By MOLLY DAVIDSON / Staff Writer

MT LAUREL—A lot has changed at Hilltop Montessori School over the past 20 years. The Mt Laurel school, which started as a seven-student preschool housed in a church, celebrated the groundbreaking on its multi-million dollar phase three expansion project on Friday, Sept. 18.

The $3.4 million expansion will more than double the size of the school, bringing the total value of the campus to more than $7 million.

“It’s surreal,” Hilltop Montessori Head of School Michele Wilensky said of the groundbreaking. “I’m really just grateful to the donors… we started our capital campaign less than a year ago in October. It’s unheard of that a capital campaign took less than a year.”

The phase three expansion is being built by Johnson Kreis Construction following the same “green principles” as the existing campus. The project is expected to be completed by fall 2016.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Johnson Kreis again,” Wilensky said. “We know it’ll be effortless the way the construction is handled.”

Designed by William Blacksock Architects, the addition will include a junior high school sized gymnasium with a stage and theater area, a teaching kitchen, an art studio and veranda, a science laboratory and a media center.

Wilensky said the phase three expansion will enhance the student learning experience at Hilltop Montessori and “poise (Hilltop Montessori) to be one of the best Montessori schools in the country.”

“The groundbreaking is the vision I always had for the school,” founder Cindi Stehr said. “It’s kind of the whole circle, we’ve come full circle. I’m just really proud.”

The phase three expansion will also serve as a community space for the town of Mt Laurel.

“It’s our way of giving back to EBSCO and the town of Mt Laurel for helping us,” Wilensky said.

The Sept. 18 groundbreaking ceremony was attended by numerous members of the Mt Laurel and Hilltop Montessori communities, and included a poem written by preschool teacher Toni Vickers and a performance by kindergarten through sixth grade students.