Montessori Kindergarten in South San Francisco
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 in South San Francisco, at 1400 Hillside Blvd. in South San Francisco.
Why families here choose it
What tends to bring South San Francisco families up the hill is continuity — one school, one method, one drop-off, from age two to eleven, rather than a preschool that hands you back at five.
This is our own city. The school sits on the hill above downtown, which is why families have called it “the school on the hill” for decades. For most South San Francisco families the drive is a few minutes, and the 7:30 am opening exists because so many parents are heading down to the biotech campuses before eight.
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 |
| Location | Mills is in South San Francisco |
| Getting here | Mills is in South San Francisco, on Hillside Boulevard above the town center. |
| Area | San Mateo County |
| Local public district | South 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
From South San Francisco the drive is short enough that a morning-only place is genuinely practical — plenty of families this close start there and lengthen the day once their child has settled.
- 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 South San Francisco 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 South San Francisco?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 South San Francisco more often lengthen the day than shorten the week, but both are offered.
- Do you have a campus in South San Francisco?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 a mile from South San Francisco. Everything on this page is about that one school and the families who drive to it.
Come and watch a morning
Tours run mid-morning during the work cycle, year-round, by appointment.