4 months into my son's attendance here, the behavior of Conecta's owner, Abbie, and Codirector,…read moreSimone, towards us was abhorrent. I would give the actual teachers here (Alicia, Dora, & James) 5 stars... Sadly, I don't expect them to last very long due to the seriously flawed management issues & treatment of kids & their families.
Below is as close to an objective description of what we experienced - & the many potentially lawsuit-related red flags raised - as I can provide:
My child (two-year-old boy) started in Sept 2021 (3 days/week, from 9:30am-4:15pm). B/c we had to move twice in 2021, he had previously attended 2 other schools, and not only had 0 issues there, but his teachers were very upset when he left b/c they loved him. Also note that these schools had many more students - but the same # of teachers - as Conecta.
1st red flag, during enrollment: The several page long document of very, very specific items the school insists the kids attend with - Bento lunch boxes only - specific brands for raingear, like Tuffo, etc. Child has to provide ALL of their everyday supplies - pencils, coloring, Band-Aids, etc. - in addition to paying tuition. Strange. Still, I go along with all of it b/c we have very few schools in the area & you sit on a waitlist until you can get in.
2nd red flag, first few weeks - COVID policy: Owner of school announces that, if a child exhibits any symptoms, such as a runny nose, County is requiring negative PCR tests (only) and several weeks of quarantine before kids can return to school. I check with the county...this is untrue. So why lie? Just say that's the school's policy - you don't need it to come from the County. Owner either misunderstood the County or doesn't understand what's legally advisable in terms of policies & communication with families. Still, so that my son can continue to attend a school, I hope that it's the former & try not to raise a fuss.
Sept - Jan: Reports that I receive from my son's teacher, Alicia, as well as the Codirector, Simone, indicate that he is doing really well re: developing social skills, talking, playing with other kids, singing, engaging in imaginary play, self-entertaining, etc. He & his teacher appear to really like each other. My son seems to love it there - runs in with excitement to play, etc.
Mid-Jan: School owner Abbie informs me that a full-time spot has opened up & would my son like to take it & start attending full-time. Truth was evidently that she needed to switch everyone to a full-time-basis only, I assume for financial reasons (but, again, why lie?). While I would love for him to attend full-time, we cannot afford it. This is when our trouble (& the harassment) begins... Abbie and Simone begin to send send me constant messages on a daily basis indicating that they cannot have any of the children opting out of nap time (note: from what I can tell, every school has a number of kids giving up naps around his age & they just provide them with another "restful activity" during that time), so they force my son to nap. He is described as very upset by this - "inconsolable," in fact - and can I come pick him up? I get there... he's asleep. Suspicious.
They talk about going so far as to consult a school psychologist about the situation (really?!). They demand sleep consultant intervention. They tell me that he is too attached to his teacher, so they need to work on that - they appear to institute a policy of separating he & his teacher when he seeks out her attention. He reportedly gets upset by this & that's a problem. They ask if, instead, he can start attending 5 days/week from morning until 1pm (vs part-time status, 3 full days/week), then, less than one month later, they inform me that that's no longer an option b/c they took in more students in the meantime & so his only option is to attend three days/week until 1pm...but I'll actually need to pay the full-time tuition rate. Hmm...
Turns out all of this was because - although they did not directly inform me of it until much later - owner decided to switch school to a full-time-attendance-only policy (I assume for financial reasons). Evidence came in the form of an email from the owner one month after we withdrew from the school:
"Conecta does not have half days anymore. Each spot is worth an amount. We offered a full-time spot and it was not taken by you, so it was filled... His spot, which was full day, had to be paid as full day."
I also assume that, b/c I'm an attorney, they thought I might try to sue if they were honest about this, so, instead, they appeared to go for a 'means-to-an-end approach' & make things as difficult as possible for us until we had no choice but to withdraw. This is simply cruel towards kids and reflects very poor management policies.
I have no idea if my child was actually ever truly problematic for them or if this was just an excuse to get us to withdraw so that they could fill his spot with someone who paid more $$$$ each month. Terrible.
