I'm writing this review several weeks after having pulled my son from the Hwy 42 location. During…read moreour time at this location I experienced multiple issues and had several concerns about the standards of care this company/location provided. I toured this facility and was sold on its cleanliness, openness, what they said was their security procedure, and their Procare app that was highly touted during my visit. They stated that they specifically checked the license of anyone new that came to pick up a child; that did not happen once while my son was at this daycare.
During my first month, rather my first week, my son came home with the wrong bottles, had another child's pacifier, and the app usage was questionable at best. I requested a meeting with the owner to discuss my concerns. During that meeting, she made a rather peculiar statement to me that I remember to this day. She stated "Maybe your expectations are a little too high". I should have prefaced this review with this was my first child and first daycare experience. After our first meeting, I did feel like things got slightly better in the first classroom. I absolutely loved the second classroom he was in. The ladies in that room were excellent communicators and used the Procare app very well. The only problem we had was when high school kids were in the room sleeping or had their heads in their phone. I reached out to Lesley regarding the cell phone policy, she asked that I call her, and I did not. She never responded via email about her policy.
The next classroom I was in was the reason I ultimately pulled my son out of this facility. Reid came home with staph the first week he was in this room. While I cannot definitely lay this at Corban's feet, it's seems mighty coincidental. This classroom exacerbated my son's diaper rash; it was never as bad as it was in this classroom. My husband picked my son up one day and he handed my husband a thumb tack that was just on the floor. One of the ladies in this classroom tried to give my son whole milk after us giving explicit instructions that he had a dairy allergy; it was discussed in all of his classrooms. Thankfully, my husband was there to prevent that, but he also noticed the high chairs dirty from food that could only have been from the previous day. I penned all of these issues in an email to Caylee Corban, the director of this location, those emails went unanswered. I had to request a meeting with not only Lesley but Caylee as well to discuss my concerns. Nothing improved as a result of this meeting.
I noticed, several times that children were changed on the rug. One right after the other. How do they sanitize the rug, I have no idea. The rug that they are using is the same one the kids crawl all over when they have a changing station steps away that can be sanitized with Lysol wipes.
There was an incident involving my husband that I regretfully will say was not handled well. He went to pick Reid up and watched him, through the glass door, eating another child's snack. It was a chocolate cookie. He reacted very poorly and behaved badly; I cannot deny that. What infuriates me is that Lesley and others tried to debate the metric of how much cookie my son actually consumed. How much he consumed is completely irrelevant. If dairy caused him to go into anaphylactic shock, we would not be debating the amount of cookie consumed. That really gets me to this day; that was their justification, that he didn't get a lot of it. I recall Lesley crying during this meeting because she was upset for her staff. She was not upset that my son, once again, got diary while in this classroom. Truthfully, had I been the owner, I would have kicked us out right then for my husband's behavior. It's the lack of standing up and addressing these type of issues and withholding standards that I'm sure contributes to the increasing decline of this facility's reputation. That and nepotism. Being someone's daughter with a degree in Early Childhood Development does not qualify you for a leadership role. I had so many current and former parents say to me to go straight over Caylee's head to Lesley. If that's not telling, I'm not sure what is.
The final straw for me was when I picked my child up and he was eating Cheez-Its. They had poured them down the table and the kids were eating them as if they were at a feeding trough. I texted Lesley this once I left asking "What do we have to do for y'all to take his allergy seriously?". Her response felt so disingenuous. I was done. THANKFULLY a spot at a highly recommended in-home daycare became available. I was able to do a trial week there and have been happy ever since.
Recently, I received a video from a former employee. It shows my son being picked up by one arm because the toy or chair couldn't be set down. I'll leave a still photo here. I do not recommend this daycare.
