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Welcome to ATI San Francisco

I'm thrilled to welcome you to ATI San Francisco. 

We're a unique school in this remarkable city. We combine the best of a rigorous, intellectually demanding liberal arts education with the best of a progressive orientation to cultivating student independence, agency and responsibility. We help each student become a great thinker and a great doer in a way that corresponds to their gifts, interests and passions.  

Our learning community is intentionally small so we're able to deeply know each student, help them thrive emotionally and socially, and support their individual path to excellence. We're proud of our orientation to a set of values that guide us as a community, and I'd love to discuss how ATI might align with your vision of an extraordinary high school education.

I'm honored to lead this school and to partner with our exceptional educators and our remarkable students and families to co-create a challenging, supportive, deeply caring, and inspiring learning community.  

I hope you'll explore our website to learn more about ATI and then come see us for yourself.  I'd love to meet you.  

Warm regards, 

Joey Elftmann

Head of School, ATI San Francisco

Our Vision

In 1907, in San Lorenzo, Italy, Dr. Maria Montessori had a radical idea. What if we “follow the child” and let their interests, curiosity and engagement with their environment drive their learning? What if we create an approach to education that systematizes the inputs that a student needs to follow her curiosity, independently work with her mind and her hands, and realize her inner potential?

Today, ATI San Francisco is proud to build on this educational tradition by bringing to life a Montessori-inspired high school for engaged adolescents. Our vision is rooted in a deep belief that teenagers — in the context of a supportive, challenging and enriching community — are capable of extraordinary learning and extraordinary work. We aspire to be a community where students thrive intellectually, emotionally, and relationally and leave ATI prepared and capable of creating lives of purpose, value, and joy.

Our vision for adapting Montessori principles to the adolescent context isn’t fanciful. It requires coordinating and aligning principles and practice. It requires thoughtful and deliberate attention to balancing structure and flexibility. It requires maintaining expectations of excellence with adaptability for how to achieve it. It requires a commitment to learning ideas, skills and practices that are foundational to navigating our world while also providing students with the space and support to pursue excellence in their unique interests and passions.

Our vision is bold and aspirational; it is our life's work. We feel lucky to do this deeply meaningful work each day alongside our students. We hope you might be as inspired as we are to pursue this vision and to join us in re-imagining what a middle school can be.

Our Team

  • Chelsey Christensen

    Director of Admissions & Operations

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  • Kiana Saniee

    Lead STEM (Science) Guide

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  • Alex Gilman

    Humanities Guide

    Alex has a passion for educating the whole person, combining intellectual rigor with emotional intelligence to guide and mentor adolescents to...

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    Alex has a passion for educating the whole person, combining intellectual rigor with emotional intelligence to guide and mentor adolescents to create a life that is successful and fulfilling on every level. 

    He graduated summa cum laude from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in History and Philosophy, the latter of which he also pursued at the graduate level at DePaul University. At Boston College, he was a member of their Honors Program, a four-year interdisciplinary Socratic Great Books program aimed at investigating the fundamental texts and ideas of the western canon, including philosophy, poetry, literature, theology and social science.

    Since graduating from Boston College, he has worked in diverse fields, including as a professional freelance writer and editor, nonprofit administrative manager, and carpenter. Alex also holds a Professional Life Coach certification from the Synthesis Center in Amherst, MA and worked for several years as a coach and trainer in the Mankind Project. He is also a long-time musician and music enthusiast, having played the guitar for over a decade, as well as an avid outdoorsman.

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  • Susana Barajas

    Lead Art and Maker Guide

    Susana is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She was born and raised in Mexico. Throughout her life, Susana has always shown her interest...

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    Susana is an interdisciplinary artist and educator. She was born and raised in Mexico. Throughout her life, Susana has always shown her interest for illustration and ability to create and design and she has always been fascinated by images and how the world is represented through the eyes of others and she always had a talent for drawing and creativity. She earned a bachelor's degree in Graphic Design. She has worked on numerous personal and commercial freelance projects since moving to the states, her proudest of which is being a dedicated alumni of the Imaginism Studios’ many programs, where she have spent a lot of time honing her creative skills designing and creating original illustrated characters while being personally mentored by some of their great artists and have been asked to collaborate in some of their personal Illustration projects.

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  • Sara Watchko

    Lead STEM (Math) Guide

    Sara Watchko graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Skidmore College, and then earned her Master of Public Health (MPH) in...

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    Sara Watchko graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Skidmore College, and then earned her Master of Public Health (MPH) in Epidemiology from the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. She also completed a certificate in Comparative Effectiveness Outcomes Research during her master’s program. Sara loves to travel, enjoys baking on the weekends, and is a passionate climate activist.

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  • Joey Elftmann

    Head of School

    Joey earned his undergraduate degree in Communications, while also studying English and Education at UC Davis. Upon graduating, he began his...

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    Joey earned his undergraduate degree in Communications, while also studying English and Education at UC Davis. Upon graduating, he began his career in education as a middle school world language instructor and athletic director. After several years in a dual teaching & administrative role, he then went on to earn a graduate degree in Kinesiology from Sacramento State. 

    For the past 10 years, Joey has continued his work in Bay Area independent schools, serving K-12+ families in a number of programmatic leadership roles. Additionally, he's supported his school communities in a number of areas related to campus operations, site safety, and community outreach.

    Throughout his career in education, Joey has also spent a considerable amount of time coaching collegiate men's and women's volleyball- at UC Davis, Sacramento State, and the University of San Francisco. In his free time, Joey enjoys exploring Bay Area hiking trails, rooting for Bay Area sports teams (Go 49ers!), BBQ'ing with friends, and spending time with his family.

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  • Katie Lee

    ATI Network- Director of Operations

    Katie Lee graduated with a degree in biology from Grinnell College, where she assistant-taught biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. She then...

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    Katie Lee graduated with a degree in biology from Grinnell College, where she assistant-taught biology, chemistry, and neuroscience. She then moved to Nanjing, China, where she taught AP biology and English courses. She has worked in college counseling and helped to open AP and IB centers in Chinese high schools.

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Gifted, passionate, and committed, our staff at ATI San Francisco are remarkable individuals both inside and outside our classroom.

Learn more about the ATI community.

Our Values

Our ATI values align our staff, students and families to a set of ideas and practices that inform and enliven how we collaborate, communicate and support each other. We aspire to bring these values to life each day in our work together.

  • The Pursuit of Wisdom

    “Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” –Socrates

    We approach learning as the ongoing pursuit of wisdom. We explore, interrogate and debate the big ideas that have shaped our world and connect those ideas to our own lives and context. We pursue wisdom not as an academic exercise, but to improve our judgment and actions in the world. 

  • The Development of Virtue

    “Such as are your habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of your mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.” –Marcus Aurelius

    We know the word “virtue” may seem old fashioned. Yet the cultivation of our ethics, our integrity, and our habits shapes the quality of our lives. We are committed to exploring the connection between our deeply held values and our behaviors so that our inner character shows up in the world.

  • The Dignity of Work

    “The only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” –Steve Jobs

    Work is central to our lives. It lets us direct our energies purposefully, enabling us to structure our time and action to reshape our world. Through cultivating our capacity for work, we develop an appreciation of genuine effort and a careful attention to quality.

  • The Power of Individual Agency

    “The only true freedom for an individual is to have the opportunity to act independently... There is no such thing as an individual until a person can act by himself.” –Maria Montessori

    We believe in independence and free choice. We seek to develop the courage of our convictions and the capacity for each of us to act with purpose, to overcome barriers and to pursue our individual aspirations.

  • The Responsibility and Joyfulness of Community

    “The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water, and food.” –Dean Ornish

    We recognize the tremendous personal value of the communities to which we belong. And so we assume responsibility for the health and vitality of those communities, share in the joy of belonging and have pride for what we create together.

The ATI Network

The ATI program was founded as a program designed to apply Montessori developmental and pedagogical principles to today's adolescents. Our programming is designed to connect students with the history of human thought and achievement, and to do so in a way that is personal and empowering. ATI blendsthe rigor of human arts and sciences with a creative, entrepeneurial spirit.

And today's teenagers are networked. Our national network of small schools—in Austin, San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, southern Florida, and with more coming—is connected online and extends beyond our schools. The ATI network provides a structure and space for powerful learning to be brought to our students wherever they go.

If you are interested in bringing ATI to your city, please contact Scott Taylor, Executive Director of ATI Schools.

Careers at ATI

If you're interested in a career in administration or teaching at ATI, we'd love to talk further with you. We currently have the following openings at our schools.

Director of Admissions and Operations

East Village, New York |  Learn More 

Director (Teaching Head of School)

St. Louis, Missouri |  Learn More 

English, Literature, Writing and Humanities Teacher

St. Louis, Missouri |  Learn More 

Middle & High School Science Teacher with an emphasis on Life Science, Biology, Earth and Space

St. Louis, Missouri |  Learn More 

Middle & High School STEM Teacher

St. Louis, Missouri |  Learn More 

Name Your Own Job!

Austin, St. Louis, San Francisco, East Village |  Learn More 

Online High School Human Creativity Teacher

Teach from Anywhere! |  Learn More 

Online High School Humanities Teacher

Teach from Anywhere! |  Learn More 

Online High School Math Teacher

Teach from Anywhere! |  Learn More 

Online High School Science Teacher

Teach from Anywhere! |  Learn More 

Unique Middle School STEM Teacher

New York, New York |  Learn More 

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