A donation of over $800,000 from the Thomas and Linda Koehn Foundation will be used to expand the Des Moines school district’s Montessori education program to Jackson Elementary School on the city’s south side, the district has announced.

“We know that the Des Moines Public Schools are committed to providing a comprehensive educational offering to all its students and given the very positive response over the years from parents, students and teachers at Cowles Elementary, we feel that being able to accelerate the expansion of the Montessori offering to the south side of Des Moines is an important next step in the vision of reimagining education for the future,” Thomas Koehn, who is chairman of the Waldinger Corp., said in a news release.

The Koehns established the foundation in 1987, according to 990 forms nonprofit groups are required to file annually with the IRS. In the tax year ending Nov. 30, 2023, the most recent filing publicly available, the foundation donated over $4.4 million to organizations in Iowa and Naples, Fla.

Jackson Elementary School, at 3825 Indianola Ave., will transition to a Montessori school beginning in the 2026-27 school year, according to the release. The school will be expanded to include seventh and eighth grades. Over the next four years, the foundation’s donation will help pay for the transition including teacher training, curriculum development, classroom furnishings and other implementation costs, according to the release.