My wife and I enrolled both of our sons at Saint Genevieve Little Angels Preschool for summer camp,…read moreearly education, and Pre-K. Both of our boys had speech delays, and during summer camp they did very well. Unfortunately, once the regular school year started, our experience went downhill.
We were told it was normal for preschoolers to get sick every couple of weeks, but the illnesses became frequent enough that I repeatedly had to leave work early or even call out. It began affecting my job.
Our younger son, who had just turned 3, was involved in a few behavioral incidents. We were repeatedly told he might be autistic. Wanting to make sure we addressed any concerns, we had him evaluated by both his pediatrician and a psychologist. Both concluded he was developing normally. His pediatrician even wrote a letter to the school stating he was not autistic and had no diagnosed developmental or mental disorder.
One incident involved another child sitting in my son's assigned chair and refusing to move. According to what we were told, the teachers did not resolve the situation, my son tried to remove the child himself, was pushed, and then bit the other child. Another incident happened during a sharing activity. My son shared his toy, but another child kept both toys. When the teachers didn't intervene, my son became frustrated and hit the other child. After these incidents, the school told us they believed he had ADHD and gave us pamphlets for clinics that evaluate children under 5 for developmental disorders. We chose not to pursue that recommendation because his medical evaluations had already found no such concerns, and we decided to withdraw him from the school.
Our older son was generally doing well aside from his speech delay, but he also seemed to get sick frequently. On what turned out to be his final day, I informed the director that we had decided to withdraw him. About three hours after drop-off, I received a call that he was vomiting. I left work to pick him up. I was first told he must have eaten something bad at breakfast, but our family had all eaten the same meal and no one else became sick. Then I was told he may have already been sick before arriving, but he had been acting completely normal when I dropped him off. What upset me most was that, while it was raining heavily, he was being brought outside without a jacket until I went back to my car and got him one.
The most important part of this review is what happened after we left. Both of our boys transferred to another preschool, continued speech therapy, and have had a completely different experience. They have thrived. There have been no behavioral concerns, no repeated suggestions of developmental disorders, and no recurring issues like we experienced before.
Recently, we drove past Saint Genevieve, and without any prompting, my now 5-year-old said, "I don't like that school. They're mean." My now 6-year-old remembered the rainy day I picked him up because he was sick and said he remembered being given food by a teacher before he got sick. I can't say whether that caused his illness, but hearing those memories from both of my children years later reinforced that leaving the school was the right decision for our family.
Every child and every family will have a different experience. This was ours, and I hope it helps other parents make an informed decision.
One other thing that stood out to me throughout our time there was the communication during meetings. Whenever we met with the director and teachers together, I noticed the teachers frequently interrupted or talked over the director while concerns were being discussed. As a parent, it gave me the impression that communication and professionalism among the staff weren't as strong as I would have expected.
