Greenville Montessori School

As a former parent of a child at Greenville Montessori, I’d like to share our family’s experience with any prospective parents. After the arrival of the new owner, the following are the major issues we experienced that led to our departure from the school, issues that did not exist with the prior ownership and executive director:
1. Lack of accountability — Address an issue to the owner, and he will blame the executive director. Speak to the Executive Director, and she will blame office staff or the teacher. Speak with the head teacher, and she will blame the assistant teacher or Executive Director. No one will accept accountability for even the smallest issues.
2. Turnover — No less than 8 changes in staff in less than 6 months. This includes 3 executive directors, one assistant director, and multiple teachers. If you expect stability for your children, this is not the place to go.
3. Disproportionate discipline — A teacher was placed on a performance improvement plan for being too physical with a child. However, when the Executive Director disagreed with a teacher’s student assessments, an inherently subjective activity, that teacher was fired immediately. These priorities are backwards.
4. Poor Communication — From not communicating about a new checkin system, to a still unclear procedure for pickup, to children’s birthday parties not communicated to other parents, communications from the school are inconsistent and incomplete. A parent paid for lunch for our son’s class on a Friday, a day with bagged lunches, but it was never communicated to the other parents. So after spending over a hundred dollars on food, kids still arrived with bag lunches.
5. Sad Environment — Thanks to the lack of accountability, turnover, and disproportionate discipline, all of the staff seem to walk on pins and needles. It’s just not the same warm, friendly environment it was before the new ownership arrived.
6. Inexperienced Ownership — From a haphazard student checkin system to staff instability to adding computers that don’t work, the new ownership time and again illustrates their lack of experience in running a Montessori School. Question any of the issues mentioned here, and he will either blame someone else or suggest you take your child elsewhere. Shortly after taking over the school, the owner proudly announced a town hall to discuss all of the changes, only to cancel it when he realized he would actually have to answer questions and provide a plan.
Based on all of these factors, we elected to move our son to a different Montessori school in the area.

I would rate this school NO stars if I could. I came in for a tour at around 4:45pm. Since I do work in the education field I was not able to make it there any sooner. When I walked in the lady at the front desk was very abrupt and slightly rude. The school is extremely nice and looks clean and organized. However, I couldn’t care less what the school looks like if the people working inside of it are not up to par. The first thing the director told me was that it was a terrible time to tour. It caught me off guard. Her FIRST comment was something negative. I continued with the tour and saw the classroom my daughter would be in. It was spacious, well kept, and organized as well as very clean. However as the tour went on I began to feel more and more uncomfortable. I witnessed a teacher grab a student by their upper arm, drag them to the corner of the room out of site of the open windows they have and heard a loud thud. The director excused herself from the tour and popped her head in the classroom. I surly thought at this point she would be reprimanding the teacher but BOY WAS I WRONG! She immediately turned off all of the lights and then flipped them back on raised her voice and loudly told the kids to line up. She then held the child’s face between her pointer and thumb finger squeezing their cheeks and roughly asked if they wanted to walk with her or were they going to obey. At this point, I almost walked out of the building. I’m a teacher and children can be difficult but that is not the way you should handle a situation. I kept touring because I wanted to see what else was going on. Was that just a one time thing (I’m guessing not) or would I see similar situations going on throughout the building. When the director came back out she said, «Parents think that kids with ADHD are a good fit for Montessori schools, which sometimes they are. But, THOSE kids with autism and special needs don’t belong here.» THIS ABSOLUTELY disgusted me. EACH child is equal. And every child has the right to learn. However, I continued thinking «Wow, what else will I see/​hear.» We continued to another room (they have large windows in each room that you can see through) In the next room I witnessed a stressed out teacher who looked like she had basically reached her breaking point. I watched her yank a puzzle piece out of a child’s hand, throw it to the floor, scold them and then tell them to go play somewhere else. Now, I didn’t see exactly what the child did before that but even then its no excuse. For these two children I wish I knew their names so I could let the parents know just how badly their child was treated. As we approached the «gym» area I saw kids playing and having fun. Some were riding on little tricycles, some playing with hula hoops and others playing with balls. To me all of this seemed age appropriate and it looked like they were having fun. As I stood there and watched I saw a child bump into another student who was playing with the hula hoop. Oops, accidents happen right?! Well apparently nothing here is an accident! The child was scolded and told to get off the tricycle. The director than told me that he teachers were doing everything wrong. They didn’t have anything sectioned off, there shouldn’t be three different toys out at a time, and eventually the teachers would learn that. She was degrading and acted like her teachers were dirt. At the end of the tour when she asked me if I had any questions I quickly said no and walked out. Of course I didn’t have any questions, I will NEVER step foot back into that building. My child will NEVER go there. And I encourage every parent who is considering this school to GO ELSEWHERE! Please, for the sake of your sweet child. If I saw that much on a 20 minute tour, imagine what happens during the 8 hours your child is there.

This place us only a day care and not a montessori! Teaching is absolutely NIL. The student teacher ratio is high, 2 teachers to about 24 kids and only 1 of the teacher is montessori certified. The fees are high too for the services they provide, there is no art, dance or any such activity. All of these are extra cost! My child was here from when she was 3 to 5 un the primary class and by the time she was ready for kindergarten, she was not prepared with anything.

Unfortunately this is not such a good school. The owner is wonderful, but the head/​director is moody, cold, and unprofessional. Some of the teachers are excellent and nice, but the rest fake being friendly or just plain self-​involved. They go home in the afternoon and leave younger assistant teachers to their own devices until closing. All the children are then moved around too often. Besides, it’s more about money than the childcare and their employment lacks stability and with no benefits offered. They don’t encourage a positive environment and if they don’t like you, you become invisible.