There's a great deal of reviews on various sites regarding PELC management concerns already. However, my primary concern is regarding the infant program; as a mother and ECE professional, I would advise anyone to avoid enrolling infants in this program. While the long standing infant teacher is amazing and a kind professional, she has been demanded to dedicate a taxing amount of time each day to cooking sitewide meals and take on kitchen cleaning tasks while the infants sit in high chairs unattended, often out of sight, and at times in distress.
There was a dedicated kitchen manager paid to perform the time-consuming cooking and kitchen cleaning tasks until the owner decided not to rehire after frequent turnover. The owner stated she would take on this role, but quickly delegated the tasks to the infant teacher out of convenience and to reduce payroll (and avoid the task herself) despite frequent expressed concern and stress levels of staff and infants alike. This practice has continued for years.
At one point in specific, the infant teacher was brought to tears when given a particularly heavy workload and told to "get it done" with 3 crying babies in high chairs for 45+ minutes (a common practice). The owner was sitting in her office while complaining that the infant teacher was dramatic and that she needs to pull it together so parents are not concerned at pick up. The owner states this practice to be industry standard, and I believed this to be true until experiencing quality centers that prioritize the children. This is NOT industry standard, in fact many states have regulations specifically barring this practice and require time constraints for the amount of time babies can be in "containers" such as high chairs due to developmental concerns. read more