Any recent reviews on Fiore Montessori?

[Anonymous]

Bump looking for recent experience @ Fiore as we are thinking of placing our kids there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bump looking for recent experience @ Fiore as we are thinking of placing our kids there

Bump. Any current parents at fiore montessori could provide feedback on their experience so far?

[Anonymous]

I'm a current parent at Fiore and overall very satisfied. My son has been there since he was 2; he is now 7. No school is perfect; I am very happy with Fiore's imperfections and feel I get a good value. The teachers are great, it's a true Montessori environment, the parents form a community. All the staff and teachers have been helpful and gone above and beyond for us. I feel it's a high-quality education, a safe place, and I feel reassured knowing my child is there.

[Anonymous]

I would stay away. This is a business - not a Montessori. Orientation really is a business pitch to get you in, don't be fooled. Find a real Montessori where they are actually focus on kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This school is a wolf in sheep's clothing. The owner and head of school has no background or experience in the education world whatsoever, and he runs the place like a dictator of a small central American country. Parents are told whatever it takes to keep their money rolling in, and staff are treated like second-class citizens. The administration's top priority is marketing and making the school "look good"; the quality of the education is the last thing on their mind. Let me put it this way; they are a small school that has had about a dozen people quit in the last year, including several lead teachers. That is never a good sign. Stay away if you don't want to feel like you've been swindled by a used car salesman.

[Anonymous]

The owners obviously care about making money too much that they lost many enrollments. Many ridiculous business pitches and sugar coating the negative things. They coached the teachers to only show the good and pretty side of the stories. The only good thing is Montessori. I feel like they have a very good Montessori program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The owners obviously care about making money too much that they lost many enrollments. Many ridiculous business pitches and sugar coating the negative things. They coached the teachers to only show the good and pretty side of the stories. The only good thing is Montessori. I feel like they have a very good Montessori program.

Can you elaborate? What to you mean by a very good Montessori program? The teachers follow the method strictly? That their materials and outdoor space is good? More details would be appreciated. I am thinking of sending a child to Primary.
What are the stories that the teachers are not telling?
Why are they under-enrolled? Are you saying parents quit after a while and send their kids to a different Montessori? Don't a lot of Montessori places ask for full payment of the academic year? Then what happens if you give them notice? Do you get it back?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The owners obviously care about making money too much that they lost many enrollments. Many ridiculous business pitches and sugar coating the negative things. They coached the teachers to only show the good and pretty side of the stories. The only good thing is Montessori. I feel like they have a very good Montessori program. [/quote]

Can you elaborate? What to you mean by a very good Montessori program? The teachers follow the method strictly? That their materials and outdoor space is good? More details would be appreciated. I am thinking of sending a child to Primary.
What are the stories that the teachers are not telling?
Why are they under-enrolled? Are you saying parents quit after a while and send their kids to a different Montessori? Don't a lot of Montessori places ask for full payment of the academic year? Then what happens if you give them notice? Do you get it back? [/quote]



I'm wondering the same thing that how did you get out of the contract. They do run the school more like a business, and I plan to pull my child out of there for the reasons some moms mentioned here. I've experienced and had it enough. Please share a bit details on how to deal with them in terms of ending this.

Thanks so much!!

[Anonymous]

Fiore is horrible. The teachers are the 'front' to interfacing with the parents - but the subpar teaching assistance do most of the interfacing with the children.
Highly repressive. Amazing facilities, great campaigning - but in retrospect i wish we went somewhere that gave our child more exposure and opportunities for growth.
Communications are poor. The teachers hide behind admin - and the admin (aka 'bad cop') are really difficult to work with. Our child came back with injuries, frequently wearing other kids clothes, and we really felt like he wasn't getting enough attention or learning much. I highly encourage you to explore other schools and don't drink from the punchbowl - there are other Montessori out there that communicate more actively, give more exposure to children, care for the children's development and really have their act together better. student retention is a problem for good reason.

[Anonymous]

Sorry to say but there is no easy way out. We just simply don't enroll for the next year. Any concern that we shared with them, they made it sounds like we don't know Montessori or gave some ridiculous examples to just made their points. Last winter, school water pipe broke, they close a few weeks to fix it. But they don't have solutions for parents. We just have to take care of our kids. No makeup classes, no refund. Parents here are super nice. We all are so flexible about the options but the school does not want to work with us. They must be really good in the past. I saw an amazing review about them on google. I don't know how they got that super review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You shouldn't trust those google reviews, they are definitely suspicious. I know several families who had their kids attend Fiore and while the facility is very clean and new, the owners run this place like a business, not a school. They always claim that they always have the kids best interest in mind but it seems more like they try to get as much tuition as possible while cutting as many hours as possible that the kids are in school

I felt the same way; running the place like a business and not a school. There was a lot of "upper management jargon" that I caught during the tour. However, I did like their philosophy for food and teaching.

The teachers of this school are excellent, all the good reviews about the teachers truly hold value, no doubt about that but this review is only for the school admin / head of school.
In simple words - Worst business practices ever!
Example : You are only told that you have to pre-pay TWO MONTHS of fees towards the end of the whole admission process - when you are at the front desk ready to sign the enrollment check after going through the entire admission process : admin-parent meet, class tour, confirmation of admission , teachers visit to home, then the enrollment check. At that moment you won’t necessarily ask yourself -WHY this business (care provider) would need TWO MONTHS fees in advance?
There are many reviews here from parents who had to relocate for work reasons (us too) and when you have to, well guess what, consider those 2 month fees prepaid for the future months - blown in thin air and that’s exactly what the head of school is prying on with this senseless policy of pre paying 2 months fee. How many businesses in this country require 2 months fees upfront? And WHY? Does 1 month make sense – YES but ask yourself does 2 months make sense? NO
This school is also not for the working class in general especially where both parents have 9-5 jobs as there are countless days of school closure due to :
1) Teacher trainings (Why can’t there be substitute teachers and why do teachers of all classes have to be trained together on same day?)

2) Parent-teacher meets that required 2 days closure for entire school(Why cant 1 teacher of the class meet the parents while others take care of the classroom? – No brainer, unless you want to just close the school so that 1 parent takes care of the kid and other meets the teacher!).

3) Soo many closures on their online calendar and additional “unforeseen” one’s !
What are working parents supposed to do when the school is closed for teacher training? They surely don’t waive off the fees for those days from the monthly payments! This school is probably more suited for people who are not employed but rather run a self-owned business and know that they won’t be required to move anywhere on a short (or long) notice.
Friendly advice to all future and current parents: DO NOT ENROLL IN THEIR AUTOPAY system, that is not a tool for your convenience but for the head of school to siphon off your hard earned income in advance without even delivering the care for the months your child will not attend due to relocation.
The head of school also lacks general ethics of business conduct and email correspondences whereby you get promises over email that you would get a refund and then you will just continue to followup for weeks over email with no response! The head of school is either confused (or cunning) when It comes to refunding the fees for which the school did not provide any services even after confirming over written email that a refund will be issued.
Before you enroll ask yourself - What kind of business would take 2 months of your childs care fee(thousands of $$$$) and KEEP it just because you had to move out of town for work reasons?
Cant be too sure about the internal teacher-admin conflicts but we endured the departure of TWO extremely qualified teachers from our child’s toddler class just MONTHS APART!
In simple words the head of this school is a pure money – grubber and will only thrive until the school continues to have its good teachers. Without them this place and (sadly the children) have no future.
PS – This review is purely the truth as experienced first-hand, backed with evidences for current, future parents.
To the head of school : If you thought you can get away with your malpractices, wake up , the internet exists.

[Anonymous]

Parents who think they have been cheated should file a complaint here :

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/identity-theft-and-data-security/filing-complaint

I did.

[Anonymous]

What a bunch of cranky people. That school is happy to be rid of you PITAs.