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Open Arms Preschool Up in Arms?

Discussion in 'General Chat Forum' started by Bear, Dec 7, 2006.

  1. Bear

    Bear Member

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    I have had at least one child in Open Arms Preschool (near the tennis courts) for the last three years. I have always been really happy with their teachers and the general atmosphere.

    But recently there seems to be some swift and unwelcome changes. At least 4, and maybe 5 teachers have announce they are leaving or left in the last few weeks. One of my daughter's teachers is one of those leaving, and we are quite unhappy.

    Does anyone else know what is going on?

    Bear
     
  2. hberg

    hberg give me some of your tots

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    First you can talk to Lori Schneider who is the Director there. She always welcomes parents to discuss any issues they have. I know at one point she was possibly thinking about relocating to Florida but has since made her decision to stay. I know alot of teachers were worried about what her decision would be and that she would leave and someone new would come in, but she has made the decision to stay. They are also building their school and church so it will be larger. There are more rules and sticter regulations then before but we have been very, very happy with our child there. She has done nothing but flourish at Open Arms, and I have never heard any complaints from any parents. Their retention rate still remains much better than any school in the area.

    I would take a few minutes and voice your concerns to Lori directly.
     
  3. jblnd

    jblnd New Member

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    I have a son in the classroom that is losing both of it's teachers and went to the meeting last night. It got very heated and I am not sure if this is the right place to post the parent complaints/issues with the school but if you want to know the details from the meeting, PM me and I will let you know.
     
  4. gator

    gator New Member

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    While I don't have time right now, I think a certain amount of the issues could be discussed here,
    Some teachers are leaving due to personality changes and curriculum changes (Lori is no longer the director of the whole school, just the day care side, they have a new director for the preschool.)
    1 teacher is leaving for personal reasons which aren't relevant here.
    The school is looking to expand, and with expansion comes growth and change. People are naturally resistant to change. Better communication to the changes and perhaps a slower transition would help.
     
  5. hberg

    hberg give me some of your tots

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    Gator - I absolutely agree. I think there are those that are resistent to change. I was unaware of any meeting unless you are talking about the PTO one. I am interested in hearing other feedback - just so I am not turning a blindeye, but again all the issues I have ever had are being addressed by Lori to my satisfaction.

    I think it is a good thing to have a director for the Preschool and one for the daycare. The school is expanding, more personnel, more children, more finances so I think it allows for attention to detail by splitting the responsibility. I would be interested in what you had to say further on this.
     
  6. Bear

    Bear Member

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    I know that change make some uneasy. I just think the current situation goes beyond that. I think the large number of teachers leaving is due to some dissatisfation. If you are going to expand, keeping your core of teachers would be important. They are tryng to make a whole bunch of changes to become "accredited". I'm not sure that that ambiguous bureacratic designation is important. I'll bet if Lori wasn't being diplomatic, she would express serious reservations.

    Bear
     
  7. Dwarflord

    Dwarflord New Member

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    The problem for me as a parent is this:
    The new leadership that was put into place. That in and of itself is fine, however, this person opts to make changes to the way business has been run just for the sake of making changes. My child was in open arms last year and she enjoyed it and we opted to return this year while having the same expectations of the quality of teaching and curriculum as we enjoyed last year, because it was what we liked. Why else would we return if we didn't like it? Well, the new leadership opted not to continue with what was being done in the past, but rather decided to "try new things". To me this makes no sense. Here you have an established business that is spread via word of mouth for the most part. It is spread because families like and enjoy what they are currently doing as a business. So why, without any time of observation, is someone coming in and making decisions to change these things sight unseen, without even observing how business is run there to begin with? I mean if isn't broken, why make changes? We returned there as a family this year with the expectation that it would be the same as it was last year, only to find out that all of these changes are being made without any warrant? Im flabbergasted. When I take over in a leadership position, I dont go in guns a blazin to make changes, thats grounds for mutiny and loss of customer satisfaction. I go in, leave things the way they are, observe the "business" process, see what the problems are after a length of time, then I make changes. I don't go in making changes without any time of observation. These changes are extreme in my opinion from the way things were run last year and are definitely not as "qualititative" as they should be. The new director should have taken her time with the changes and only made them in the best interest of the customer, not in the best interest of what she thinks it should be without seeing what needs to be fixed. If my daughter was not close to her teacher, I would have pulled her from the class. I could go on, but I think I've illustrated my point.
     
  8. JLC

    JLC Member

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    Can you elaborate on the types of changes? I had my older kids in Open Arms (my first was there the year it opened) and I was planning on enrolling my youngest there as well when he gets old enough.
     
  9. Dwarflord

    Dwarflord New Member

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    The following are problems/changes that we have seen:
    Letter of the week is gone
    Individual jobs - like holding the flag, cleanup, moving day on calendar is gone....
    Teacher directed activities are no longer allowed
    Class size has increased by about 30% depending on that age group, including special needs kids
    Last year the kids would bring home a lot of things illustrating learning, this year we see about 10% of what we saw last year
    Instability with teachers on staff, which is associated with the changes being made. They've lost 5 teachers since the beginning of the school year. There was only an 8 teacher staff, so thats a lot of attrition.
    We also see that the focus is no longer on the quality of education, but rather "The Profit Margin" (No different than any other business, but yet, its different than last year and what we were expecting-- Just our observation and feel since the change
     
  10. HawksFan

    HawksFan New Member

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    I too have a child in Open Arms. I also have been concerned about the changes the new director has been making. However, I am in a minority of parents who actually spoke to her and the Pastors about my concerns. It wasn't until the minority pushed for a meeting so the other parents would share their concerns. I think we can all talk about the issues but if we as parents are not going to get hands on in the education of our children things will never change or get better. And there will be more discussions such as this one tarnishing the reputation of good programs. My son has lost a teacher and will be losing a second next week - however to see the positive changes that have gone on in him since September are great. The things he has learned and surprises us with each day are amazing - Even with no papers coming home each day. More changes are coming to Open Arms and I plan to participate as much I can to ensure they do no effect the basis the program was founded on and ensure they continue and the program flurishes for the children in the future.
     
  11. proud2bmom

    proud2bmom New Member

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    Has anyone considered other possibilities for the problems that have challenged Open Arms in recent months? Talk about the number of resigning teachers all you want (which, by the way, the number at last check was only 3), but several years ago there was an Assistant Director at Open Arms. She didn't last long either, and the Office Manager left shortly after as well. Realize that some people are threatened by the possibility of anyone sharing their power - and those people can be quite influential to staff and parents as well. Also remember that there are always two sides to any story. Because a new Director has come on board, does not take away from the "family-feel" of Open Arms - people's attitudes are the only thing that destroys that. "Growing pains" sometimes hurt, but I know for a fact that Marcie (the new director) loves her staff and especially the children, which are the real people that we are concerned about in this topic anyway! Talk to her - give her a chance before you pass judgement. She's actually a very loving, caring, and reasonable person that is just trying to do her job.
     
  12. Dwarflord

    Dwarflord New Member

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    4 HAVE resigned from Open Arms, the 5th moved over to the "daycare" portion, which is not under the new director. Therefore 5 teachers that were under the new director are no longer working for her. Semantics.....
     
  13. gator

    gator New Member

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    Think about this, 62.5% turn over-rate (5 out of 8 pre-school staff). If that happened anywhere else, the investors, the upper management, and the customers would be in an up-roar.

    Marcie has been there for a year, she started last Jan. I think that is a pretty good amount of time to give someone a chance. I agree, the kids are still learning, and I know she has to care for the kids, but in the same breath, the kids also pick up on unhappiness, which the staff is very unhappy. I would agree that there are 2 sides to the story, but I also know of 3 parents who have attempted to talk to her (before the meeting last week), and she had no interest in talking to them.

    I also have this perspective. When assuming a new job with a staff, the typical process would be to sit back, learn the staff, get to know the customer, and determine where changes could be made to improve the product. When that is done, and you are ready to introduce new changes, usually the idea would be to present the new idea,and the reasons for the changes to the staff, and the customers. Now in this regard I can't speak for the staff, but there have been lots of changes to the curriculum, and I don't recall getting any notes home, and requests for meetings or PTO events or anything.

    If your going to run a business, in this area, where the environment is very demanding, you better be prepared to respond. And when a product is very very good, and Word of Mouth says so, then any negative direction to the product is going to have significant ripple effect.

    Again, just my personal 2 cents.
     
  14. Keebrat

    Keebrat New Member

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    All is reflecting on the preschool and how the teachers there are resigning, but has anyone looked at the number of teachers that have resigned from the day care side this past year? (including the teacher that moved over to the "daycare" portion from the preschool). Change is hard for everyone, in any case, but with expansion it is more so. Marcie (the preschool director) is not the problem and I do believe that if a lot of people take the initiative to get to know her, then you will see that the best interest of your child is a priority to her, because she IS a very loving and caring person. The judgments should be left behind as we all should put our best foot forward and turn this into the wonderful thing that God has started to create. A great outreach to make something wonderful.
     
  15. hberg

    hberg give me some of your tots

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    I want to further suggest and it is a suggestion I am now going to take to heart, join the PTO and get involved. I plan on attending the very next PTO meeting and finding out if we can either have a meeting to address this specifically or what as parents we can do to help solve this problem before people start pulling their kids out of Open Arms. OA has had one on the highest retention rates till late, one of the longest wait lists around and remember when the Boyd school and Children's World had their problems? Winwood is forever advertising for a staff and there are issues all over. I think this is a solvable issue. It just takes the right tract. I don't know what that is but I think the PTO is a start.
     
  16. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    I don't know anything about the Open Arms preschool, but our local MOMS Clubs are doing a preschool forum at the end of the month where you can hear about the different schools in Ashburn from the mom's perspective. The schools will not have representation, it's just the moms with kids in the various schools sharing their experiences.

    See http://www.broadlandshoa.org/hoaforum/showthread.php?t=4245 for more info.
     
  17. suburbanmama

    suburbanmama New Member

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    Any update on the situation at Open Arms? I am considering sending my child there later this Summer if our name cames up on the waitlist. I've been very happy during my brief visits to the school, but I know there were issues posted earlier this winter that I couldn't possibly pick up on during a short 30 min visit.
     
  18. Dwarflord

    Dwarflord New Member

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    Yes, things have definitely changed. The source of all of the changes was asked to resign and she did. Currently, a few of the teachers that left, have come back to teach and they are trying to get the others back as well. We currently have no problems with the facility, staff nor the quality of education any longer. I recommend to give them a try if your name comes up on the list.
     
  19. hberg

    hberg give me some of your tots

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    I have been nothing but happy with placing our daughter there. She has been there since she was two and is now starting K in the fall. At the end of the day, the environment is very loving, positive reinforcement, respect, and a joy o learning. I am extremely picky about where I send my child, and I would not place her anywhere else. Just my experience.....and the waitlist continues to grow and is very long indeed. The only thing I have not agreed with is the recent increase of pricing for those on the waitlist that now have to pay again to stay on. It does not effect me personally, but I think it is not necessary to charge another fee.
     
  20. jblnd

    jblnd New Member

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    My experience had been a bit different--my son's class lost another teacher two weeks ago and just got assigned their fourth teacher for this year. I am not sure why this teacher left and if it is just a ripple effect from the last director but this means that those students have not had anyone with them in the classroom longer than a couple of months (three at the most). I don't think for a second that Open Arms is a bad school, but I have to admit I am disappointed. Not having that consistency in the classroom is alarming as there really isn't anyone that knows my child (evaluations of his progress at the end of the year will be interesting). I understand that many of the students in his class will not be returning so the waitlist should move quickly for the 4 year old classes.
     

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