The director and assistant director of this business go above and beyond for their young learners…read moreand their families. Our son attended this school for four years and had so many fun field trip, and educational experiences. He was able to take swim lessons and karate, and always had to best portraits. They think of everything! I would definitely recommend OOAK.

I love taking my kids to one of a kind. the workers do such a great job dealing with my 4 year old…read more And trust me it is hard to take care of him. They are very hard working and caring. He loves going there, he always tells me he wants to go back, sometimes he even cries because he can't go back until the morning.

A little known, but mighty service. Free and confidential 1-1 tutors teaching adults how to read!read more

We had our two children at Raintree 6 and 8 years, respectively, and while we very excited in the…read morebeginning, I strongly recommend against families using this school now. Raintree seemed wonderful in the beginning, clean facilities, great staff, wonderful food that you could even order to bring home. Our children appeared to be receiving an excellent education, and despite no standardized testing, we were told they were doing wonderfully and we believed it -- eagerly paying tuition to give our girls the best we could, like many other patents. Then, in 2022, the teacher's aid for our youngest daughter's class was accused, and now convicted, of molesting several children in her preschool class. This is a horrible event that can occur anywhere, but it was the school's response that was the damning part. Raintree did not respond as they should have. Imagine if the principal at your child's school found out that an employee was molesting a 3 year old, and when the employee began confessing... the principal advised the molester to stop talking to the police -- because, the owner of Raintree did exactly that. Further, the owners essentially ignored the parents of the victims, and they didn't want to talk with any parents about these events. They did eventually implement changes to policies that should have never existed -- no longer were very young children left alone in dark, curtained rooms for nap time, with a single teacher/aid, and fortunately no longer were aids/assistants allowed to work under the direct supervision of a family member. We asked for further changes, such as cameras and for our children to not be undressed publicly for swimming, and as parents we started a PTO to suggest further improvements for our children's safety, but the administration resisted all of our efforts at changes. The original core group of parents who founded the PTO left active involvement out of frustration, or left Raintree entirely, and the organization quickly became little more than a coordinating unit for volunteer opportunities. (citations to articles confirming details above: https://www2.ljworld.com/.../special-prosecutor.../, https://www2.ljworld.com/.../mothers-testify-about.../, https://www2.ljworld.com/.../recent-filings-shed-more.../) The second reason I would not recommend Raintree to anyone is the academic quality. Several years ago, two of our close friends removed their children (one in 1st, the other in 3rd grade) from Raintree, moving them to the public schools. The public entry testing indicated both children (from different families in different classrooms) were very behind for their grade levels, scoring in the 20 to 30 percentiles in reading and math. At first we still thought our own children were fine, but then we noticed our kids didn't know the math we would have known at that age, they couldn't read a clock, and they were very poor readers when we checked out library books appropriate for their ages. When we had our girls tested, one tested under the 40 percentile in reading, 30s in math, and the other was in the 30 and 20 percentiles, respectively. This was finally what pushed us over the edge, and we left two years ago. Leaving Raintree has been one of the best decisions we have made for our children. We feel our children are far safer in the public schools, the administration at the public schools are far more communicative with us as parents, and the education is much better. After nearly 2 years of hard work by their teachers, and countless hours of at-home tutoring, they are both in 80+ percentiles in every subject. Finally, we don't feel cheated anymore by Raintree. I resent Raintree for making me think we were doing the best thing for our children, and I regret ignoring the many warning signs and "drinking the Koolaide" that this was a good environment for our children. Our children are certainly far happier than they ever were at Raintree -- even they understand that the education in the USD479 schools are superior, and they greatly enjoy the far broader range of afterschool and inschool activities. I am far more impressed with the steps the public schools take to keep our children safe. The staff and administration are fantastic. The one time one of my children was bullied on a Friday, the principal called us Saturday morning, talked over an hour, talked with the families of the "bullying" kids over the weekend, and by Monday everything had been resolved. I advise any family to carefully consider their decision to send a child to Raintree. I strongly suggest you take advantage of the wonderful schools we have available for free (or really supported by our rather high property taxes) and say that $12-15k/year tuition for their future college or trade school education.

We sent our children to Raintree from pre-k through 6th grade. My family is so grateful to have a…read moreschool like Raintree Montessori in our community. We moved to Little Rock, Arkansas for two years when the oldest was in lower elementary. No Montessori school in that city came close in comparison to Raintree Montessori. We are more than satisfied with the education our children received in this caring, inclusive, nurturing, and positive learning environment. Both have graduated from college with honors. Our investment in their early education paid off with both students receiving academic scholarships. There can always be issues no matter the school. We simply work together to solve them, keeping the child's best interest in mind. We liked Raintree so much that I chose to work here. Now I help other families discover this amazing place to educate children.

They were wonderful to my daughter and even went through training for her recent diabetes so they…read morecould help take care of her while there. I miss this place and wish I could send her back.

I have tried my best to handle this situation quietly, tactfully, and calmly, one on one with the…read moredirector. But in light of recent events and the unprofessional behavior of the director, I will be speaking publicly about my experience with Bright Circle Preschool in Topeka. I loved this school. Past tense being key here. When I toured the school and researched reviews and recommendations, I was impressed. They explained their curriculum and the Montessori practices, and my daughter felt comfortable leaving my side and going to play. I enrolled her and things were going great. My daughter made friends and was learning and excelling academically. Then December rolled around. At pick up, I was told that my daughter was extremely upset and "was acting uncontrollable" for most of the day. To the point that they considered calling me to come get her. They didn't, and this is completely out of character for her. I got her home and got her ready for a bath so she is clean and ready for her school Christmas concert that evening. She gets undressed and in the tub. Then I see the small, but very there amount of dried blood present in her underwear. I ask her what happened and she tells me she doesn't want to talk about it. I immediately take her to Children's Mercy in KC. The whole drive, I'm asking her all the questions, "did someone touch you? Who hurt you? What happened?" And frantically trying to get in touch with the school to find out why and how my daughter got these injuries in their care. When I finally got in touch with the director, Betsey Litscher, I was met with only, "I don't knows." We spend 11 hours in the hospital where my poor daughter endured a full physical sexual assault examination, swabbing, sedation, sleep deprivation, no food for hours, missed her first Christmas concert and was questioned repeatedly about this thing that never should have happened. Something did in fact happen and a teacher there at the time witnessed this. I still don't, and probably never will, know the whole story or if this is even what happened. This teacher saw a child with her hands down my daughter's pants and went on to inform no one. And then no one informed me. They helped my daughter go to the bathroom and never told me about the blood on her underwear. Then I had to call the director REPEATEDLY to try to get to the bottom of why I was not notified of any incident and to set up a meeting between myself, the teacher who witnessed this, and the director. It took over a week. At first, Betsey was defensive, argumentative, and dismissive. I lost it a little, as I think most moms would at this point. I also demanded cameras be put up and Betsey assured me numerous times that cameras would be put up, and that this was a fluke accident that will never be tolerated or let happen again. None of my questions were answered by either of them, but shortly after this meeting the teacher was no longer working at the school. Somehow I was swindled into believing Betsey's concern and tears shed for my baby's experience were sincere. I was promised that communication would be improved and that I could trust them moving forward. WRONG MOVE. I should have pulled her out right then and never looked back. Since then, I have had numerous issues with the lack of communication, and strange bruises and injuries on my child while not getting an incident report. Now the most recent unfortunate event. I should mention, I don't know this person through personal interaction and I don't have any ill will toward them. I was told two weeks ago that someone had been hired there to teach. Someone that I know, and someone who is known to me and would cause a conflict of interest. Betsey confirms that my daughter will be in this person's care regularly. I tell her I'm not comfortable with that considering the very real chance that this person could mistreat my child because of the relationship. Apparently that's not a conflict of interest. Fine. If that were all, I would have pulled my daughter out and enrolled her elsewhere quietly. But unfortunately, that's not the major concern. This person has had child abuse allegations brought against her, a since dropped aggravated battery charge, dcf calls made about her alleged drug abuse (we actually were unaware of this until Betsey told me that this person told her this herself) and told my husband herself, that she was let go from another childcare facility for, "pushing a kid". Another parent has gone to school with this person and has chosen to remove their child from Bright Circle as well because of the lack of regard for the safety of her child, and how she was treated by Betsey when she raised concerns about this person as well. All this being said, I believe that since Betsey has been made aware of these allegations, and whether substantiated or not, she is stripping parents of their right to make the best decisions to protect and care for their children. If someone knew of such serious allegat

i went there in 2016 there was nothing wrong with the school me and my sister wnt there and i…read morelearned more than my own mother

Love dropping my homeschooled child off here for gifted classes! He gets to see his friends, &…read morereceive instruction from great teachers other than myself. It's a great opportunity and offers him the best of both worlds! I can't say enough good things about the teachers here at Linn!

Pinned had a great deal over Memorial Day weekend on their custom signs and I'd ordered one. I…read morereceived a call yesterday letting me know it was in. I said I'd pick it up the following day. Well, I must not have listened to her recite the hours because I showed up at 10:50AM and realized they weren't open! I walked back to my car, planning on coming back. However, the proprietor rushed out and asked if I'd needed something. I explained I was there to pick up an order and she let me in to make my purchase. I was so impressed with her kindness and patience, letting me in WAY before opening! I definitely can't wait to return and work on a project there with friends and family. It's a very fun and creative space and the owner is very approachable and friendly.

Pinned is such a neat place! I sure wish I would have thought of it first, but I'm happy that…read moresomeone did! Thanks for the great Workshop!

Steve was recommended to me many years ago when I needed the intonation set and stainless steel…read morefrets on my old Korean-made guitar...he did such a fantastic job that every time since when I've needed work done or advice I just ping Steve and he answers or tells me to send/bring it in. Had him set up my Martin before it ever saw a performance, and pretty soon, I've got an antique Rickenbacker 360 that needs some serious love that I'm going to ask him to overhaul. Cannot recommend highly enough!

I had an amazing interaction with Steve Mason Luthiers and Violin Shop! Meeting Steve and his staff…read morewas great. All of them were very kind and helpful with any questions I had. I have an older Tama acoustic guitar that has great value to me and my family. I was not able to play it for a long time due to some problems with the intonation, the bridge, and the action. I left it with Anil who is one of the luthiers there. After a short while the guitar was returned to me better than ever. They went above and beyond what I was expecting. New bridge, bridge plate fix, bone saddle, action set, and brace carving which all produced an amazing sound which I'm extremely pleased with. I highly recommend this shop to anyone looking for a quality fix.