This daycare used to be a great facility before the COVID lockdown last year. They were in a…read moredifferent building. The rooms were bright and organized. They had great teachers. The parents were updated all the time on the Brightwheel app. I received regular updates about how they were doing.
When everything closed last spring, Bright Beginners moved to a new location a few buildings away. Their "dream" seemed to be to open a whole bunch of classrooms (instead of two) so kids can spend more time with children their age on their own level, which is a great goal.
Unfortunately, starting with this move, everything unraveled.
The building isn't great. The rooms are small and dark. Many don't have windows. Only two were being used: 1-2 year olds and 3-5 year olds.
Instead of keeping their website updated, as teachers quit (and a lot of them were unhappy with the lack of leadership and communication), their images still remained on the website. No one's profiles were updated. No new teachers have their credentials listed, or even their pictures. Teachers appeared and vanished and the parents had no idea who they were. Then, the schedules disappeared from the website. The website has pictures from 3 years ago.
Not only is the website outdated and incomplete, most teachers stopped using the Brightwheel app to communicate with parents. We used to get videos and pictures throughout the day. After the move to the new building, I would be lucky to see one picture of my son in a week.
When I would ask how he was doing, I was usually told by the teacher, "I don't know, I wasn't with him today." No progress reports. No information. His clothing started vanishing. He came home wearing another child's underwear.
What's worse, is the staff seems to have the hardest time wearing masks. We know it's the easiest way to prevent COVID and yet, some keep their masks on their chins. Some under their noses. Some not on at all.
When you ask the teachers about COVID, most state it's not a big deal or "assume" they already had it. They seem unaware that having it once does not make you immune, and they also don't realize that they can easily be carriers without symptoms. Then the pull their masks down and breathe all over our children.
The center is more concerned with "ratio" than they are about the well being of the children. Instead of keeping rooms open, children of all ages are combined so they can have as few teachers as possible at the center. Never mind the fact that they're overwhelmed and the kids are having a hard time adapting to new rooms at random as well as other children, all they care about is not having one extra teacher there for one hour because they would probably have to pay her $10 for her time. As a former elementary school teacher, I assure you in school they still teach that children, especially young children, thrive from routine. This center has no problem shuffling children around and confusing them as long as they don't need to pay one more teacher for one more hour. When they did have COVID scares (and they did), they were forced to close the entire center because of the insane amount of mixing they do with teachers and students.
Also, you will never see the director or assistant director unless you show up during the day. Most parents bring their children to daycare because they work, meaning the children will be dropped off before work and picked up afterward. The director and assistant director make zero effort to ever come in early or stay late (which means their teachers are responsible for opening and closing the center and addressing issues) which shows you how little they actually care.
Shortly before I switched daycares (my son no longer goes here but I did want to write a review to warn other parents), the center started a newsletter which I thought was a great idea. However, it's not filled with any content. I didn't know what concepts or information I should be going over with my son. Knowing he's learning about "the letter B" isn't helpful: he's known that letter for 3 years. I thought Preschool actually meant the children would be learning. A coloring page? How about the center informs you IN ADVANCED of the days it will be closed in case we don't keep our handbooks open on our kitchen tables. How about it informs us of new policies and procedures at the center? How about future improvement they can make to the center? Perhaps information about how to obtain a progress report?
What improvements, you ask? Perhaps label the 20 doors in your hallway so we know which one is the kitchen, which one is the bathroom, which one is the preschool room... Or replace your mud pit with sod so when the children come home from playing outside on a damp day we don't have to throw away their entire wardrobe? Perhaps invest in a sign on both of your doors so people actually know this is a daycare?
I used to love this place. It's very sad what happened.
