Our History

Montclair Academy, incorporated in January, 1981 as St. John’s Academy, opened in the fall of 1981 after a year of planning by parents, administration and faculty. The work of forming the Academy was begun in late 1980 when the parents and staff of St. John’s The Evangelist Catholic School were notified by the Archdiocese that the school would merge with St. Philomena’s to form Good Shepherd Catholic School. At the time of this decision by the Archdiocese, the enrollment of St. John’s School was approximately 50% non-Catholic. In addition, the school’s programs and methodologies were less traditional than St. Philomena’s. Many parents of St. John’s students felt that the two schools would not blend well.

A group of parents approached the principal of St. John’s, Grace Kimak, with a proposal to start an independent school. The parents believed that the individualized programs and excellent teaching staff of St. John’s would be lost in the merger. Mrs. Kimak decided to join with the parents and most of the school’s teachers agreed to become a part of the new school.

For the next seven months, the parents, principal and some staff members met frequently to continue the process of forming a school. By-laws were written and the Articles of Incorporation were filed with the State of Colorado. Teachers met with prospective parents in their homes to keep them abreast of the progress. Several sites were investigated for the location of the new school, however the selected site materialized when the planning committee was put in touch with the new Dean of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. Within a week, the school obtained a five year lease for the educational building of the Cathedral.

As many of the original students graduated or moved on, enrollment at St. John’s Academy declined. No marketing efforts were made because energies had been focused in other directions. As a result, by the time the Denver economy bottomed out in the last half of the eighties, enrollment at the school stood at approximately 80.

In early 1985, the Dean of St. John’s Cathedral began talking about merging St. John’s Academy with the Cathedral. An open forum was held in which the Dean presented his proposal to the parents of the school. In spite of enticing promises of a playground and other improvements, the parents voted unanimously against the “merger”.

Knowing that the lease for the space in the Cathedral would not be renewed, the principal and a Board member began searching for a new home for the school. After months of searching, the school signed an agreement with the Bank Center Corporation to rent and have renovated by January 1, 1986 a building at 930 Acoma Street. Just before the holiday break in December, 1985 all the students and the teachers, each carrying school property, walked from the Episcopal Cathedral to the new building at 9th and Acoma. For the next eight years, St. John’s Academy resided at the Acoma address. In late 1995, however, the school was notified that its lease would not be renewed. The school was once again forced to find a new location. After an exhaustive search and much analysis, St. John’s chose to move to the former Lowry Air Force Base where it could acquire property for the long-term. Not long after moving to Lowry, the Board of the school determined that the name of the school no longer made sense since the school had no religious affiliation. Several names for the school were proposed and then voted on by the parent body. The name “Montclair Academy” was selected to reflect the fact that the school was now located in the Montclair neighborhood.

In the spring of 1997, Grace Kimak, the founding principal of the school, retired and Buffie Berger was appointed the second Head of School in the summer of 1997. In the summer of 2006, Anthony Sherer was appointed Head.

• Our Mission
• Diversity
• History
• Leadership
• Videos