I went to the Montessori school (NATO base). I visited the school and asked for fees. I have paperwork in my hands and I wanted to share this with the community:

SCHOOL YEAR 2010/2011

REGISTRATION :

Pre-school $ 260.00

Kindergarten & Elementary $ 300.00

Middle School $ 320

MOTHLY TUITION FOR PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN

Preschool :  8:30-12:30 $350.00 --------- 8:30:15:15 $410.00

Kindergarten : 8:30-15:15 $545.00

MONTHLY TUITION FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

8:30-15:15 $575.00

MONTHLY TUITION FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL

8:30-15:15 $620.00-------------8:30-15:15 for 9th and 10th grade $660.00

DAYCARE

7:30-8:30 Monthly $55.00

15:00-17:15 Monthly $75.00

Per hour care $6.00

Food $ 5.00 a day

The second child of the family receives a 20% discount; additional children receive 30% discount.

Private drivers (bus service) are available to pick up children in Lago or other areas. Fees to be discussed with the drivers.

Lady at the desk said 70% of the children come from italian families sponsored by the school to access the base.

She said the fees are different depending on the 'country' children come from. (BTW, she said italians pay even more!).

I am shocked to read that the fees vary depending on the 'country' the kids come from.  This, however, should not come as a complete surprise, as I was told by one of the teachers that staff is treated differently according to the spouse's rank.  At one point I had considered applying for a position with the school, but, after reading that on their application that they do, indeed, require you to disclose your spouse's rank, I changed my mind.  This teacher did confirm that this is the reason why they ask for your spouse's rank.  They also require you to disclose the number of children in your family.  If an applicant has more children, he/she is more appealing to the school, as there is a higher potential for more students.  I don't think I would feel very comfortable sending my children to a school who does not treat all staff equally because of rank.  It would most certainly make me wonder if such disparity is applied to the children as well.

Allow me to respond from a parent perspective, which is different from what you might get from a teacher.

There is absolutely no disparity on how children are treated - I have never seen evidence of the school administration interfering with how a teacher runs the classroom.  No one knows what rank my husband is and we have never been required to provide it.  The local Italians do pay more, but I don't see that as a problem...we are always in favor of our 'military' discounts. 

We socialize quite a bit during the school year with other parents (NATO and Italian) and I have not heard anything from our NATO military friends of having a different tuition rate based on country.  If that is indeed the case, it is likely less than what the local Italian students pay.  In fact, NATO military members receive free before school care, while the rest of us pay for it.

I know that the teaching situation is always a bit in flux because the school is run a bit more politically; however, the kids are always taken care of and taught appropriately.

The administrative side of the school is fairly insane, but that doesn't impact the children so much as it annoys the parents.  The worst part, in my opinion, is having to deal with afternoon traffic in Agnano -- absolutely miserable (but not enough for me to change schools).  

BT - Thanks for your feedback.  I'm very happy to know that all children are treated equally.  That is for sure a relief.  May I ask what you mean by the school being run a bit more politically and the administrative side being insane?  It honestly bothers me quite a bit to be asked what my spouse's rank is or how many children I have in order to apply for a position there.  In my opinion those factors should not even been taken into consideration when screening for a successful candidate.

Honestly, the front desk did not ask for our 'ranks'. I think the paperwork I have is given to all American families, no matter the rank.

I worked there for a year and a bit.  And while it is true that some of the staff get better treatment (I think its b/c admin hopes for a "favorable outlook" from their spouses), the children are all treated equally.  We sent our two children there for one year and it benefited them both greatly.  The only reason we switched them to the DoDs school is due to services we found out our son needed (that was realized by one of the Montessori teachers, to whom I will ALWAYS be grateful).  And yes, admin does interfere with some of the classroom practices--but the parent probably won't see it.

Kathryn - my son is in need of speech therapy (has verbal apraxia and been in therapy for over a year)......have you had any experience with obtaining speech therapy at either schools?  Thank you!

Tonya,

Unfortunately, there are no programs for children with disabilities at the school.  Our son, who is at the Montessori, also requires speech therapy, but we have to make a weekly trip to DoDDs for it. 

Anon - Thank you for the information.  How did you get your son set up for the speech therapy?  Did you receive an IEP through the school?  

Hi Tonya,

I would contact the DoDDs elementary school directly.  Based on my experience, they may want to do an assessment of your child to determine eligibility and once determined to be eligible, do an IEP.  The first POC would be Ms. Young, I believe.  She did our son's assessment/testing and was great - a very nice lady!   She will get you started/pointed in the right direction.

Not knowing the age of your child, I will say that there are eligibility issues surrounding the school a child attends.  If they are school age (K-12) in an area, like ours, that offers a DoDDs facility, they are ineligible to recieve educational services if they attend a different school (e.g. Montessori).  My son is able to receive services because he is still in pre-school and DoDDs does not have a pre-school program.  He becomes ineligible at the end of this school year as we have no plans to transfer him to DoDDs in the fall of 2011, when he is scheduled to start Kindergarten.  His speech therapist is aware and is working with him to ensure that he is ready.

We talked about speech therapy outside the school, but there are a couple of problems.  1.  The DoDDs folks are not allowed to 'free lance', as it were.  2.  An Italian therapist would be ineffective, because they wouldn't be able to teach our child the required sounds, etc, that he needs to know for English as a first language.  We have sounds that Italians don't use and vice versa.

One concern to sending your child with speech apraxia to a school other than DoDDs - many of them have a large number of non-English speaking children.  For instance, the Montessori and International schools at NATO have a high number of local Italian children.  The NATO and American students are greatly outnumbered.  While English is spoken as the teaching language, it isn't the language the kids generally use to communicate with each other.  This type of environment may be difficult for your child.  My son has only attended Italian schools, even before we knew he had a problem, so he is comfortable in a multi-lingual environment.  Just a thought. 

I hope this information is helpful!