Where we came from

Casa Mia was opened in 1999 by a group of homeschooling families to teach a small group of 14 children. In 2009 they took on their first principal and started to transition to a school with a governing body, Government registration and trained Montessori staff. The school slowly added the Karak and Maali classrooms over time. When the Casa Mia site was first leased to the school, it was on a recurring one year basis. This lease included a portion of land that the Town of Bassendean owns (the side of the property with the classrooms on, also known as 11 Hamilton street) and a parcel of land that the State Government owns (the playground side). The state land forms part of the wider BIC reserve, which is intended for recreational use by the Bassendean community. When it was first included as part of the Casa Mia site lease, it was intended to be for temporary use only. When our previous principal Janet started in 2016, she worked with the Board and Town of Bassendean to change the Casa Mia site lease to a 5+5 lease (meaning a lease of 5 years with the option to extend for 5 years). The current year (2023) is the first year of our 5 year extension.

At the end of 2022, a proposal was put forward to the Town of Bassendean to purchase the town owned portion of the Casa Mia site (11 Hamilton Street). The school was notified by the Town that their proposal was unsuccessful, and that at the end of the current 5 year lease (2026/7), 11 Hamilton Street would be put on the market for open tender. Follow up discussions with members of the Bassendean council suggest that the proposal was unsuccessful due to the schools ongoing need to access the Government owned parcel of land that forms part of the BIC reserve. Without a guaranteed lease on the BIC reserve portion of the site, Casa Mia would not have enough space to operate regardless of the status of 11 Hamilton Street. This encouraged us to think of an alternative strategic direction going forward.

Due to the nature of the Montessori classroom structure, Montessori schools around Australia (and in particular Western Australia) typically begin on small parcels of land that they soon outgrow. Similar to Casa Mia, many start from inside a house, and then expand by adding new buildings or by moving sites altogether. We feel that as a school, we are at the stage where we have outgrown our current site.

Where we are now

In 2023, Casa Mia has a total of 65 students across 3 classrooms. We currently have 16 families attending playgroup, with a waitlist so large that we do not currently have the space to facilitate. At the end of 2022, Koomal had a waitlist of 20 children, meaning the school could have opened a second classroom if the space and facilities were available. Many of those families ultimately chose to attend other Montessori schools (Perth and Kingsley) due to the size of our waitlist. Some families who attend our school tours chose not to apply, as the size of the waitlist means their chances of enrolling while their child is 3 years old is unrealistic. There is currently a surge in demand for alternative approaches to education like the Montessori method, and this is an exciting time for Casa Mia to capitalise on the market.

Casa Mia is in a solid financial position, with a healthy bank balance and steady profit over the last few years. In the last 3 years we have watched our profit margins increase from 100K to 250K annually.

In September 2022, the school successfully applied for a low interest loan to support our purchase of 11 Hamilton Street. As we were unable to purchase the Hamilton Street site, the loan funds were reallocated to other schools in need and we have the opportunity to reapply in the next round. In general, the application process for a low interest loan begins with an initial application in September, with fund dispersed in June of the following year. These funds must then be used by June of the subsequent year or they will be forfeit.

Where we are heading

The Board have been liaising with a range of councils (Town of Bassendean, City of Bayswater and the City of Swan). The process for all councils is to contact their planning team, once we have a site in mind, and they will be able to give us more information regarding pricing, site zoning, re-zoning and the potential for sub-divisions or leasing. We are also in touch with Commercial real estate agents to review possible lease sites, as well as looking at private land sales/sales through developers.

The Board is looking to engage a consultant or project manager to oversee this process, and at our current phase in the road map, are utilising the voluntary services of Hennie du Toit (PM/Architect) who has supported the school by supporting the search for sites and reviewing their suitability. Once we have confirmed the site location, we will onboard an Architect/Project Manager who will oversee the different phases of the roadmap.

At our community meeting in 2023, we discussed the opportunity to find a site big enough to enable us to expand, but all agreed that what makes Casa Mia so special is the small community feel and we do not want to lose that. The Board agreed that we would be looking at an expansion no larger than a total of 150 students, enabling us to have two classrooms of each cycle, which would support the possibility of expanding into an adolescent program at some stage in the future if it aligned with the strategic direction.