I have no idea where I left off with my daycare updates…

We received the report back from DHS basically stating what we thought, that the abuse was founded since it was admitted by the workers before they were fired and walked out of the center. The report did bring to light other issues regarding the center, which weren’t previously on my radar… like ratio and food portion issues.

In the mean time, last week I think, I received a note in the mail the daycare would be closed for three days so the teachers could prepare for the school-year. Keep in mind that although this facility teaches pre-k and kindergarten, they also take babies 6 weeks and up. I personally found it ridiculous to close a full-time daycare center for three days to prepare for the school year. So… as I was frustrated by so much with the center, I posted on my personal Facebook page something to the effect of, I’m annoyed my daycare center is closing for three days when it’s a full-time daycare as well as a school. I was blowing off steam, I had so much about the center in general on my mind. If it wasn’t for the DHS mess, I probably wouldn’t have cared as much about the three-day closure. I received this from the director, in a text… and I’m now wondering which teacher I’m ‘friends’ with on Facebook ratted me out.

I was livid… I mean, granted, I was ranting about the center, but I didn’t technically say anything that wasn’t true. Just that the center was going to be closed for three days and that I was annoyed. If I were to actually write a formal review, spilling everthing, even the DHS mess, would she ask me to remove that as well? Shouldn’t other prospective parents have the right to know the truth? Its not slander if it’s true, right?

So as you can see from the text, a meeting was set for Monday, which was yesterday. I made a list of my concerns and notated her responses in red below. Many, many of her comments were heartfelt, but there were also a lot of excuses as well. My overall impression of the director is that she means well, but simply doesn’t have the skills and experience necessary to run two fairly good-sized day cares/schools. She doesn’t delegate well, works too much behind the scenes on tasks lower-level employees should handle. If she is even working as many hours on these tasks as she claims…

Eric and I did look at another center yesterday morning, before we even met with our current director. I was super impressed with the new facility and thus we put the girls on the wait list. But it might be 6 months or more until we get in. I guess in the meantime I’ll still look at some other centers in the area.