Rubber boots are at the top of the school supply list for students at Butler Montessori. They’re essential for the 170 preschool through 8th grade students who enjoy the many opportunities to learn from the natural environment around them.

Butler Montessori’s ‘Green School’ mission is a large part of the Montessori pedagogy and is manifested in innumerable ways at Butler Montessori.

In 2017-18 we were accepted by the Maryland Green Schools Award Program (MDGS) which allows schools and their communities to evaluate their efforts in environmental sustainability. Use this link to learn more about Butler Montessori’s application to the MAEOE (Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education) program.

In 2017, Butler Montessori also won a Bethesda Magazine Green Award for green practices by a nonprofit organization or school.

In addition, the school was awarded a mini-grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust for stormwater management. Funds were used as part of our “Better the Backyard” renovations to install a Rainscape (specifically, a Conservation Landscape) to reduce, slow, and filter the stormwater runoff from the roof on the backside of the main school building to a tributary of Seneca Creek.

This is all part of a campus-wide plan to reduce runoff, create community awareness of the negative impact of runoff on the Great Seneca Creek watershed, and showcase effective and aesthetic stormwater treatment methods.

Our goal is to empower students by creating a fascination for nature by way of hands-on, nature-based inquiry.