montessorimakersgroup.org
A practical guide to enrollment growth strategy, expansion planning, staffing for scale, and the organizational questions schools often skip in the rush to grow. Built for leaders navigating real increases in size and complexity.
For: Heads of school, boards, and leadership teams
Download FreeCovers how to build a fundraising culture that reflects Montessori values — including case for support development, donor communication, annual fund strategy, and the specific challenges of mission-rich, resource-constrained schools.
For: Development leads, heads of school, and boards
Download FreeBudget development, financial reporting, reserve policy, and cash flow planning — practical and non-jargon, designed for school leaders who didn't come from finance backgrounds but need to build real financial health.
For: Heads of school, business managers, and boards
Download FreeWhy These Tools Exist
Most Montessori schools are built by people who care deeply about the work — and are figuring out the organizational side as they go. Leaders inherit systems, reinvent documents, and carry institutional knowledge in their heads because no one built the structures beneath them.
Every tool in the Toolbox was built because the problem it addresses kept showing up — in schools doing their best, with real commitment, but without the right infrastructure to sustain it. The goal is simple: reduce friction, improve clarity, and help adults feel prepared.
50 tools
A growing library, with more in development.
Built for Montessori schools specifically — not adapted from generic education templates.
Downloadable and editable — designed to be implemented, not filed away.
Start With the Problem
Six entry points. Each maps to a curated set of tools, packaged as a bundle, built around a moment most schools hit at some point.
I just stepped into the head of school role.
A new head’s first year has a shape, and most of the work is invisible until you’re in it. This is the operating system for it.
Start with
New Head of School Bundle
We’re entering hiring season.
Hiring is the highest-leverage decision a school makes. The infrastructure to do it well, and the practices to keep the people you hire.
Start with
Hiring Season Bundle
The operations side is fragile.
The business and operational infrastructure underneath the school, named honestly. Six tools for the work most heads of school never had time to build.
Start with
Business Operations Bundle
Our finances need deliberate work.
Tuition, financial aid, fundraising, compensation, and the financial literacy a board and head need to hold the picture together.
Start with
Financial Sustainability Bundle
We’re committing to real equity work.
The full arc, from leadership audit to faculty audit to a year of implementation. Each instrument feeds the next.
Start with
Justice Centered Equity Bundle
A hard moment is coming, or one is already here.
The infrastructure for the moments most schools improvise. Crisis communication, emergency response, investigations, and personnel processes that carry consequence.
Start with
Crisis Ready Bundle
Or browse the full 50-tool catalog below.
Browse all tools
Fifty individual tools across three categories. Search by what you’re looking for, or combine filters to narrow toward the one you need.
By Role
By Category
By Price
Showing 50 of 50 tools
All roles · All categories · All prices
7 tools
◆Culture & Adult Development
A principled architecture for the adult culture of your school. Replaces informal norms, personality-driven authority, and reactive conflict with coherent, Montessori-aligned structures for how adults lead, communicate, and hold one another accountable.
55-page field guide + supporting tools
$695
◆Culture & Adult Development
An equity-centered system for navigating conflict and delivering feedback in Montessori schools — tiered, documented, and built for the real complexity of adult professional relationships.
26-page protocol + tools
$210
◆Culture & Adult Development
A full-year professional development planning workbook with suggested weekly topics, differentiated tracks for guides and assistants, and a Beginning of Year tab for in-service planning. Editable in Excel or Google Sheets.
Editable Excel workbook · 5 tabs
$197
◆Culture & Adult Development
A self-guided diagnostic for leadership teams ready to audit whether their stated equity commitments are reflected in their actual systems. Includes a self-scoring guide, a four-round debrief protocol, and a next-steps framework.
48-page PDF · 38 diagnostic questions across 4 domains
$197
◆Culture & Adult Development
The faculty-facing companion to the Toolbox Edition. A pre-commitment letter, anti-retaliation policy, full 44-question staff instrument, facilitator brief, and synthesis tooling — built so faculty can speak honestly without exposure, and leadership can hear it without defending.
44-question instrument + facilitator brief, synthesis template, anti-retaliation policy, staff communication templates
$297
◆Culture & Adult Development
A year-long operational workbook that takes the commitments surfaced in the Equity Audit and turns them into structured infrastructure — quarterly agendas, working tables, and templates for the systems-level changes the audit identified. Designed to be used, not read.
Year-long working manual · four quarterly agendas · seventeen tables · full template library
$325
◆Culture & Adult Development
A coaching-forward observation system for instructional leaders. Observation tools, feedback frameworks, and the rhythms that make adult development real — not performance review theater.
Observation tools · coaching protocols · feedback frameworks · cycle rhythms
$295
31 tools
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
The operating infrastructure for a functioning Montessori leadership team. Meeting rhythms, decision protocols, delegation frameworks, and accountability systems — built to reduce friction and bring clarity to how your team actually works.
65-page playbook
$595
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Equitable, philosophy-aligned hiring from job description through offer letter. Structured to find candidates who align with your mission and values — not just your credential list.
26-page toolkit
$450
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
When a leader leaves, schools lose more than a person — they lose the invisible systems, institutional memory, and informal knowledge built over years. This toolkit structures the transition before, during, and after.
64-page toolkit
$425
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Structured, dignified, and legally sound processes for managing performance concerns through to separation when needed. For the conversations no one prepares you for — with tools that help you handle them well.
112-page toolkit
$395
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A principled compensation system — pay philosophy, salary banding, annual review cycle, and equity audit. Includes an Excel workbook for maintaining salary bands. For schools where compensation decisions need to be defensible.
8 documents + Excel workbook
$395
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
End-to-end enrollment infrastructure — inquiry management, tour protocol, admissions decisions, waitlist management, and re-enrollment. Built for the operational complexity schools actually face.
8 documents
$425
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A structured first 90 days for incoming heads of school and directors — the relationships to build, the decisions that can't wait, and the institutional knowledge to absorb before acting.
7 documents
$375
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Stay interviews, working conditions assessment, exit analysis, and retention-centered culture practices. For schools that want to keep the people they worked hard to find.
7 documents
$325
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A full-year operational planning system — month-by-month leadership calendar, board calendar, enrollment rhythm map, and staff cycle planning. So the school year is mapped, not improvised.
6 documents
$225
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A board-level engagement, structured. Takes a school from blank-page strategic question through retreat, drafted plan, and the year-by-year execution architecture that turns a plan into actual movement. Includes facilitation guides, sample completed text, and the discipline to keep the plan alive after it's written.
18-week board-engaged process · retreat facilitation · plan document templates with sample completed text · year-by-year execution architecture
$495
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
When something goes wrong at a school, the first 24 hours decide what families remember. This toolkit gives leadership the holding statements, family communication templates, and staff equipping memos to respond clearly under pressure — built before the moment of need so it's ready when it arrives.
31-page toolkit · 5 fully drafted holding statements · 4 family communication templates · staff equipping memo
$375
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working emergency response plan template for Montessori schools. Roles, communication trees, decision authority, and the post-incident protocols schools actually need before something goes wrong.
Working template · roles · communication trees · decision authority · post-incident protocols
$295
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Structured, defensible processes for handling formal staff complaints and workplace investigations. For schools that need to do this right when they do it at all — protecting the institution, the people involved, and the integrity of the process.
Investigation procedures · documentation templates · interview protocols · finding letters
$325
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Specialized transition infrastructure for founder-led schools. Identity work, governance shifts, and the process of moving from founder to next leadership in a way the school can survive.
Identity work · governance shifts · transition timeline · post-founder communication
$425
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Twenty fully scripted difficult conversations heads of school have to lead — with families, with staff, with boards. Read, adapt, deliver. Reduces the cognitive load when the moment matters.
20 fully scripted conversations · with families, staff, and boards
$97
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A year of faculty meeting agendas, structured by purpose and rhythm. Replaces the weekly scramble with intentional adult time — protected, prepared, and aligned to the school's actual development priorities.
Year of agendas · structured by purpose and rhythm
$97
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A structured mid-year leadership team calibration. Where are we against the plan, what needs to change, and what needs to stay. Built to be done in a half-day.
Half-day calibration agenda · diagnostic tools · plan adjustment templates
$97
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working bank of stay-interview questions used quarterly across staff. The tool that gives heads of school real signal on retention before exit interviews tell them too late.
Working question bank · quarterly use · documentation templates
$47
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A library of working job descriptions for every staffed role in a Montessori school. Editable, equity-conscious, and aligned to authentic Montessori work.
Library of editable job descriptions · every staffed role
$197
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A structured annual report template — narrative, data, financials, and forward-looking commitments. Built for boards and donors, designed so the production cycle is one week, not three.
Structured template · narrative · data · financials · forward commitments
$147
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working communications calendar — every audience, every channel, every cycle of the school year. So messaging is rhythmic, not reactive.
Editable calendar · every audience, channel, and cycle
$97
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Everything a school needs to launch an adolescent program — Erdkinder framework, adult capacity hiring, real-work site partnerships, and the year-one planning architecture.
Erdkinder framework · adult capacity hiring · partner site protocols · year-one architecture
$495
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A complete toolkit for launching or strengthening a toddler program. Environment, hiring, family communication, and the operational decisions schools most often get wrong.
Environment · hiring · family communication · operational checklists
$395
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
Operational templates and policies built specifically for the constraints public and charter Montessori schools face — state reporting, accountability frameworks, and authentic Montessori within public structures.
State reporting · accountability frameworks · authentic Montessori within public structures
$495
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A diagnostic for Montessori leadership teams ready to look honestly at the business and operational infrastructure underneath the school they have built. Surfaces what is actually working and what is quietly fragile, in time to do something about it.
48-page workbook + 43-question diagnostic across four operational domains
$395
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
The infrastructure for sustained stewardship of the building, the land, and the prepared environment your school actually depends on. A twenty-year capital plan, a funded reserve methodology, and the board conversation that produces real stewardship.
32-page workbook + companion Excel workbook (inventory, 20-year capital plan, reserve calculator, board summary)
$495
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
The architecture of the relationship that decides whether a Montessori school operates with coherence or with two separate worlds inside one building. Decision rights, meeting rhythms, communication protocols, and scripts for the conversations that go badly most often.
28-page playbook with decision rights map, meeting rhythms, communication architecture, and conversation scripts
$295
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working framework for naming what could go wrong, what protects you when it does, and what your school is quietly carrying without realizing it. Risk register template, insurance audit, and the broker conversation that produces honest answers.
24-page toolkit covering risk register methodology, insurance coverage audit, and broker conversation guide
$325
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working framework for treating after-care, summer programs, parent education, and facility rentals as the revenue centers they actually are. Pricing logic, staffing models, full profit-and-loss for each program, and a consolidated view across the auxiliary practice.
22-page guide + Excel workbook with profit-and-loss templates for extended care, summer, parent education, and facility rentals, with consolidated view
$295
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A working guide for Montessori schools that carry mortgage debt, are considering bond financing, or need to make a decision about refinancing. Loan types, key metrics, covenant management, and the discipline of ongoing debt stewardship.
22-page primer covering debt types, key metrics, covenant management, refinancing logic, and new-debt decision framework
$295
◆Leadership & Organizational Systems
A vendor-agnostic framework for evaluating, selecting, and stewarding the systems your school actually runs on, regardless of which platform you choose. The decision logic that produces choices you will not regret eighteen months in.
22-page framework covering the categories of systems, vendor evaluation, selection process, implementation, and stewardship
$195
12 tools
◆Governance & Community
Boards that govern well start with strong onboarding. This toolkit builds shared understanding of roles, culture, and expectations from the first meeting — so new members can contribute from day one.
61-page toolkit
$325
◆Governance & Community
A full editable staff handbook covering policies, culture, expectations, and procedures — written with Montessori adult culture in mind. Ready to adapt and implement in your school.
234-page editable template
$297
◆Governance & Community
A comprehensive, editable family handbook built specifically for Montessori schools. Reflects your philosophy and community — not a generic school district template adapted to fit.
72-page editable template
$197
◆Governance & Community
A deep, actionable guide to school finance for leaders who didn't come from finance — budget construction, financial statements, cash flow, reserve strategy, and board finance conversations.
7 guides
$275
◆Governance & Community
The financial structure under your pricing decisions, built into a coherent system. Per-child cost analysis, tuition decision frameworks, financial aid policy, indexed and sliding-scale modeling, and the family-facing communication that surrounds it. For finance committees and boards making defensible pricing calls.
Per-child cost worksheet · tuition decision document · financial aid policy template · indexed tuition modeling · sliding scale design · full pricing statement · annual letter · family Q&A
$395
◆Governance & Community
A complete development practice in toolkit form — eight drafted ask letters across donor segments, a case for support, an hour-by-hour giving day run sheet, and stewardship plans that match each donor's relationship to the school. Built for schools running real annual fundraising, not introducing the idea of it.
8 fully drafted ask letters · case for support sample · hour-by-hour giving day run sheet · stewardship plan by donor segment
$325
◆Governance & Community
A voice and brand identity reference for Montessori schools. Tone, language patterns, what to say, what to never say, and how to keep messaging coherent across staff who write to families.
Voice guide · tone reference · language patterns · what to never say
$325
◆Governance & Community
Scripted tour and open-house language for admissions teams. Real questions families ask, real answers, equity-centered. Trains a team to deliver consistent message — not depend on whoever happens to be at the front desk.
Scripted tour and open-house language · admissions team training tool
$147
◆Governance & Community
A tiered, equity-centered system for surfacing and resolving family concerns before they escalate. Built to keep relationships intact while protecting institutional integrity.
Tiered protocol · escalation pathway · documentation templates
$275
◆Governance & Community
The financial reporting infrastructure your board actually needs, built for Montessori schools and translated out of for-profit conventions that do not serve the work. Templates, ratios, and the narrative discipline that turns numbers into governance.
20-page guide + full Excel workbook (monthly dashboard, quarterly dashboard, 12-week cash forecast, ratios calculator, board summary)
$250
◆Governance & Community
The recurring filings, audits, renewals, and reports your Montessori school is legally obligated to submit, organized into a calendar you can actually run. Federal, state, and internal, with owners and due dates.
18-page guide + Excel workbook with thirty pre-loaded annual filings, customizable by state and fiscal year
$195
◆Governance & Community
The governance documents, policy templates, and conversations a Montessori school needs to begin building an endowment with integrity. Investment policy, spending policy, gift acceptance, and the readiness criteria for knowing whether your school is ready.
26-page framework with investment policy statement, spending policy, gift acceptance policy, and reporting templates
$395
Bundles
The Master Library and the audience-first bundles below are the highest-impact entry points for most schools. Functional and specialized bundles are listed after, organized by what they refresh or what context they serve.
Start here
Master Library · All 50 tools
Every paid tool in the MMG Toolbox — all 50 tools across the full catalog, including the 10-tool Business Operations expansion. The complete infrastructure for the work of running a Montessori school well.
Includes
For: School networks, consultants, accreditors, and schools investing in the full MMG infrastructure
$8,495
$14,190 · Save $5,695 (40%)
The operational infrastructure heads of school do not have time to build from scratch, translated into Montessori reality. Six core tools that produce a school running with the rigor the educational work deserves.
Includes
For: Heads of school inheriting operational structures someone else built, business managers stepping into schools that have not had one before, founder-led schools moving from improvisation to infrastructure, and boards taking fiduciary responsibility seriously
$1,495
$1,955 · Save $460 (24%)
The operating system for a new head's first year. Strategic direction, daily operations, leadership team rhythms, and the recurring practices that build institutional muscle.
Includes
For: A leader stepping into the head of school role, often within a year of transition
$2,150
$2,676 · Save $526 (20%)
The full arc of equity work: leadership audit, faculty audit, year of implementation. Each instrument feeds the next. The path from diagnostic clarity to durable change.
Includes
For: Schools committed to equity work as sustained practice rather than initiative
$695
$819 · Save $124 (15%)
The integrated practice of running a school that can sustain itself — tuition methodology, financial aid policy, annual giving cycle, compensation alignment, and the literacy a board and head need to hold the financial picture.
Includes
For: Schools whose financial position needs deliberate work, including independent and charter schools
$1,275
$1,537 · Save $262 (17%)
More audience-first bundles
The infrastructure for the moments most schools improvise. Crisis communication, emergency response, formal investigations, and the personnel processes that carry consequence.
Includes
For: Schools building infrastructure for hard moments before the hard moment arrives
$1,150
$1,390 · Save $240 (17%)
The integrated hiring practice that produces both the right hires and the systems to keep them. Hiring infrastructure, compensation discipline, role clarity, and retention practice.
Includes
For: Schools entering or sharpening their hiring season, often in spring
$1,175
$1,414 · Save $239 (17%)
Functional bundles
The complete adult systems infrastructure. Hiring, performance, conflict, compensation, investigation, retention, and the day-to-day practices that hold the staff community.
Includes
For: Schools building the full HR backbone of their adult community
$2,150
$2,738 · Save $588 (21%)
The family side of the school's public face. Recruitment, enrollment, communication, conflict resolution, and the operational practices that hold the family relationship.
Includes
For: Schools investing in how families encounter, choose, and live with the school
$1,225
$1,466 · Save $241 (16%)
The recurring rhythms that produce a school running well. Operations, calendar, communications, meetings, calibration, and the year-end documentation.
Includes
For: Schools building or refreshing the daily operational backbone
$1,050
$1,258 · Save $208 (17%)
The infrastructure of substantive governance. Board onboarding, strategic planning, financial literacy for board work, and the reporting cadence that keeps boards substantively engaged.
Includes
For: Schools sharpening board practice or onboarding new board leadership
$1,025
$1,242 · Save $217 (17%)
Specialized bundles
The deliberate, multi-year work of transitioning leadership well. Founder-specific work, general succession, operational continuity, and onboarding the next leader.
Includes
For: Schools navigating the transition of a founder or other long-tenured head of school
$1,495
$1,820 · Save $325 (18%)
The practice of developing the adults who develop the children. Observation, coaching, professional development, conflict, and the difficult conversations leadership requires.
Includes
For: Schools building substantive instructional leadership and coaching practice
$1,250
$1,494 · Save $244 (16%)
The specific operational infrastructure for public charter Montessori. Authorizer relationships, dual identity, equity work, and strategic direction in charter context.
Includes
For: Public charter Montessori schools building infrastructure that holds both identities
$1,250
$1,512 · Save $262 (17%)
The architecture for adding programs to the school well. Adolescent launch, toddler launch, and the strategic planning that makes either decision deliberate.
Includes
For: Schools considering or actively launching new program levels
$1,150
$1,385 · Save $235 (17%)
Also in the MMG Learning collection
The Family Education Series is a ready-to-deliver 10-session program for schools to use at family nights and parent meetings. Includes slide decks and branded agenda handouts for every session — from Montessori orientation through transitions.
What leaders say
“The Adult Culture Framework gave us a shared language we'd been missing for years. It didn't just name the problems — it gave us a way to actually address them.”
Head of School
Independent Montessori, Northeast
Adult Culture Framework“I used the Leadership Operations Playbook during our transition and it saved us. Months of institutional knowledge that would have walked out the door got documented in two weeks.”
Outgoing Director
AMI school, Pacific Northwest
Leadership Operations Playbook“We'd had two difficult separations in the past year and no consistent process for either. The Performance & Separation Toolkit changed how we handle this work — more fairly and with more clarity.”
Program Director
Charter Montessori, Southwest
Performance & Separation ToolkitPart of the Ecosystem
Every tool connects to deeper work available across the ecosystem. Schools working through Advisory use these frameworks in implementation. Schools hiring through MatchHub use the Hiring Toolkit to structure the process. Schools in transition use the Succession Toolkit as a foundation. The tools stand alone — and they go further when the work goes deeper.
Browse the full toolkit library or explore free resources to get started.
