Anonymous wrote:At my daughter's daycare, it was an administrator brought in to be the enforcer. She had a very rigid personality and pushed out talented teachers who had been there for years (some teachers had earned perks like a more flexible schedule after years of service and she didn't want to deal with that, she was also trying to keep costs down). The result was a constant churn of staff. Previously the best feature of the daycare had been committed staff members who stayed for years.

Costs and financial stalwartness of a preschool is important. Sorry parent. If the flexible schedule lead to inefficient staff scheduling and more people on the clock then needed, then the administrator had every right to change that to ensure the school was running properly. If these teachers got used to this type of schedule or additional overtime (that was due to such flexible scheduling) and then decided to leave their children and the school because they are now getting what they originally signed up for, then I guess children are not their first priority. You should reconsider your premise. When these teachers leave I guarantee they will be placed at another school that will expect them to adhere to a specific schedule, so why let the children suffer? They are not losing in this situation.

At my daughter's daycare, it was an administrator brought in to be the enforcer. She had a very rigid personality and pushed out talented teachers who had been there for years (some teachers had earned perks like a more flexible schedule after years of service and she didn't want to deal with that, she was also trying to keep costs down). The result was a constant churn of staff. Previously the best feature of the daycare had been committed staff members who stayed for years.

Anonymous wrote:In my experience whenever parents have said negative things about teachers or school administrators, it’s usually the parents (or their kids) who are the problem.

says a shady administrator.

In my experience whenever parents have said negative things about teachers or school administrators, it’s usually the parents (or their kids) who are the problem.

If I were you I'd ask to contact two of the parents/families from each school as a reference.

Funny you should ask.We recently took at a tour of a school in Great Falls that has a mixed bag of reviews on this board about the administration.sure enough I was rubbed the wrong way so we have decided with another quote less reputable unquote school for my son.

I agree--you need more info. It could mean that the admin is hard to get in touch with or not very responsive. It could mean they have paperwork issues. It could mean conflict between admin and staff.

Could mean a bunch of different things. We looked at one place where the director just seemed odd, although it is hard to articulate exactly why. In talking to parents, we heard comments that sort of confirmed this. He could be pretty dismissive with the teachers and at times wasn't terribly responsive to parent concerns. It lead to more teacher turnover than usual.

Are these Hill preschools?

The one we went to years ago that is often highly recommend here and elsewhere just had a mean girl vibe from the directors office. Cliquey and obnoxious with “certain” (read: rich and didn’t work) moms hanging out in there. Talking crap about parents. Etc. We stayed because the teachers were incredible. Low turnover because objectively they were treated well. But the administration is a low point.

Problems with admin could mean a lot of things, but the problems I've seen have been admin conflict with teachers that resulted in low morale and high turnover. This happened at one preschool where the long-time head retired and a new head came in.

Could be disorganized with paper work or payments. Could be they are mean or dismissive. Could be there is a revolving door of admin staff. It could be so many things.

You won't know unless you talk with someone with a kid there.

This is OP. I have been to both! I am using the reviews of parents to supplement what I have observed.

Don’t pay attention to online reviews. Go in person to both. Talk to people. Use your best judgement.

I am looking at a preschool (daycare -- it's all day) for my daughter, and the reviews on line say that the teachers are great but some of the reviews say there are "problems with the administration." What does that mean? Interestingly, I am comparing this school to another, and I have had problems with the director at the other school communicating poorly and not responding to my email or call promptly, but no one complains about problems with admin at that school. I don't know how much and what kind of interaction one has with admin once your child is enrolled in a school.