Giving to Montessori High School at University Circle

Montessori High School at University Circle is excited about the growth and changes in our campus and we would like you to be part of this excitement.  We have several ways that you can invest in the future of our school! 

Planned Giving Donations

Planned giving is one way to invest in Montessori High School at University Circle.  As a parent, grandparent or friend of MHS, you can make a gift during your lifetime and/or through your estate.  This type of gift benefits you and MHS.  These are options you can access through planned giving:

Insurance Policies
The option is available to assign Montessori High School as beneficiary, co-beneficiary or a secondary remainder of residual beneficiary of your life insurance policy or your retirement fund. MHS can also be assigned annual life insurance dividends.  If MHS is named the policy owner, the cash value of the policy may be deducted on your income tax return

Gift Annuities
You make an irrevocable gift of cash or securities in the name of Montessori High School and the school agrees to pay you a guaranteed percentage of the asset annually for life. A gift annuity can also have more than one income beneficiary. The rate of return on a gift annuity is determined by the donor's age.

Charitable Lead Trust
As a donor, you transfer property to the lead trust, which pays a percentage of the value of the trust assets, usually for a period of years, to Montessori High School.  At the end of the term, the trust remaining assets and any growth it has realized are passed to your heirs.  In creating a charitable lead trust there is no income tax deduction.  However, your gift or estate tax is greatly reduced and the growth is passed on in gift and estate tax-free.

A Charitable Remainder Trust  {CRT)
As a donor, you will contribute assets while retaining the income for yourself, or others during your lifetime. A remainder gift also allows you to take an income tax deduction for a portion of the value of your gift. Then this gift will be credited for the fair market value of the contributed assets. Because there are different types of CRT’s, i.e., flip trust, unitrust, an annuity trust, our MHS Development staff and advisor can review your options with you, allowing you to review the type that best meets your donor plan.

Wills and Bequests
This is one of the traditional planned giving option that donors use.  The gift is given to MHS through provisions made in the donor's will assigns a dollar amount or percentage of the estate. All of these bequests to MHS are free from federal estate tax and the estate and inheritance taxes of most states.

Securities
When you consider making a donation of securities to MHS rather than contributing the proceeds of a stock sale, you can significantly increase your tax deduction and the amount of income that Montessori High School  receives. For tax purposes, the value of your gift is always recorded as the average market value on the date of delivery. When transferring through your broker, the gift's value is determined by the date of transfer.

Annual Fund
David J. Kahn, Executive Director, opened our first annual fund by reaching out to parents, friends and our MHS Board members to be supportive in donating to this campaign.  

It is exciting to report that our Annual Fund has 100% support from our faculty.  Now, we are coming close the end of this year’s campaign. 

Take time to review part of the letter that David and our Parent Annual Fund Co-Chairmen wrote to our family of supporters:

Send your MHS Annual Fund Contribution to:                                                                                               Or Pay Online Now:

Shaping Our Future: Naming Opportunities

Another way you can invest in the future of Montessori High School at University Circle is through Naming Opportunities.  There are several options from which you can select to show your support and commitment to our school.  Please inquire with the MHS Institutional Advancement Office for more information about these naming opportunities.

First floor classrooms

When you enter the MHS Classroom Building, there are two large classrooms on each side of the main hallway.  Each of these classrooms accommodates 24 students.  The rooms are equipped with large sized smart boards, used for expanding information sharing, subject matter films and student presentations.
These rooms currently are used for classes in mathematics, English, anthropology, and for the speech and debate program.

Second floor classrooms

There are three second floor classrooms; two at the front of the building and one in the back overlooking the campus green provide space for our foreign language classes, special study projects, and English group-study for juniors.  Two of classrooms are equipped with smart boards and all have the unique classroom boards, suited for quickly changing them, and maintaining content for future use.

Second floor faculty room

Our faculty room is a space for staff meetings, conferences and java time.  The space overlooks the science lab and green house.  The door at the end of the room opens onto the porch area---and we know that in springtime and autumn, our faculty will also use this space for its calming effects.

Third floor convocation room and multi media center

All of our students gather in this spacious area for Theory of Knowledge classes, student meetings, and special events.  Its location next to the 3rd floor library is ideal for independent research. This area has hosted authors for English classes, speakers for the January ’09 X-Term, historians for anthropology programs, and students meet with business mentors in this large and open space.

Third floor offices

The three offices on the third floor, the principal’s, faculty, and David Kahn’s, are working areas for staff.  These rooms provide space for class preparation, meetings with individual students, and individual faculty conferences.  The theory that ‘the door is always open’ is put into practice in each of these rooms.

School Libraries

Our two libraries provide students with the understanding that holding a book, touching the pages, and knowing that the printed page is a partner to the technology advances in publishing are still important in the 21st century.  Families of students and other friends of Montessori High School have donated the books and we have also purchased books at the request of teachers and students.

Science Laboratory

Of significance to University Circle is the conversion of our carriage house into The Montessori High School Community Activist Science laboratory. The active pursuit of scientific knowledge extends to the very design of the building, the latter collaboration between our staff and scientists at the Natural History Museum.  Green technology is employed in a manner that allows students to measure its applied effectiveness. 

From the use of translucent roof materials, to an abundance of glass, to the use of solar panels, every effort has been made to reduce the environmental impact of the building.  Technology employed extends from the design, to state-of-the-
art student microscopes, to work spaces created to encourage small group activities and maximum use of computers.

We will share this building with students from Cleveland public schools, charter schools and our Montessori partner schools in the area.  The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is working with Chris Kjaer to create shared lectures and experiments.  A vertical-axis windmill will eventually provide wind power in a significant visible and verifiable display of the utilization of renewable resources.

Head of School Residence

The brick house behind the student residence is now the Head of School Residence.  A former carriage house, the building was transformed into a condominium that includes a spacious deck and wooded space beside the house.  Currently Chris and Amy Kjaer and their daughter live in the home, allowing Chris to be close to students in residence and dorm parents as well as managing the day-to-day activities of Montessori High School.  The large living room fireplace was added during the renovation, and a second floor was added to accommodate a bedroom, bathroom and storage space.

Campus Green Space

The classroom building purchase also included the large undeveloped space next to it.   This campus green will soon be used for our edible landscape program, with biology and science students initiating the planting season with seedlings started in the greenhouse.  While the area is one of just a few parcels of land that was never built on in University Circle, it also will become the first environmentally designed edible landscape in the City of Cleveland.  We expect it to become a fixture in our campus planning, and know it will draw visitors, environmentalists and scientists to examine the results and use them in future endeavors.

Main Driveway onto Campus
This historic brick driveway, original to the home that became our classroom building, winds into an environmentally compatible paved parking area, past the student dormitory and back onto Magnolia Drive. 

Please inquire with the MHS Institutional Advancement office for more information about these naming opportunities.

Thank you for investing in the future of
Montessori High School at University Circle.