Rockville JCC?

[Anonymous]

What the heck is going on the at the Rockville JCC? Last year there was a ton of teacher turnover in most of the classes. THEN the Preschool Director and Curriculum Director quit because the JCC in general is a mess. The new preschool director comes in and claims she's not going to make any big changes before she has a chance to really assess the needs of the school.
Then Friday at 5pm right before winter break the director announces that the new curriculum director (a seasoned teacher who has real experience working with preschoolers in a Reggio Emilia preschool AND was actually able to support the teachers) was leaving effective immediately (I learned later that she was fired). How convenient since the new Assistant Director starts in early January!
I'm sure this is going to lead to yet another year of teacher turnover. It is really a shame. The JCC Preschool had a reputation for being one of the best in the area, but I highly doubt that will last much longer.

[Anonymous]

This is not uncommon among nursery schools. New directors want their own people who will be loyal. You don’t know what was going on behind closed doors. The curriculum specialist could have given attitude or was insubordinate.

[Anonymous]

Yes, turnover is completely normal for a preschool. Unfortunately, this situation is not that. When a new director comes into an established preschool, their job is not to find new people to be loyal to them. If they are a good director, they will come in, yes, make changes, but not decide to bring their own agenda and forget about the many years and hard work that was put in by many people to make the school what it was. This is also a systemic issue, coming from the leadership of the JCC as a whole. When there is a lack of understanding of the core and heart of the school, and looked at as a way to bring more people (and more money) into the JCC-there are going to be big problems. The problems start at the top-coming from the JCC administrators trying to micro manage and use the preschool for their own agenda.

[Anonymous]

The camp has its share of issues too. It used to have such a good reputation and now it is not able to keep up with others in the area (except for special needs where they excel). I am sure it is a top down issue too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is not uncommon among nursery schools. New directors want their own people who will be loyal. You don’t know what was going on behind closed doors. The curriculum specialist could have given attitude or was insubordinate.

This amount of turnover isn’t typical of established preschools.

[Anonymous]

A good leader brings together a community, not divides it. Unlike the previous director, the new one is not warm and does not seem to care about relationships with adults or children. And then she fires a beloved member of the school staff, who is exactly the opposite, and who was moved to the role to help us all feel comfortable through the transition. This feels like a bit of a ruse by the upper admin of the JCC to pretend like the families have some say in what happens in the community. Now they have all of a sudden hired a new assistant director, with no involvement of the families (and I assume the teachers) at all and fired a person so many of us are connected to. While we have had many wonderful teachers over the years, my sense is that with this new admin, many will leave. With the out of nowhere firing of the curriculum director, I am sure that the staff is left reeling and wondering what this means for them.


Since the new director began, the school has already stopped feeling like "home" the way it always has before. Things are really going down hill fast and I recommend if you are looking for a preschool for your child, that you look elsewhere!

[Anonymous]

The current situation at the JCC goes well beyond the typical turnover. A good leader learns their environment before making radical changes. First you have to see what is broken before you attempt to fix it. Listening to what others have complained about in the past is not enough. It’s easy to come in and change everything hoping it will all work out, it’s another thing to truly study how an organization works and analyze what it is that you can improve upon. The school’s excellent reputation was not created overnight but this type of so called leadership can undermine its foundation and thereby destroy all that was built. Children deserve a better model of leadership than this.

[Anonymous]

Why isn’t the JCC administration doing anything about this situation?

[Anonymous]

The JCC administration doesn’t care about the quality of the preschool or what goes on. It’s all about the numbers, butts-in-seats. This wouldn’t be going on if they cared.

[Anonymous]

It’s not common — that’s a refrain you hear from anti-preschool people.

I have a friend who has a child there and she’s pretty unhappy. She said she would not send her next child there, should they have one.

[Anonymous]

I had a kid there last year and we were not happy, particularly due to mid year teacher turnover. We moved the kid to a different daycare/preschool and the kid is thriving.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have more info? I am considering it for a 2 year old for next fall.

[Anonymous]

Don’t do it. Find another school for you child.

[Anonymous]

Is there such a thing as “anti- preschool people”, that is just a weird thing to even write.

[Anonymous]

The curriculum director was for the teachers and keeping the vision that had already been developed in the school. The director was not inviting, came to replace everything that was built, and the curriculum director’s voice was completely shut down. Director is backed by top who have no idea of how the preschool operates outside of dollar signs. The admin had everything to do with this horrible decision and this is all about money.