Montessori Kindergarten near Potrero Hill
The third year of the three-year cycle, and the one most families are tempted to skip for a free public place. It is the year the two before it were building towards. Mills is about 6 miles from Potrero Hill, at 1400 Hillside Blvd. in South San Francisco.
Why families here choose it
If you are looking from Potrero Hill, the useful question is not how far Mills is. It is how many schools your child will have attended by the time they are eleven.
Potrero Hill has a clean shot down 280, which is a very different experience from crossing the city east to west — the freeway does the work and the exits at the county line are quiet in the morning. The families we see from the hill are usually weighing an SFUSD assignment they did not choose against something they can simply accept, and want the answer settled for more than one year at a time.
What Montessori kindergarten at Mills actually is
In Montessori, kindergarten is not a new stage — it is the completion of one. The child becomes the oldest in a room they have grown up in, the one younger children ask, the one who demonstrates. Academically it is where the concrete materials finally hand over to abstraction: reading fluently, writing at length, four-digit operations, fractions and geometry. Families who leave after year two have paid for the investment and moved out before the return, usually without anyone explaining that is what they were doing.
- The third year is the payoffThe first two years are largely investment. In the third the child consolidates, abstracts, and uses the whole environment fluently.
- Leadership that is earned, not assignedBeing the person who knows how does more for a five-year-old's confidence than any certificate.
- And it does not have to endBecause Mills continues through fifth grade, the kindergarten year is a step rather than the exit. That is unusual on this part of the Peninsula.
The details that decide it
| Our campus | 1400 Hillside Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080 |
| Distance from Potrero Hill | About 6 miles |
| Getting here | South on 280 to the Brisbane exits, then across. |
| Area | San Francisco |
| Local public district | San Francisco Unified School District |
| Ages served | Two through fifth grade |
| Hours | Monday to Friday, 7:30 am – 6:00 pm |
| Enrollment | Open year-round, subject to availability |
Distance is approximate and measured in a straight line. The honest test is to drive it once at drop-off time — book a tour and you will.
What Montessori kindergarten costs
At about 6 miles from Potrero Hill, most families choose a full or extended day rather than making the drive twice for a half day.
- AgesThe kindergarten year
- Rates$1,200 morning · $1,400 full day · $1,750 extended full day, monthly. Every fee is on the tuition page.
- SchedulesMorning, full day, or extended full day 7:30 am to 6:00 pm — three, four or five days a week.
- EnrollmentOpen year-round, subject to availability, with a one-time $200 new-student fee.
What Potrero Hill families ask about Montessori kindergarten
- Why not just take the free public kindergarten?It is a fair question and cost is a real factor — we wrote an honest comparison at free TK vs. Montessori. The short version: the public option is free and perfectly good, and the Montessori third year is a specific thing you give up to take it.
- What happens after kindergarten?Children can continue at Mills through fifth grade — no new school, no new method, no starting over.
- Is the Montessori kindergarten different for families traveling from Potrero Hill?No — there is one program and one campus. What changes with distance is the schedule that suits you: families driving further usually choose the extended full day so they are not fighting the peak twice a day.
- Is there a summer option?Yes — three optional summer sessions, enrolled separately from the school year. Some families from further out use a summer session as the trial run before committing to the drive in September.
- How is tuition actually paid?Annual tuition is based on a 180-day school year. You can pay it in one payment for a 5% discount, or in ten installments. Every rate and every fee is on the tuition page.
- Can we come part-time?Yes. Three, four or five days a week, and morning, full day or extended full day. Families driving from Potrero Hill more often lengthen the day than shorten the week, but both are offered.
- Do you have a campus in Potrero Hill?No — and we would rather be straightforward about it. Mills Montessori has a single campus at 1400 Hillside Blvd., South San Francisco, CA 94080, about 6 miles from Potrero Hill. Everything on this page is about that one school and the families who drive to it.
Montessori Kindergarten in other areas
Come and watch a morning
Tours run mid-morning during the work cycle, year-round, by appointment.