Our World Montessori finds new home, stays in Niskayuna

NISKAYUNA — After 15 years of searching for a new home, Our World Montessori will relocate within Niskayuna, just a few miles north.

Diane Lanci, head of school at Our World Montessori, said Thursday that their current home doesn’t function well for a daycare or for a Montessori-style school. The building was originally the town hall, police station, and jail, and its layout is clunky, lacks good outdoor access, and sits along Balltown Road.

Their soon-to-be home will be at 46 Commerce Park Dr., near the town’s industrial park, and will be a completely new building from Spraragen Partners, a Schenectady developer. Brooke Spraragen said Thursday that they don’t typically deal with daycares, but it was personal.

“My kids were on daycare waitlists before they were even born,” she said. “You want to make sure you have a reliable daycare, so if the option was for Our World to close because they didn’t have a building, for me, I wanted to make sure that I could help [Lanci] find a building.”

Though the idea of a new home had kicked around for a few years — including potentially buying their current home when it went up for sale in 2020, Lanci said — it began work in earnest about two years ago with Spraragen. They will still be renting the building, but the new one, at 5,600 square feet, will be built specifically for Our World Montessori.

With the goal of finishing around September, it will be near the Niskayuna Central School District offices off Hillside Avenue. The property is set back from the road, will have its own playgrounds, and enough space and time for the Montessori method for drop-offs — the staff collecting kids from the parents' cars, rather than the parents walking them to the door, Lanci explained.

And though some of the kids may enjoy running to the windows every time a siren goes off, Lanci said, they will not necessarily miss being near both the police and fire stations. She and Spraragen both noted how quiet it is at the new location.

The project is also supported by a $500,000 Empire State Development grant and backed by support from the town and county. It was an “accelerated” process, Spraragen said, because they wanted to make sure it could be built before Our World’s current lease expires, and was made particularly challenging by some of the town’s zoning rules.

Though Spraragen said the town “really went above and beyond” to get the approval through and was looking at altering its regulations, the current zoning law only allows daycares in commercial neighborhoods or in office and technology zones with a special permit, unless they are attached to a religious organization or hospital.

The Balltown Road location was in the commercial neighborhood zone. The new building will be in the office and technology zone.

The building will be bigger than their current location, though Lanci said she is most excited about their increased outdoor space. Outside access is a big part of the Montessori philosophy. Currently, their toddler playground is “basically a big pile of dirt” that often washes out, and their ages three to six playground is across a parking lot.

In the new building, the classrooms will open to the playgrounds, she said. In addition, Spraragen added, they will be large enough to expand to infant care for the first time.

Lanci thanked Spraragen for the word she’d put in to find the location, which keeps them not only in Schenectady County but in Niskayuna. In response, Spraragen circled back to her why.

“I’m doing it for my working mom friends, right?” she said. “We’re also an employer in Schenectady County, and we’re trying to attract and retain young talent. But what happens if the young talent starts to have families and they don’t have a place for their kids to go? What do they do?

“This is a bigger investment than just doing a building. We look at it as creating stability for families and strengthening our community.”

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