NORTH OGDEN — The school board of Maria Montessori Academy, a public charter school in North Ogden, has announced the appointment of new director.

Opened in August 2010, Maria Montessori Academy (MMA) is a public charter school serving 417 students from preschool through ninth grade, according the Utah State Board of Education enrollment numbers for 2019-2020.

As a public charter school, the academy is governed by its own board, unlike traditional public schools, which are overseen by a board that governs all schools in a district. The director position is the equivalent of a principal in a traditional public school.

Micah Hirokawa, an educator currently leading a public school in Hawaii, will begin his work as director of MMA this July. His background covers traditional public, charter public and private schools, but he said none of these three settings define his career as an educator.

“I consider myself to be a progressive educator,” Hirokawa said. “I spent three years in a John Dewey school and I studied … Montessori, Waldorf, and Dewey philosophies.

“I don’t ever try to classify myself by public school, charter school, independent (private) school — in fact, I think I’m a very huge activist in trying to break down those walls. … I think it’s so very important that we start pooling our resources and our knowledge and coming together to do what’s best for kids.”

Hirokawa grew up in Hawaii and attended BYU Hawaii. His family has ties to Utah, and he spent years exploring the state while pursuing music degrees at Snow College and then Utah Valley State College.

Hirokawa’s selection comes months after the abrupt departure of the school’s prior director, René Baker, in December. The school’s board sent an email to parents on the evening of Dec. 17 notifying them of Baker’s departure and the arrival of an interim director the next day. The board declined to give a reason for Baker’s departure to the Standard-Examiner.

Since then, the school has been led by interim director Mike Guilmann, a retired administrator who worked in Weber School District.

Board members hope that Hirokawa will revitalize the school, said Sarah Fonnesbeck, a member of the school’s board and parent at the school.

“We really felt like he was the full package and had a lot of the skills and qualifications that we were looking for in a director — previous administration experience, a background and training in the Montessori philosophy,” Fonnesbeck said.

The board was also impressed with his leadership style and his experience in multiple educational settings, she said.

“It’s a competitive market … for charter schools in our area. There’s a lot of new schools,” Fonnesbeck said.

MMA’s enrollment of 417 students during the 2019-2020 school year has declined by about 33% — almost 200 students — since 2018-2019, when the school enrolled 614 students, according to USBE enrollment numbers. The school’s test scores are also low compared to its peer schools, according to USBE’s Data Gateway.

However, these numbers didn’t deter Hirokawa, he said. His family had planned to move to Utah before he pursued the position at MMA, and he selected it over other job offers because he encountered “an overwhelming amount of passion to do what’s best for kids” among the MMA community, he said.

MMA is looking to improve its programs and increase its enrollment, Fonnesbeck said.

School leadership also hope to “get the word out in the community about the fact that we have a free, nontuition Montessori education, which people are paying thousands of dollars for across the country,” she continued.

According to the Montessori Census, a collaborative effort of several Montessori organizations, only about 26% of the 2,690 Montessori schools in the United States are public schools. There are 12 Montessori schools in Utah, according to the same source, and MMA is one of three public Montessori options, all of them charter schools.

MMA is the only public Montessori option in Weber County, though there are two private Montessori schools, according to the same source. There are no Montessori schools, public or private, located in Davis County.

According to MMA’s website, the school “is built upon the legacy of (Dr.) Maria Montessori, who believed that all children are uniquely intelligent.”

Montessori was an Italian educator who became well known for unique methods she used in Italian schools starting in the early 20th century, according to the American Montessori Society.

The same source says that the Montessori method is “known for individually paced learning and fostering independence” among children — including a practical independence, such as preparing meals and cleaning.