Montessori High School will include several urban staging areas, within and outside the University Circle institutions. To date, the school has established focused relationships with The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Western Reserve Historical Society. It is also working with other cultural institutions to develop relationships and agreements. Each University Circle institution will be utilized for the following contributions: specialty faculty (willing to teach high school students) and their related program functions, organizational structure or business functions in which students might be able to participate, and specialized spaces housing potentially unique activities with specialists.

Montessori High School will also maintain rural staging areas, including the James H. Barrow Field Station of Hiram College (Hiram, Ohio), the Hershey Montessori School adolescent program on the farm (Huntsburg, Ohio), the Burton (Ohio) Century Village Museum, and several plots of rural lands owned by The Cleveland Museum of Natural History and operated by its Center for Conservation and Biodiversity.

For the 15- to 18-year-old students of Montessori High School, multiple staging areas (University Circle institutions and rural sites) are necessary to provide truly adult-like responsibilities within an external community context. Each staging area provides a basis for apprenticeships that allow students to experience the interdependency of their own individual roles within the functioning of the external community. To achieve a "community" basis for learning, staging areas will permit, among other things, real social participation in community projects that help nurture relationships with community members as well as professional specialists; a distinct human history and a tangible connection to neighborhoods; a diverse ecosystem; and meaningful opportunities to connect to institutions of higher education, such as Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, in University Circle), Hiram College (Hiram, Ohio), Lake Erie College (Painesville, Ohio), or Cleveland State University (Cleveland). In addition, most staging areas will be chosen based on opportunities for entrepreneurial activity by students.

To illustrate the potential use of an example staging area, consider The Cleveland Museum of Natural History (CMNH) as an environment for real, meaningful work: The museum has an interest in developing a cadre of urban stewards of nature. The program, tentatively titled "Keepers of the Epic of Evolution," would involve the students in measuring the changes associated with urban sprawl. Under the guidance of both program personnel and business staff from CMNH and Cleveland Botanical Garden, students would track significant conditions for the health of both nature and humans in the environs of Cleveland, aiding existing bio-monitoring and open land conservation efforts in the region. High school students would compile views on sustainability from sources such as the Holden Arboretum (Willoughby, Ohio) and EcoCity Cleveland, covering such real-life topics as traffic patterns, Lake Erie health, neighborhood revitalization, plants, animals, and watershed sustainability. The staging process at the museum would directly connect with its new Evolution exhibit, demonstrating how consciousness of natural history can impact young people's desire to make the bioregion of northeast Ohio a better place through studies in evolution, genetics, and biodiversity. CMNH alone is home to 12 areas of scientific research under three departments-Center for Conservation and Diversity, Center for Anthropology and Evolutionary Studies, and Center for Astronomy and Cosmology.

As another example, Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) is considering participation in a one- to three-year pilot program for Montessori High School. The program would integrate Montessori culture into CBG, making the High School as much a part of its facility as possible, expanding the kitchen, using the library for study and computer instruction, providing teacher education that combines both horticulture and Montessori, joint publishing, using students as docents for CBG's Hershey Children's Garden, offering students work in urban gardens throughout the central city, allowing them to help optimize existing exhibits, etc. Calling the program an "incubator" approach, CBG suggests that Montessori school on its premises will enrich brainstorming and encourage diversity of ideas.

The Western Reserve Historical Society has, of course, an extensive library and museum with historical manuscripts, primary sources, rare secondary sources, and authentic artifacts. Students will have not only research opportunities but a chance to help classify and conserve incoming collections. Research and writing for activities, living history, exhibits, and museum programs will appeal to the high school student's need for a dynamic approach to 20th-century history, including the history of the environment.

Each of the University Circle institutions will be approached to provide analogous, yet unique, opportunities for students to engage meaningfully in their spaces and with their professionals and collections according to each student's individual interests or career aspirations.

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