Original Research by School Decision on Water Lily Montessori
Water Lily Montessori is a very small public charter school in Saint Paul, Minnesota, serving only prekindergarten and kindergarten. It offers a Montessori approach within the public school system, and its enrollment totals fewer than a dozen students. The student body is predominantly Asian, with a small number of Black and White students. Because the school serves only the earliest grades, it has no state testing data and no graduation rate, so conventional academic performance measures do not apply here. A parent evaluating this school would be looking at the fit of the Montessori model for a young child rather than test scores or secondary outcomes.
The school is part of the Minnesota Wildflower Montessori Sch district, a small network of Montessori charters. Families choosing this school should know that another school in the same district, Cosmos Montessori, is expanding its grade span through fifth grade by the coming school year, creating a potential pathway for children who start at Water Lily Montessori and want to continue in a Montessori setting after kindergarten. This might matter to parents planning for the long term, though it is worth confirming directly with the school whether such a transition is seamless.
Saint Paul itself is a capital city with a diverse population, state government as a major employer, and a robust park system. The school is located at a street address in the city, and housing values in the surrounding area are well below the state median home value, making the neighborhood more affordable than much of Minnesota. Rents are slightly above the national index for shelter costs, but the area is still relatively accessible for a metro region.
The school is so small that standard data points like the share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, special education rates, and English learner counts are not reported in a meaningful way. Discipline and chronic absenteeism data also are absent, which is common for a school of this size and grade range. A parent may want to visit and speak with the teaching staff directly to understand the daily environment, class composition, and how the Montessori method is implemented in a very small, early childhood setting.
Overall, Water Lily Montessori fills a specific niche: a tiny, public Montessori program for the earliest school years in an affordable part of Saint Paul. It does not lend itself to the usual district-level comparisons because its grade band and size place it outside most standard metrics. A family interested in Montessori for a prekindergarten or kindergarten child, and comfortable with a very small school setting, would find this school directly relevant. For anyone seeking data on academic outcomes, this school will not provide it. The school avoids the standardized testing system altogether by design, serving only the untested early grades.
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