Intiraymi Spanish Montessori in Riverside is now allowed to have up to 12 students at a time, a 50% increase from its former village-given limit of eight students.
At its June 26 meeting, the Riverside planning & zoning commission approved the measure unanimously to grant the Spanish-language school a special use permit, allowing it to enroll the extra four students. A similar permit would be required for other changes to the school’s operations in the future, as it is located at 53 Northgate Road in a residential area of the village.
According to village documents, Intiraymi, which is owned and operated by Milagros Andrews and her husband, Richard Andrews, has accepted students in Riverside since it first opened in 2009. Village Planner Anne Cyran said the two received a special use permit in 2014 to run their private school with “no more than eight children on the property at one time.”
In March 2024, Cyran said village staff learned that Intiraymi’s license from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services allows the school to have up to 15 children on the premises at a time; of those, only 12 may be enrolled as students while the other three must be students attending school full-time elsewhere who are being watched at Intiraymi before or after school, such as the siblings of Intiraymi students or the children of Montessori school staff.
As part of their application, the couple agreed to amend their DCFS license to state only 12 students are allowed on school premises if the commission sought to make that a condition of granting the permit.
Cyran said that around the same time, staff also saw social media posts made on the school’s accounts showing up to 14 students at a time on the property, which is more than the eight Riverside allows the school to have.
“The village’s inquiry into the school’s operations was prompted by an inquiry from an outside agency regarding the status of lead pipes within the school, and once the village determined that the school is operating beyond the capacity approved by the village board in 2014, staff contacted the petitioners to address the issue,” she said. “Just to clarify, there was not a complaint made about the operations of the school. It was an inquiry about the school’s lead pipes that led to staff looking into the capacity of the school.”
After the village became aware of Intiraymi going over capacity, staff informed the Andrewses that they would have to limit the number of children at the school to eight or apply for the permit in question at the meeting, Cyran said.
As part of its application materials for the new permit, the school included 19 letters of recommendation from neighbors and parents of students and former students. Some spoke to Milagros Andrews’ teaching abilities while others described quiet, polite pick-up and drop-off times at the school. Included among them were two letters from residents who live at 57 and 49 Northgate Road, the two houses directly adjacent to the Montessori school. At the meeting, Cyran said village staff had received two more letters that day in support of Intiraymi.
One former Riverside resident, who said he lived next to Intiraymi from March 2018 to April 2023, spoke in support of the school during public comment. The man said he believed he had submitted a letter of support but wanted to make sure his thoughts were heard.
“All I can say is, as I said in my letter, when we moved next door, I didn’t know, actually, a school was there, and I really didn’t have any understanding of what a Montessori school was. But I will tell you, I learned really quick,” he said. “I spent a lot of time outside in my backyard because of projects I was doing on the house, and I saw those kids out there every single day, and I thought that was the most amazing thing that I’ve seen since I was a child.”
“To hear them play, to watch them play, to see them interact, it was so refreshing. I’m telling you, I thought it was outstanding,” he added. “We need more of that.”
