Sarah Zimmerman
AMS credential earned at MECA-Seton in Clarendon Hills, IL; college instructor at Contra Costa College, UC Berkeley, Cal State Hayward, Cal State Fresno; Head Start, NAEYC, and national AMS seminar presenter; AMS school consultant; Fountainhead Montessori School founder, administrator, president, and teacher since 1972. BA in Education earned at Drake University; MA in Special Education earned at Northeastern Illinois University.
In 1972, Sarah Zimmerman, the founder of Fountainhead Montessori, lived in Libertyville, Illinois. It was there that she began dreaming of leaving her career in public-school special education and starting a Montessori school. Fountainhead was born that year in a remodeled barn, the Quaker Oats Farm Hour broadcasting studio, with six children. It took a lot of elbow grease and her entire public-school teacher pension.
During that time Sarah was under the tutelage of Miss Domicele Petrutis. Miss Petrutis, a native Lithuanian, had been a student of Dr. Maria Montessori in Nice, France (1934). Miss Petrutis led Sarah and Fountainhead to a special understanding of the philosophy of Montessori. In 1972, Sarah moved to California, where the school was re-established at the old Orinda Union School, now the Orinda Community Center. It was at this time that Sarah met John Lindl and George Zimmerman, who became the pillars of Fountainhead along with all the other invaluable participants who have joined us along the way.