Teachers quit private Montessori school after not being paid

The director of Far Horizons Montessori School in south Eugene intends to resign and sell the private school after teachers reported she hasn’t paid them since June.

As the concerns came to light, parents of students at the school learned teachers hadn’t been receiving paychecks in a timely manner for the entire school year.

Parents say they fear the school won’t be able to open for the new school year. And many who have already withdrawn their children are left scrambling to determine schools for them to attend. Far Horizons serves children ages 2 to 12.

The director of Far Horizons, Lynn Peacock, told Lookout Eugene-Springfield in an email on Tuesday, Aug. 19, that the school is “well prepared to be open for the school year.”

Teacher concerns come to light

Parents of students at Far Horizons received an email July 29 stating that one of the preschool teachers was resigning, according to a press release sent to Lookout Eugene-Springfield by Aya Cockram, who has a child at Far Horizons. The email cited administrative and financial concerns for her resignation.

Less than two weeks later, two other teachers announced they would be leaving the school, the press release said. The teachers said staff had yet to receive paychecks due July 5, and that they had had “enormous difficulty receiving nearly all of our paychecks for the entire school year in a timely and consistent manner.” The press release said the news came as a shock to both the official parent council and other families associated with the school.

“With dialogue about the mismanagement of the school finally out in the open, increasingly concerning issues have come to light, including the teachers not getting paid, failure to share financial information with the PTO, and the repeated gaslighting of teachers on the part of the school’s director, Lynn Peacock,” the press release said.

A former Far Horizons teacher who spoke to Lookout Eugene-Springfield said she started receiving late paychecks in early 2024.

Magdalena Itehua, who started working at the school in fall 2019 as a lower elementary assistant, said teachers stopped receiving their paychecks by direct deposit in late 2023. Instead, Peacock issued written paychecks to teachers. Itehua said the checks weren’t always written on time.

“All of us staff tried to talk to her and say that we need to be paid on time. We have families and bills. We can’t work for free,” Itehua said. “And we just never got what felt like honest answers.”

Itehua said the reasons Peacock gave teachers included that the bank locked her account due to attempted fraud, that she had deposited money into the wrong account or that she had used the wrong check.

“For it to happen for over a year, consistently, where it was nearly every month, it was just unacceptable,” Itehua said. Itehua quit in January 2025 due to not being paid on time.

According to the press release, five out of eight teachers have submitted their resignations due to similar concerns.

“In the current situation, without enough staff to run the classrooms, parents fear there won’t be a school in two weeks when the start of the school year starts,” the press release said. 

According to the school’s website, the Far Horizons calendar closely follows the Eugene School District 4J school calendar. The first day of school for 4J is Sept. 3. 

The press release said 20 families have withdrawn from the school. Many parents have prepaid for a full year’s tuition and that those families have yet to be refunded, according to the press release 

“Far Horizons’ parents fear for the well-being of teachers, who have made the school an exceptional place to send their children,” the press release said.

According to Far Horizons Montessori tuition schedules sent to Lookout Eugene-Springfield by parents, tuition for lower and upper elementary students for school day hours 8:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. was $9,500 for the 2024-25 school year.

Tamara Andreas, volunteer president of the Far Horizons Parent Council, said she tried to facilitate getting the teachers paid after learning about why teachers were resigning. Up to that point, the parent council was not aware of any payment issues for staff, she said. 

The parent council called an all-school meeting on Aug. 13 to discuss the school’s financial status. The group asked Peacock to provide bank statements pertaining to the school’s finances, which the director refused to do, Andreas said.

“There was a lot of worry and anxiety and very high emotions, and a certain amount of anger as well, at that meeting,” Andreas said. “It turned out at that meeting what we didn’t have was a clear understanding of the school’s financial health.”

She said her family has withdrawn their daughter from the school and are scrambling to figure out what to do for the upcoming school year.

“I poured my heart and my love and my time into the parent council for over a year now trying to improve our community and create opportunities for my daughter and her friends,” Andreas said. “To have all that swept away in the last month has been pretty horrifying.”

The director responds

Peacock told Lookout Eugene-Springfield she intends to resign “if that’s what the community needs moving forward.”

“It seems to me that both parents and staff are excited about … finding the resolution and path to move forward so that this place is not going to go anywhere,” Peacock said. “Because the basis is the community that exists here, and I will do whatever is best for that community.”

In an email Peacock sent to the school community Sunday, Aug. 17, she said she intended to resign and sell the school.

“The last few days have shown me that the Far Horizons community needs a new leader because of lost trust from a number of parents and staff,” she said in the email.

Peacock stated in the email she has reached out to a former Far Horizons director who is willing to step in as director and help a new long-term director settle in.

In the email, Peacock states, “The grievances are real. Some of the administrative concerns expressed recently have been worked on and already improved … But others are still left hanging and most importantly is late teacher pay. Refunds are next on that list. These things will be addressed over the next week or two as I am able to.”

She goes on to say, “We have had a hold on our bank account for the last week plus, and this plus a recent history of payroll processing issues resulting in days-late paydays has caused irreparable harm.”

Peacock did not respond to questions from Lookout Eugene-Springfield about the email.

About Far Horizons

Peacock, who also uses the last name Rodrick, has been the director of the school at 2490 Hilyard St. since 2018. According to Oregon Secretary of State business records, Linden Learning Co. is the authorized representative for the school. Records state Peacock is the registered agent, president and secretary of Linden Learning Co., which is registered as a domestic business corporation.

According to the school’s website, Peacock purchased the school in 2018. The website says she was a former teacher at Far Horizons. She bought the school from Kerry Knust, who had run the school since 1978.

Linden Learning Co. business records state the business is a private Montessori school caring for children ages 2 to 12 with four classrooms and before- and after-school care.

The school’s website states it is open year-round with an academic school year program and a summer camp program. The school has primary, lower elementary and upper elementary classrooms.

Montessori education involves multiage classrooms where students do self-directed work and have uninterrupted work periods, according to the American Montessori Society. 

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify that certain information came from a press release.