Community Montessori in Santee operates a public charter campus on Carlton Hills Boulevard at the corner of Mast Boulevard, enrolling approximately 100 students in grades TK through 6. Authorized by the San Diego County Office of Education since 2013, the campus is one of five Community Montessori learning centers across the county, and its gardening and ecology curriculum teaches students seed-to-harvest cycles modeled after local growers at the Santee Farmers Market on Carlton Hills Boulevard. The Montessori method guides students through self-directed, hands-on learning with certified materials in multi-age classrooms capped at 26 students per section with one teacher and one assistant. The school's nature-based science units incorporate watershed ecology and freshwater-habitat studies during field excursions to preserves including Santee Lakes Campground on Fanita Parkway, reinforcing the program's outdoor-classroom model within the Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve system. Upper elementary students participate in a five-day, four-night residential trip to the Nature's Classroom Institute mountain campus each spring for immersive cross-curricular science and environmental instruction.