Riverside Montessori Academy

We are so happy to have found this school for our 2 year old– he is now 4 ½ and loves it. The staff has found the perfect balance of being nurturing yet disciplined with a strong curriculum. A beautiful wide open space with plenty of room and light filled classrooms. We tried far more expensive schools all over the region and our son kept asking us «why can’t i just go back to Pachappa» — he would mention the teachers and principal by name and all the friends he has made over the couple of years he has been attending. They do a wonderful job of keeping him engaged and his folder is always packed with beautiful art work and activities done in school.
Thank You Pachappa
— The De La Cruz family

My 3 year old just started attending this school in November and he is already signing his ABC’s, knows his colors, his numbers 1 to 10 and his shapes. He has learned so much in such a short amount of time.
I really love this school, the owners, the teachers and even the students. The atmosphere is very positive, encouraging, and loving. My son loves to go here and always talks about his «friends» and his lovely teachers.
The tuition is the most reasonable in the area and their academic curriculum is at their own pace with no pressure.
I feel us parents are welcome at any point of the day, as it should be, however I know as a parent I don’t want to disrupt my child, or anyone else’s for that matter, so I would understand why observing wouldn’t be the best option. Children, especially the young ones, do not have a high attention span, and once you have lost their interest it could be difficult to redirect them to the lesson while also keeping the others engaged as well. I can understand why observing would be kept to a minimum.
Unfortunately the below reviewer didn’t have a great experience, but I can tell you with the time my son has been here we have been completely satisfied.
Thank you to all the staff for all your do we appreciate it!

I went here as a child, although it was over 15 years ago (1998 – 1999) they completely ignored the children which is why I’m sure they didn’t want the parents to observe much. I remember at recess there were NO teachers monitoring, so there was a lot of bullying and weird things that happened on the playground. I would latch on to my mom every morning she dropped me off and they would literally have to pry me off of her. If this place is still owned by the two parents and their daughter, I beg you not to send your kids here. Everyone was afraid of the father, he would give «detention» (for the stupidest reasons) where kids would go in the hallway with him one at a time. I have memories of being terrified of going in there with him. A door crushed my hands once and they put ice on it and told me not to tell my parents. My fingers are still kind of crooked from this. They gave me multiplication tables for homework at AGE FIVE and disciplined me when I didn’t finish. They had third graders giving kindergarteners spelling tests. And the rest of the time, we were just watching movies, mainly Fantasia, OVER AND OVER AGAIN. One time, a students parent called me a cry baby and even mocked me because I was upset when her son stole a toy from me. So the parents aren’t that great either. It was a very traumatic experience there that still upsets me when I think about it. Thank God my grandma picked me up one day when I was bawling because some third grade boy hit me really hard, and when confronted the daughter teacher said «kids will be kids.» Grandma told me we were never coming back. Please don’t send your kids here, it’s not safe. Every time I drive past I feel so sorry for the kids going there. The one on Anaheim is way better from what I’ve heard, but who knows. I think I would have been better off at public school.

In Short: Although they seem to have a decent academic program, the owners, especially the daughter, are not trustworthy. They make agreements & don’t honor them and their primary motivation appears to be money. They DO NOT want parents involved in any way. Parents cannot volunteer, do not have access to their children, and are expected to dump their kids off, leave right away, then pick them up later. Additionally, at least 1 of the teachers was not very nice to the children.
Our Experience: Looking to give our smart 2.5yr old a great start, my husband, mother, and I toured many pre-​schools in the area. We were attracted to the academic program offered by Riverside Montessori Academy (RMA). The only caveat was that, when we toured the school (which is run by a couple and their adult daughter), we were told by the daughter that they did not allow parents to observe the class. The father told us we could look through the window for a couple of minutes when we dropped our daughter off (the father gave us a tour of 1 location and the daughter of their 2^nd location)
We were really looking for a school environment that allowed and/​or encouraged more parental involvement and some of the other schools we toured had observation rooms, an «open door» policy, or even would allow a parent to sit in on the class and observe. BUT we all liked the academics of RMA. So the 3 of us went back to RMA, specifically to address that one point. We met with the father and spent about half an hour negotiating with him and he agreed to allow me to observe the class for about 30mins and I could either sit in the class to observe or look through the windows.
While that wasn’t ideal, it was an OK compromise and seemed worth it. So we enrolled my daughter!
On her 1^st day, I opted to observe through the windows, so as to not cause any disruption to the class. I don’t believe that my presence did disrupt anything. My daughter looked up at me and smiled several times & seemed happy that I was there. A couple of the other kids looked at me once or twice, then ignored me completely.
The 2^nd day, I peeked in the corner of the window just a couple of times during the academic work times. Nobody looked up at me or noticed that I was there.
Then on the 3^rd day, I dropped my daughter off. She ran off to play and I signed her in. I walked about 15 feet away from the sign in sheet and pointed out to my step daughter a girl who had been friendly with my daughter. I had not even been there for 5 minutes when the director’s daughter came over and told me that I needed to leave.
She told me about their policy and I politely explained to her that her father had agreed that I could stay for about 30 minutes. She argued with me, then went back to her office to call her dad. She came back several minutes later claiming that he had told her that he had never told me I could stay. I insisted that he had and that was the reason we enrolled my daughter there, and she insisted on their policy and told me that she understood if this wasn’t the right school for us.
We then both went to her office. We discussed their policy more and she insisted that her dad would never have agreed to let me observe, that I must have misunderstood him. I didn’t see how I could have misunderstood him after our half hour meeting to discuss that one thing, which was very important to me. My mom and husband both remembered the agreement as well. So either they were refusing to honor our agreement or she never really called him to ask.
We discussed how much tuition I had paid and how to withdraw my daughter, if that’s what we decided. She agreed to refund us $ 200. While texting my husband, I told her that would be fine, but I would have to discuss it before we made any decision. She stared at me for a moment, then said, «Well, you can’t stay here!» And kicked me off of the school grounds right then and there. So I told her I would park my truck on the public street while I waited and that she could call the police if she had a problem with that.
As I left her office, she told me that she really didn’t think this was the right school for us (and I agreed) and that she would cut me a check for the $ 200.
My mom came shortly after to try to discuss it more. The daughter told her there would be no refund, then after arguing about it, gave her a check for $ 100. I had to go back in and calmly demand that she honor her agreement to refund me $ 200. I really don’t think she would have except that one of her staff members was there watching and she would have looked bad reneging on two agreements they had made with us.
As she wrote the check, she grumbled on and on about how she didn’t need us, that they had a waiting list, I was ridiculous, etc.
I think that IF they have a strict no-​observation policy, then they shouldn’t agree to observations. BUT, if they do agree to it, then they should honor that agreement. And if they agree to a refund, they should honor that as well.

My daughter has been attending for 5 years, she is smart, well mannered. They teach them so much, and they are very loving and very disciplined everyday. I love this school, she goes to the one off Indiana in Riverside, well worth the money. I wish they went higher than 4^th grade.

Absolutely love the Montessori Academy!