High Turnover at Little Beginnings

[Anonymous]

NP here and current LB family. I wanted to offer another perspective since most of the negative posts here appear (at least to me) to come from a single person who’s clearly very unhappy—but also doesn’t speak for all LB parents.

I’m as concerned as everyone else about the recent staff departures but have to say that I appreciate the way the school is handling them. Prior to LB we were at another daycare that had a similar level of staff turnover but almost ZERO communication about it. LB has been thoughtful about communicating about the transitions, providing emotional support for the kids in the affected classes, and coming up with a solid plan to improve staff retention. The first day after my child’s favorite teacher left, the director herself (whom my kids both adore) was in the classroom for morning dropoff to help with clingy kids.

For anyone on the waitlist, I’m sure this thread is disturbing, but I’d encourage you to schedule a visit and talk to the director. She can also put you in touch with current families that would be happy to talk with you. Speaking for myself I can say that we’ve been very happy with our experience at LB. We’ve been sad to see some great teachers leave, but that seems to be the reality of any daycare in this area. On the whole, we’ve been very happy there. The teachers we’ve had have all been fantastic and we love the program’s sense of community among families, focus on social-emotional development, outdoor play (the playground is amazing), and extracurriculars (yoga, JumpBunch sports/fitness, the music teacher is great, also a Wolftrap artist-in-residence).

[Anonymous]

Thank you for providing your perspective!

[Anonymous]

Appreciate the perspective from the families at LB that have spoken highly of the facility. I tend to side with those detailed descriptions over the anonymous complaints levied here that allude to issues at LB but provide little to no detail. If you have information about LB, please share it with the rest of us who continue to look for suitable daycare options for our little ones and remain on the wait list at LB. Obviously we all want our children to be in a safe, loving environment, so simply throwing out accusations without any support helps no one and only causes consternation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Appreciate the perspective from the families at LB that have spoken highly of the facility. I tend to side with those detailed descriptions over the anonymous complaints levied here that allude to issues at LB but provide little to no detail. If you have information about LB, please share it with the rest of us who continue to look for suitable daycare options for our little ones and remain on the wait list at LB. Obviously we all want our children to be in a safe, loving environment, so simply throwing out accusations without any support helps no one and only causes consternation.

As a newer family, we have not really been impacted by teachers leaving. Every day that my child is there I am blown away by this school. Today is a rainy day, but those kids will be outside splashing in the puddles - it is part of the outdoor philosophy. I've seen them bundle every toddler in a snow suit and take them sledding down the hill outside after a good snow. The other day, I was sick, and my child said "I wish you well, mommy" which is what they say when someone is absent for being sick, and what they all sing when someone gets hurt (I saw a little girl crying, and the entire class sang a song to her called "we wish you well"- it was truly adorable).

[Anonymous]

We are an LB family as well and our child is in the Pre-K class, so this is our only year there. I will say, the pros outweigh the cons, but the recent teacher turnover was definitely a wakeup call for me to pay closer attention to what’s going on around there.

Pros: outdoor play philosophy, teacher/student ratios, large classroom, healthy lunch, easy parking, included “extras” (music, family picnic, pizza night etc.), reasonable inclement weather policy

Cons: very disorganized administration, the previously mentioned teacher turnover, so. many. emails., parent jobs (for as much money we pay, I should not have to buy/and prep fruit for snacks; also the toy washing is a joke. I guarantee most families bring back an unwashed bag of toys!), insular parent group who know each other from multiple years/children at the school, fundraising— again, we pay enough!

My child has done well at LB, although was devastated when a beloved teacher left last month. I have never heard the “wishing you well” song so I’m not sure how much of the Conscious Discipline is being taught in our class.

I know that some other families have had difficulty with the lead classroom teacher, but that hasn’t impacted us directly. And who knows, at the rate of turnover and the long waitlist, you might not cross paths.

Overall, it’s a good school with nice “extras” but the co-op is definitely a turn-off and some of the parents are definitely drinking the Kool-Aid. It would bother me if we were here for more than a year, but since we’re not, it doesn’t.

[Anonymous]

Hi there, Emily Ilich, Chair of the Board of Directors at Little Beginnings here. I'm sorry to see some of the negative posts about LB as it is a wonderful school with fantastic staff and a great family community where both kids and parents make lifelong friendships.

LB has had some recent turnover in staff with a new preschool opening in North Arlington this month. Turnover is something that occurs routinely in the early childhood education / daycare sector. Nonetheless, we obviously want to make sure that we are attracting and retaining top talent. Nearly a third of our staff have been at LB for over 5 years and about 50% have been at LB for 3 years or more. The Director and the Board have made employee development and retention a key priority and will continue to do so.

On a personal note, my family has had two children at LB and I credit the school with helping them develop into who they are and are becoming. They both have grown in such positive ways and their "emotional IQ" as a result of the behavioral approach at LB is really strong.

If any prospective family or current family has any concerns or questions about LB or would like to find out more about the school from a parent perspective, we are happy to talk to families. Please feel free to reach out to me at [e-mail]. I'd be happy to speak with you personally or put you in touch with other Board members or parents at LB who are not on the Board and who can help answer questions. I would also encourage direct outreach to LB's Director who will be more than happy to speak and arrange for a tour and classroom visit as prospective families make important decisions about enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are an LB family as well and our child is in the Pre-K class, so this is our only year there. I will say, the pros outweigh the cons, but the recent teacher turnover was definitely a wakeup call for me to pay closer attention to what’s going on around there.

Pros: outdoor play philosophy, teacher/student ratios, large classroom, healthy lunch, easy parking, included “extras” (music, family picnic, pizza night etc.), reasonable inclement weather policy

Cons: very disorganized administration, the previously mentioned teacher turnover, so. many. emails., parent jobs (for as much money we pay, I should not have to buy/and prep fruit for snacks; also the toy washing is a joke. I guarantee most families bring back an unwashed bag of toys!), insular parent group who know each other from multiple years/children at the school, fundraising— again, we pay enough!

My child has done well at LB, although was devastated when a beloved teacher left last month. I have never heard the “wishing you well” song so I’m not sure how much of the Conscious Discipline is being taught in our class.

I know that some other families have had difficulty with the lead classroom teacher, but that hasn’t impacted us directly. And who knows, at the rate of turnover and the long waitlist, you might not cross paths.

Overall, it’s a good school with nice “extras” but the co-op is definitely a turn-off and some of the parents are definitely drinking the Kool-Aid. It would bother me if we were here for more than a year, but since we’re not, it doesn’t.

This teacher was alluded to in earlier post as having undo influence on director; what exactly were the conflicts that parents had with her, what is it that makes her controversial and drives other teachers to leave?