Love the new management! The Executive Director , Clarinda Jones-Turner, is a former classroom…read moreteacher and taught in the Opelika School System for 14 years. Ms. Shae (Director) and Ms. Ann (Asst. Director) run the Child Development Center and do an excellent job. The teachers are highly qualified and truly love and care for the kids. They also remind us that they are a mini school NOT a daycare. This is evident in the way the children are learning and growing both academically and socially. The building is clean and smells clean, the teachers do a great job making the building and classrooms inviting. Everyone is professional and has a passion for working in Early Childcare. Visit the center to see for yourself how much of a difference the new management and teachers have made. We love it here!

So 06/11/19 I contacted Opelika Growing Room initially to speak with Assistant Director Brittaney…read moreJames about an issue regarding my sisters employment/unemployment, However, Brittaney quickly let me know she wasn't able to discuss the matter with me. I understood perfectly, then proceeded to let Brittaney know about another employee Miss Frazier whom is mentally abusing the children at Opelika Growing Room. Mrs. Brittaney James Assistant Director then became very short with me and started yelling and ultimately hung the phone up while I was still speaking. Assistant Director Brittaney James decided to turn a blind eye to well being of the children at Opelika Growing Room because she was not in the mood to provide customer service. Well I got in touch with the owner of the daycare whom terminated Miss Frazier, but absolutely no reprimand for Assistant Director Brittaney James whom totally neglected my complaint which involved the care of all the children in her facility. I think the Assistant Director Brittaney James should be held accountable for her blatant disrespect and neglect towards children.

From the owner: Specializing in: - Preschools & Kindergarten…read more- Child Care - Schools

I am absolutely not happy with the services I have received from Big Blue Marble Academy this year…read more  My daughter has been enrolled in their private Pre-K program since August, and has only had an adequate instructor half of the time.  There is no communication when a teacher is out sick or resigns.  Her class is currently on their third teacher who has now been out for two (2) weeks going on three (3).  I learned on 1/11/22 that teacher simply did not return, resigned without a word.  I inquired about the possibility of substitute teachers, and was told the school can acquire subs which would call for a full fingerprint background which would take 24-48 hrs, then HR approval. My child has been without a qualified instructor going on 3 weeks now and nothing has been properly done to rectify this issue.  Why no sub??  One of the directors has the proper degree to teach Pre-K, and she has not been placed in that classroom for support.  The Abeka Pre-K program (what I initially signed up for) was removed and we were not informed.  I was told by one of the directors (who has also resigned) that BBM felt my child would learn more from their program and that it was cheaper.  Again, no one told me BBM was no longer offering the program, and we were not afforded the opportunity to make an educational decision for OUR child.  I was not informed until I questioned the credentials of her teacher at that time.  At the Pre-K level, BBM seems to only be concerned about profit and not the overall quality of education provided to these children.  I have now been waiting three (3) days for someone to call me back in order to rectify this situation, a prorated refund to be added to the account for the timeframe my child was without a proper teacher, the wait continues.  Please, enroll your children in a Pre-K program at a different facility, not with BBM.  I will be posting this everywhere since they do not want to speak with me apparently.

Terrible daycare. They lie and say they can accommodate special needs kids. When all they do is…read morecall to come pick the child up everyday because they are in fact no trained to deal with special needs kids. It's all about the money and I pay to much to have to pick my child up early everytime I bring him.

I share this to hopefully bring light to some of the actions of Miss Deanna's teachers and the…read moreunprofessional way it was handled once it was brought to the directors attention. In no way am I trying to publicly name names of other students, but hopefully other parents will see this and demand better for their families.About 2 wks ago my child was placed in the preschool I classroom at Miss Deanna's and for the 1st wk she came home happy/normal. Nothing for me to be concerned about. It wasn't until I met her full time teacher did my concerns arise. I normally get to the daycare early before this woman arrives and pick my daughter up late in the pm after this woman leaves for the day. The first time I met her she was acting erratic and noticeably was on drugs. But I thought I was being a little overprotective/paranoid so I brushed it off. It wasn't until yesterday 8/16/19, that my suspicions were confirmed. Her demeanor was once again erratic, pupils dilated, talking a thousand miles a minute, etc. I did not need a drug test to know she was methed out. At the time, the director was not there so I asked for her to give me a call back. At that point I knew I wasn't comfortable with my daughter being there so just wanted to give the director of this facility a heads up that one of her teachers is obviously high and that I was going to be removing my child from the facility. Therefore I left to go pick up my other daughter from school and on the ride over I asked my two year old if she liked this teacher...my daughter can articulate pretty well for her age, few words in her sentences, and is very expressive with her attitude...When I asked her the question she got quiet and turned her head away. I asked her again if she liked her teacher to which she responded, she's scary. Asked her why she is scary and without hesitation said she hit me. I asked her where did she hit you, at that point she acted out the motions of being slapped on the knee, hit on the side of the head and she then grabbed her own hair and started pulling herself to the side. Then, most appropriately called her a snake. My two year old acted out the abuse and said "Megan's snake." My daughter was obviously frightened and at this point my blood is boiling. Right on cues, the director called me back and when I told her these accusations, explaining that I am fully aware of the seriousness of these allegations and it is not something that I want to throw loosely around, before jumping the gun and calling the police, I requested to view the security tapes. To which she replied Friday is not the greatest day, Friday afternoon for her is the busiest day of the week because tuition payments are due and there will be hundreds of parents coming in and out of her office, she stated she doesn't want to push me off but if it were a Friday am or a Thursday she could do it but she would rather wait until Monday... right.Told her I would wait till Monday and also remove my child from this facility because I come to you with abuse allegations and you tell me to wait till Monday b/c you have payments to make. She backtracked real quick and said no no I'm not saying you can't come there's just going to be a lot of people coming in and out. Called my child's father who met me there and then sat down to watch the footage.Mind you it's hours worth of tape so we asked to speed the video up till the point where the afternoon teacher came in, she is younger and seems a little more naive and would be complacent in the actions of the teacher accused, Megan. Within 5 minutes we witnessed her yank a child out of his cot and toss him to the side, she also noticed another child's shoe fell off during nap time and proceeded to spank him with his shoe. She then gets into this child's face and starts yelling at him. The director turns off the video, saying she's seen enough, we brought up wanting to press charges to which she replied the police don't really help in these situations but she will personally call DHR. Knowing that's absolute garbage we immediately filed a police report. Since we did not see our child physically harmed in that short clip, the police could not arrest this woman immediately. Though a report has been filed and will be followed up with DHR. This is all around a horrible situation to which I feel for all those involved, I do not feel the director of this establishment had any ill will or malice in the way she handled this situation, nor do I think this experience reflects the other outstanding teachers who work here, but it could have been handled a lot better than it was. And if it took only 5 minutes worth of video to see behavior that, without question, does not belong anywhere near students, who knows what else could have happened that we didn't see. Please demand more for your children.

I use to recommend Growing room to everyone. I believed wholeheartedly that it was the best place…read morein town. However after this experience I can no longer say that. You can read the incident report. What the incident report doesn't state is the truth the that cameras show. Veronica was standing right in front of my son as he stepped onto a chair and then jumped onto another chair and then jumped to the floor. He then circled Veronica to do it all again 5 times in a row until the chair flipped back and he busted his head. The other teacher in the class also walked right by him as he was jumping out of the chair on her phone. I have proof that the Area Director for Growing Room told me that she also did not feel safe with my son in Veronica's care. Instead of removing Veronica from the center they relocated her to another room. So she can now neglect other children in the center. They guaranteed me she would never be in contact with my son. I've been promised that before when walked in on a teacher snatching by his arm. That promise was never kept she was around my son many many times. Before she was fired months later. Needless to say I left there with my registration fees and tuition were reimbursed. Now I'm without childcare because they put a negligent employee before the safety of their children. If you child get an incident report from here watch the cameras!!!!

We toured a lot of daycares when we moved to Auburn and knew we found the one when we walked into…read morethe Growing Room. It's not a daycare it's a learning center. We have two kids and our oldest is now in kindergarten and she is well a head of her classmates. The teachers are wonderful! I have never worried about my kids care when I drop them off; they run into school and are ready to learn.