History

The Discovery School, Inc. was founded in 1990 as Discovery Elementary School, Inc., a private, non-profit, tax-exempt corporation dedicated to providing children a quality elementary education with Montessori principles. The Toddler Community was added in 1992, and the school name was officially changed to Discovery Montessori School, Inc. to reflect the entire student population.

The Primary level was added in 1994 to meet the needs of our growing Montessori community. Due to this growth Discovery Montessori expanded its 6th Avenue Jacksonville Beach location to include a satellite campus at 102 15th Street South. This new site, dedicated as the Hudson-Lane campus, began offering classes to our older students in 1995. In May of 1998, construction for the Primary buildings at the Hudson Lane Campus began. Site expansion continued with the elementary building, and finally the toddler building was completed in 2002.

Discovery now offers programs for toddlers through eighth grade, and the Hudson-Lane campus is the school’s sole location.

During the 2008-2010 school years the final phase of the campus was completed with the construction of the Walchle Multipurpose Building. This building houses our Library,  After Care program, and a Primary classroom. In addition, the back of campus went through a wetlands mitigation process that resulted in a full-size playing field.

In June of 2014 a dedicated elementary playground was added to the playing field, incorporating the full size basketball court and free play area for students. In June of 2016, the school once again changed its name to reflect program growth, becoming The Discovery School.

In 2018, we launched a Capital Campaign: Build. Grow. Inspire. to fund the addition of a new building to house our growing elementary population and our new Middle School program. The new building, named I.D.R.E.A.M. (innovate, design, research, explore, adapt, make) was completed in June 2019 and houses the Middle Year Program, Elementary Program, STEaM Lab, and Music Studio. The Middle School program began in August 2019.

In 2022, we launched a Capital Campaign: Ready. Set. Grow. to fund the addition of a new building to house our growing Upper Elementary and Middle School population. The new building, named The Peter and Jennifer Sleiman Building was completed in June 2024 and houses the Upper Elementary and Middle School programs, and features a community Atrium. This new building allowed for the I.D.R.E.A.M. building to expand into additional classrooms for Foundational and Lower Elementary, and created spaces for a newly updated art classroom and Library.