My children have been in the ACSD from the very beginning. My last child is currently enrolled in…read moreAmes High School and I've become aware of current happenings that I strongly feel for. This school used to be quite a good school but since Dr. Valerie Nyberg became the principal it's gone downhill. My child has told me that she constantly is telling students to walk one way in the halls even if the CDC has said that COVID-19 cannot be spread through surfaces. This is just taking away from class time as students need to walk around the entire school rather than the fifteen feet to their other class that's "the wrong way". Another thing that I find absolutely appalling is that my child has informed me that as of this week the school has taken off the bathroom doors. Of course, this automatically stirred some concern up in me as just a violation of privacy. I sure wouldn't want anyone to see or hear me going to the bathroom, much less my child. After doing some quick research I read that it is only legal for school's the take off bathroom doors if the bathrooms are made for it; if there is a clear barrier in which one outside cannot see inside the bathroom. Unlike the elementary schools and middle school, Ames High School has bathrooms that do not corner off into a little alcove in which there are no doors. My child has provided me with pictures of the doorless bathrooms in which you can see straight into the bathroom, you can even see the feet of students using the bathrooms! Not only do I find this disgusting and a very big invading of privacy, but to top it all off my child has told me that the staff bathrooms still have doors. Although I am not completely sure on why the doors are gone, through conversations with my child, I assume that it's because Dr. Nyberg is attempting to get students to stop smoking/vaping in the bathrooms. Though I do agree with this, I know that there's little administators can do. I still remember when classmates of mine would be skipping class to smoke up the bathroom. Taking off bathrooms doors is not the correct way to handle this. God forbid Nyberg decides to take stall doors off next. All in all as a parent I think others would agree that we want what's best for our kids and Ames High School seems to be more concerned with something that's been happening since we were in school rather than our children's privacy.

I toured the infant and older infant rooms of this center and the infant room was where I was…read morelooking to place my son who is 6 months old. There is no way that I would ever let him attend there after the tour. First off, when you enter the center, it is not secured at all. We waited by the front counter for a few minutes with no one to help us, and we could have went anywhere we wanted in the center without being questioned at that point. Finally the assistant director came up, a young girl with a bull type nose ring, different than what I would be expecting from a child care director, but we decided to go with the tour. The first impression of the center was unfortunately the horrible smell. It was a terrible smell that you could not miss. My 7 yr old accompanied us and decided to wait at the desk area while we looked at the infant room down the hall. The door of the infant room has a sign asking everyone to please remove your shoes, so I did, which left me barefoot. The assistant director however, just walked right on in with her tennis shoes on. I asked her if people coming in need to remove there shoes or do they use shoes covers, right at the door, she answered that everyone has to take their shoes off, and then walked right into the room with her shoes on! I was shocked, but not as much as I was with the state of that room. It was FILTHY!! The floors felt dirty and damp to my feet on the carpeted area. The tiny kitchen area was much, much worse! The floors were littered with crumbs and dirt. It was about 11am when we toured, and none of the four 6 month old babies in the room eat in the kitchen area I was told, so therefore those crumbs and mess were not from a busy day of baby feeding! The floors were gross and the walls were filthy with visible food and other things stuck to them. There were missing baseboards in the kitchen area and play area. The highchairs, which according to the director are not where the current babies are being fed, I guess they are lucky! The highchairs have had the padding from them completely removed, and not replaced, they were dirty and sticky. They didn't look as if they had even been wiped down in a very long time. There were four 6 month old babies there when I came. Three of them were in bouncers/swings, one was being held by the "teacher" with having a bottle. The teacher's bowl of food was sitting next to her on the floor as she was clearly eating her lunch while trying to take care of the four babies. The toys, which looked old and not very clean were all piled into a round thing in the middle of the carpet. No toys were out for the kids to play with, no boppy pillows out for them to sit with, they were all stacked up behind the rocking chair. The three kids in the bouncers/swing were just basically vegged out in their containment devices. It was very sad. They were all of age to be able to engage and play with toys, explore on the floor, practice sitting, etc. However, with the filthy floors, they were probably better off where they were. After viewing the infant room, my 7 year old came to join me, he said because he could not stand the smell that was by the front entrance anymore. I couldn't blame him. I asked the assistant director about the smell, and she said she couldn't smell anything. That was even worse, she didn't even realize the center smelled absolutely horrendous. It was time for us to go. There was no point in wasting anymore time on a tour of a place I would never, ever take my baby to. I am not a nitpicking person...I am a clean person, and expect a daycare center to be clean. You expect children to make messes throughout the day, but this place was just gross, this was not from a fun filled day of play. This was long time cleaning neglect!