Meet Kristine Burns | Owner and Chief Administrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Kristine Burns and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristine, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We are four women who were all in education in varying capacities. We came together and created a private Montessori school from scratch. There was a need and we learned through trial and error what we needed to know to run a business. We were very clear on educational principles and backgrounds, but the business aspects definitely had a learning curve. But we were driven because we wanted to help our children, grandchildren, and greater Homestead/Florida City community.

What should our readers know about your business?
We definitely have worked very hard to get where we are. We were originally five women owners (one passed away seven years ago) who really had no experience in school administration. We each had individual talents and interests and we decided to split up the related duties of the school. Everything was running fairly smoothly and then COVID hit. We lost 1/3 of our student population because we went online. Small toddler and preschool children had to be refunded their money because it was feasible to keep them online during this time. Once we were able to invite children back to the classroom, our population grew very quickly. We are, in fact, better off now than we were pre-COVID. But we are seeing a need for help among our student body. We overcame challenges by having four of us working hard to achieve the same goals and communicating with one another as best we could for the last 14 years. We have always been very open and transparent with our parents and related educational industries. We believe this transparency has helped earn the respect we have in the community.

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Atala Montessori School for Creative Expression is a small, private school in the Historic Downtown area of Homestead. We are celebrating our 14th anniversary. We are very focused on the arts, as our name indicates. We know that future engineering students often perform in the orchestra; aspiring medical students interested in anatomy take visual art courses; and strong ties between English, Creative Writing, and Theatre have existed for many decades. These interdisciplinary arts partnerships build strong academic bridges across the curriculum and into the community and are necessary in a comprehensive arts school.

We reach out—from retirees to local cultural arts organizations—and we seek partners throughout South Florida to enrich the lives of our students through participatory presentations, guest speakers, and funding. Through the support of the community, faculty, staff, students, and administrators, the arts in the 21st-century can fulfill not only fundamental educational needs, but they also enhance the quality of life and provide intellectual outlets for our local Homestead and Florida City population. The arts make people human by providing outlets of expression, common ground, and even entertainment. We exist because the human spirit is a creative spirit—we provide the foundation of the global community. This is important now more than ever.

Our mission at the Atala is to provide an educational environment that enables each child to realize his or her richest potential for learning and to become a self-directed, confident, and contributing member of the family, local, and global communities.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
We love Capri Restaurant in Florida City! They actually service our hot lunch program. Having a business in Homestead is all about making partnerships across different industries. I would definitely take a friend to Robert Is Here for milkshakes, the Everglades for an adventure, and a variety of restaurants including Capri, Mamma Mia’s, and Casita Tejas for meals! Homestead can be a quiet place, particularly in the Redland area where the four owners of Atala live. Many of us explore the outdoors through the Everglades, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens, the Fruit and Spice Park, and other fun places that offer a variety of activities.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are four of us who own and operate this business:

Dr. Kristine Burns, Chief Administrator and Middle School Supervisor
Mrs. Patricia Howarth, Owner and Elementary Supervisor
Mrs. Beatriz Scheff, Owner and Preschool Supervisor
Mrs. Elizabeth Valle, Owner and Toddler Supervisor

Along the way we were brought together under strange circumstances but we persevered because of our personal families and our school families. Yvonne Knowles was our champion early on and helped us establish all the licensing pieces. As we were running in different directions to get the school off the ground, she helped us make contact with the Department of Children and Families, the Fire Department, the Health Department, and the City of Homestead Council. Without Yvonne’s help, along with our contractor, Jim Harris (Harris and Schroeder), we would not have met our deadlines and opened on time.

Website: http://atalamontessori.org

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atalamontessorischool

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtalaMontessori