My daughter attended this daycare from September through the 1st week of June. We switched to Pinnacle because my daughter had a really bad experience at a daycare close to my job. At first, I was hopeful that this daycare would be better. The nutrition was *slightly* better than the other daycare and the daycare itself is clean and new.
However, starting in November/December, we started having problems. The first problem was that the Director, Denise, continually called my daughter by the wrong name. I heard it on several occasions, my husband heard it on several occasions, and I even have an email where she WROTE the wrong name. My daughter had been going for several months up to that point, so she was not a brand new student. When Denise was corrected on my daughter's name, she told me, "You must have heard me wrong." There was no remorse, ownership, or apology. This should have been my first red flag with the leadership of this daycare.
The next issue was that my daughter was picked up early one day and walked out with a water cup that the center uses for snack time. When I went to wash the cup to return it to daycare the following day, I saw the inside of the lid was completely covered in slimy mold. I put it in a bag and took it to Denise the next day. I was no longer comfortable with my daughter using daycare cups, so I provided my own. Every day, my daughter returned home with the same amount of liquid in her cup as when we sent her. I don't believe they pulled her cup from her backpack and ignored my request, despite bringing it up to management AND the classroom teacher several times.
Another issue is that my daughter began talking about 'time-out' (a strategy not used in my home) once she moved from the 2 year old room (Ms. Mari was the teacher) to the 3 year old room (Ms. Jasmine was the teacher). My daughter suddenly hated going to daycare and the shift from her attitude was pretty major when she switched rooms. I brought up how my daughter talks about time out and makes her toys face the wall when she plays 'daycare' (she loved to pretend to be the daycare teachers to her toys.). Denise brushed off my concerns and told me that time out isn't allowed. However, my daughter's language shifted around that time from calling it a time out to calling it 'sitting in the library' or 'sitting in the cabinet.'
A final issue was that my daughter came home with scratches or complaints of student's hitting her but we weren't notified by staff through an incident statement. The only people with access to the cameras is the daycare management, and therefor an untrustworthy source if you feel that your child is telling the truth about being hurt by other classmates.
There are far more issues that I could list with this daycare but these all seemed most relevant to anyone looking for an honest review. Overall, I felt that Denise was dismissive, rude, and unapproachable. My husband felt the same way and preferred to talk to Ms. Raven or Ms. Peggy instead. As long as Denise is the director, I suggest looking elsewhere. This daycare, while possibly convenient, does not seem to care about the children. From getting my daughter's name wrong for weeks to unstructured days, I do not feel that the care she received was worth the hefty monthly price tag.
The only positives about my daughter's time was having Ms. Mari as a teacher and Ms. Peggy, the director of curriculum. These two individuals are the reason we stayed as long as we did. read more