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James N. Gamble Montessori High School (less formally known as Gamble Montessori) is a public high school located in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is a part of Cincinnati Public Schools.

History
Increasing demand for secondary Montessori education in the city prompted the creation of this program, the second Montessori public junior high/high school in Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS), in 2005. Beginning with a 7th grade class, the school expanded by one grade level every year until, as of the 2010-2011 school year and continuing to the present, serving grades 7-12. The program’s original 7th graders had the honor of being the first graduating class of Gamble Montessori High School in the spring of 2011.

The program was originally housed in the Dater Montessori Elementary School building for two years. Renovations at the Dater building as a part of the CPS Facilities Master Plan necessitated a move to the Jacobs Center in Winton Hills in the fall of 2007, and the school was named Westside Montessori High School. In early 2010 the school’s LSDMC (Local School Decision-Making Committee) voted to change the school’s name to James N. Gamble Montessori High School, and the school board approved this name change on March 29, 2010.

Gamble Montessori was located at the Jacobs Center from 2007-2013, and shared the building with Clark Montessori for several years.

In the fall of 2013, the program moved into a renovated building on a 24-acre site in Westwood. This building was originally completed in 1956 and housed James N. Gamble Junior High School and later, Gamble Elementary School. The school building sits on a hill above Westwood-Northern Boulevard near Montana Avenue, and is accessible via the nearby neighborhood off of Montana Avenue.

Program
The Gamble Montessori program is based on Maria Montessori’s “erdkinder” philosophy and on the school’s five core values of community, hard work, learning, respect, and peace. Students, parents, and teachers work together toward the goals of learning and achieving.

All students are required to make a serious commitment to serving others in the school and community through volunteer work. Each high school student must complete 200 community service hours (50 hours per year) in order to receive a Gamble Montessori High School diploma. Junior high students are required to log 36 service hours per year. Some examples of service work are volunteering as summer camp counselors, working with People Working Cooperatively, tutoring other students, and completing service projects within city parks.

Students are also expected to take some of the responsibility for fundraising and/or earning money to pay for their extensive field experiences and intersessions. Gamble Montessori offers many fundraising opportunities throughout the school year for students and parents.

Junior high students are grouped into “communities,” groups of approximately 50 students (a combination of 7th and 8th graders) that share two teachers (one for Language Arts/Social Studies, and the other for Math/Science) and an instructional assistant. The 8th graders are considered the community leaders and help the 7th graders learn the expectations and workings of junior high. By the end of the school year, 7th graders attend leadership camp in order to become the leaders of the next year’s community, while the 8th graders complete their junior high experience with a marine biology study in the Florida Keys.

For high school students, four years of rigorous academic core classes are required; students also choose elective courses from a list ranging from fine arts to environmental science to ethnic studies. In addition, all high school students participate in intensive, academically rigorous field experiences called intersessions twice yearly, mid-semester. In the spring students may choose from areas of study that include a wide variety of topics, from studying urban planning and infrastructure within our city to exploring the biodiversity of Costa Rica. In the fall students attend intersessions based on their class—for example, juniors focus on college preparation and take a college tour, while seniors participate in a career internship intersession.

Seniors also must complete a year-long research project that helps students develop time-management skills, research a topic of choice with a qualified mentor, and learn to utilize a university library. The accomplishment of this capstone project generally requires Saturday morning and after-school help sessions. The senior project culminates in a lengthy research paper on the subject, along with a presentation of the student’s research to teachers, peers, and parents.

Student Population and Athletics Information
Gamble Montessori consisted of approximately 250 students as of May 2010. The school mascot is a Gator, and school colors are green, purple, and black. Gamble Montessori and Clark Montessori currently field combined high school sports teams, which include cheerleading, football, soccer, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and swimming. Gamble also combines with Clark for junior high football, soccer, and cross country, but fields its own junior high teams in volleyball, basketball, and track. After Clark returns to its Erie Avenue location in 2011, Gamble will field its own teams in junior high and high school sports.