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April 2024 by Irene Guenther
I am confident when I say that my two children are so well taken care of at Goddard School. The owner Mrs Samia knows every student by name and is so kind and friendly. You are greeted so warmly every time you enter the building by the front desk staff (shoutout Ms Chelsea!) My kids are genuinely so happy to go every day. The teachers work hard, keep you updated throughout the day and are very trustworthy. (I can especially vouch for the Wallabies, Penguins, Tigers, Pandas teachers!) I am so grateful to belong to this community!
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April 2024 by Julena Douglas
Our daughter loves this school! The amount of learning & growth over this year is amazing! She begs us daily to pick her up late so that she has more time at school. Highly recommend this school.
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March 2024 by Marvin Meeks
They’ve done a wonderful job of helping my daughter learn and grow
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February 2024 by Ashley young
I cannot say enough amazing things about Goddard of OP! We have been here about a month now and it's been such a happy, positive change for our family. Every single staff member is incredible, it's impossible to pick a favorite!! I feel so comfortable leaving my kiddo in their care and they've been so incredibly helpful and accommodating with all the snow days and last minute schedule changes in our family so far this year. My Daughter honestly prefers going to Goddard over her elementary school!! Thank you for all you do and making us feel so welcome and at home here, we love it and HIGHLY recommend it!
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January 2024 by Becca Moss
Two years ago, I put in my resignation at this school. All the most relevant reviews are absolutely correct. I was belittled, disrespected, and spoken to very unprofessionally. The owner only cares about money and does not care about your child or their learning. As a then, 23 year old, I was excited to learn and grow in my position as an AD. I was not given direction nor the training to execute my job properly. I was accused of many things that I could not even fathom of doing. The owner ruined my experience of working in childcare as well as my own self worth. When I speak to parents who are looking for childcare, I tell them to go anywhere but here. Since leaving the school, many of my coworkers have left. It truly is sad to see what could be an amazing establishment going to shambles, because the owner simply does not care.Please don’t waste your time responding to this Goddard. I hope karma is kind to you.
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October 2023 by Nataliya Kardash
Everyone is very nice, pleasant, patient and compassionate!My son started preschool and absolutely loves his teachers, peers and everyone at the school!He goes to school with smile and comes back home happy. He leans a lot with his group and our family is very grateful for an amazing experience for us and our child!
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September 2023 by Brooke Stein
Do not send your child here. We attended this daycare with our daughter from Oct 2022-August 2023. All positive reviews are prior to the new owner. The new owner only cares about the money and if you bring any issues/concerns up to her, you become the problem and are treated in a very hostile manner. Every month there was an additional fee for “catering” or “misc.” we never once paid the agreed upon rate and we’re constantly up charged for expenses which were never disclosed to us. During our time we watched all of our daughter’s infant teachers leave, her two toddler teachers quit and multiple other teachers left as well. The new staff she has hired are constantly on their phones and are unfriendly to parents and the students. We witnessed a child left outside unattended and no report was ever filed as well as teachers yelling at older students. Our daughter and 2 other girls all started saying “hurt” and referencing their private parts. Do not under any circumstance send your child here if you care about their health and safety.
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August 2023 by Brooke V.
Do not send your child here. We attended this daycare with our daughter from Oct 2022-August 2023. All positive reviews are prior to the new owner. The new owner only cares about the money and if you bring any issues/concerns up to her, you become the problem and are treated in a very hostile manner. Every month there was an additional fee for "catering" or "misc." we never once paid the agreed upon rate and we're constantly up charged for expenses which were never disclosed to us. During our time we watched all of our daughter's infant teachers leave, her two toddler teachers quit and multiple other teachers left as well. The new staff she has hired are constantly on their phones and are unfriendly to parents and the students. We witnessed a child left outside unattended and no report was ever filed as well as teachers yelling at older students. Our daughter and 2 other girls all started saying "hurt" and referencing their private parts. Do not under any circumstance send your child here if you care about their health and safety.
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August 2023 by Scott Calvin
The absolute worst school I’ve ever encountered. Do not take your children to this location/owner. She only cares about enrolling families for their money and putting on a smile when their parents are around then couldn’t care less about the children. Literally go anywhere else.
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August 2023 by Shawn
If you are considering this school find a former or current teacher; or one of the directors/former directors that’s been there for a while. Ask them if you can speak to them in private on their own time to get their feedback. Have a conversation with them without someone over their shoulder before you make a decision to send your kid here.The post by Annette and the newer post are true. Some of the teachers are definitely burnt out because of the struggle to keep staff and maintain ratios etc. I would walk in any given moment and barely recognize the teachers who are watching our kids throughout the day. For a few weeks our son was able to open the doors and leave the building unimpeded. This was when he was 2 years old about to transition to the 3 year old class. (that’s right a 2 year old leaving the building with no training or measures implemented to prevent it). His teacher at the time didn’t last long. I found her constantly texting on her phone instead giving full attention to the kids. As soon as she was gone it stopped. But unfortunately leaving the building put him on the owners radar for obvious reasons. We all can agree if he was properly supervised he would not be able to leave. There would be more teacher changes that our child struggled to deal with..-We had a meeting with their staff 6/19/23 to discuss constant teacher changes and as a result our child’s behavior in the classroom/playground. It was a successful meeting and we all agreed on the next steps. We implemented a plan moving forward in which everyone who attended was optimistic. The owner either chose not to participate in that meeting or couldn’t attend because of ratio’s again. Her absence was strange given the critical and inconsiderate decision she would ultimately make in regards to his enrollment.A few days after our meeting the owner pulls me aside to discuss her concerns. I voiced my frustration with constant ratio problems, a sudden lack of childhood developmental training that wasn’t an issue before, but mostly the teacher turnover and its impact on our child. She had a totally different tone than the others had in our meeting and seemed to have given up on our little one. It’s hard to understand why she would imply that we have exhausted all efforts, but the 4 members of her own staff shared ideas and helped formulate a plan that we were going to implement moving forward..Our son attended this school for years. Any problems started when his primary teacher moved to a different class, and was replaced with the texting teacher that was let go. Us parents know our kids need consistency at daycare just like they would at home. Ultimately our little one and the other kids had a total of 4 primary teachers within months here. It would have been 5 if one trainee did not leave right before our son transitioned. (He had no real issues before staff changes became extremely common) I was also told by the owner that one trainee in particular left because she couldn’t handle our child leaving the room throughout the day. We did our own digging and found this was a lie. She went back to her previous job due to pay and was concerned about the structure here. Our child was blamed for her leaving.-On Friday 6/30 at “2am” we received an email from the owner that our child was de enrolled effective immediately without notice or warning. No courtesy notice at all. It’s possible her ego didn’t like the tone of our conversation, I don’t know. But just Imagine what her decision did to 2 working parents, and the welfare of our family. Imagine the impact to your child. The routine and friends he has made over the years gone..Up until a few days ago I was told over and over again by his teachers. “He’s 3” compassionately acknowledging that’s he’s a boy, only 3 and acting like a 3 year old should act. Make sure you read the newer reviews. Do your research. Don’t put your family through what my family and other families on here have gone through..
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August 2023 by Rebecca McGee
I don’t believe my child had a single consistent “teacher” while we were enrolled there. Every month or sooner a teacher would leave and they’d hire someone else off the street to fill her spot. I never knew who would be with my child, every day it’d be someone different. That screamed red flags.
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December 2022 by Kathryn Cramer
Poor experience with this school. Very poor communication between teachers, admin, and parents. The teachers did not adhere to the requests we made and forced our son to give himself his own bottle (after we clearly asked them not to do so). Many times we found our son sitting in a bouncer, by himself, as he was younger than most of the kids in his class. For the cost, it was not worth sending our child here to have him play by himself most of the day.
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December 2021 by Abigail Lathrop
This particular Goddard has supposedly changed hands and built this new building but still plays the same game of treating staff as bodies in rooms and moving kids into rooms they are not developmentally ready for just so they can maximize profit. While Goddard as a whole has an ideal curriculum that both staff and parents look forward to this one has created an environment that has driven good passionate teachers not only from this location but out of the teaching profession. To hear that years after leaving myself they are still continuing with toxic behavior is concerning to say the least. While I had hoped the new changes were positive to find out things have continued have encouraged me to share and warn not only parents but future staff who wish to teach here proceed with caution. For this location it's all about money which apparently that means taking back money from staff that is rightfully theirs because said staff chose to leave and find a better work environment after experiencing long days with no breaks or support. I hope they can rectify this issue and improve before they absolutely destroy The Goddard School reputation.Edit to add: I speak as someone who have had friends who have worked here and have burnt out from the poor, careless management as well as being a former employee myself. I worked here and have firsthand experienced everything stated above. I have directed people to work here and regret my decision as I have seen them lose out on their passion for teaching. I do hope they can take this criticism seriously and respect future staff members.
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December 2021 by Katherine
Please note that most positive reviews are from over two years ago under a different owner. Working at this school completely destroyed any desire in me to work in any teaching capacity. I was terminated from this job but I do not consider myself a disgruntled former employee, as I was hired on to a better company in a different field of work shortly before my termination from this job, and I planned on resigning. I was never given any chance to speak with management to defend myself against a false accusation. After two weeks unpaid suspension the owner finally responded that my employment was being terminated without explanation or severance. To date there is no record of any substantiated claim against me or the school (Lic.#0079894), which is public information on the KDHE website. I requested an official reason for my termination from the owner of the school but I was never given one.I am writing this review in hopes that I can prevent parents from subjecting their children to this chaotic and toxic environment and paying for a quality education they will not receive.The teacher turnover in the school is the highest I have ever experienced in my entire 14 year teaching career. We were perpetually understaffed. With the exception of a couple teachers, most teachers hired last less than a few months. Teachers were daily asked forego their lunch breaks for months. I personally witnessed the owner leaving teachers over ratio on multiple occasions. Children are left unsupervised in the entry hallway to wait for their parents during pick up times.I was told by an infant teacher that she was left in her classroom alone all day without a break with 6 infants (legal ratio is 1:3). On one occasion after I left for the day my assistant teacher at the time admitted to me the next day that she had negligently left a one year old child unattended in the hallway, not realizing that he was missing from her small group of children, and that a manager discovered the child and returned him to her, but did not say anything to her and did not report the incident to state licensing.On one occasion in late 2020, I had nine one year olds in my care with my assistant teacher during a fire drill. Another teacher who had only two one year olds in her care left one of the two children in the parking lot as she was walking back into the school after the fire drill. My assistant teacher and I took the child into our supervision, and I reported it to my manager, who took note of it and then did not report the incident to state licensing, and that teacher still works at the school as of July 2021.As a mandated reporter, I did report these events to state. I do not feel it is a safe and nurturing environment for children, and for teachers it is a toxic environment.The owner treats her staff and parents with a level of rudeness and disrespect I have never experienced before. It is my opinion based on my experience with her that it is her desire to project this school as a premier child care facility, which I believe most Goddard Schools are, but her behavior doesn’t seem to care about the quality of care the kids get after they are in the school. Unfortunately this school in particular is run like an overpriced daycare, with several unqualified floaters acting as lead teachers. Sick policy is not enforced evenly with families, and if a parent complained, they were allowed to stay at the school infecting other children and teachers even when by policy they should have been sent home. Teachers were reprimanded when they complained about the rampant illnesses. Curriculum is supposed to be developed by a qualified lead teacher in a personalized manner for each class and no curriculum has been used at all in my former class, and has temporary workers who have had no previous experience or educational qualifications in child care. I fear that parents are paying thousands of dollars a year for what amounts to a babysitter watching their kid.
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December 2021 by Megan Hollingsworth
After a lot of thought, I’ve finally decided to write my review on Goddard as a parent. After switching my kids from Goddard to a school that knows how to communicate & be organized, I realized it’s important to give other prospective parents a heads up on Goddard. Summary: poor care, high price.My toddler and infant were there 5 months— hindsight, 5 months too long. The only reason I’m giving 2 stars is because of how sweet the infant teachers were.The toddler teachers were constantly stressed out, my POTTY-TRAINED 2.5 year old would be in a saturated pull-up several days , even having urine burns one day. Despite my reaching out to the owner, director, and teachers— this was NOT addressed properly by them and it still took 1-2 weeks for this to stop. Even when the pull-up was off, My daughter was constantly having accidents— telling me the teachers did not take her to the bathroom at scheduled times.There were many other issues but this was the biggest one. I never saw the owner actually in rooms helping out when they were short- instead, she would simply close the school early. When I told her I had to work (at a hospital during a pandemic) she proceeded to tell me “none of the other parents had any trouble picking their kids up early.”Lastly, my very verbal toddler always screamed about having to go to school every morning “I don’t WANT to go to school” It was obvious her needs were not being met. Once we changed to a facility that was compassionate, nurturing, and organized- my daughter LOVES going to school now.My husband and I were sent many surveys to fill out about our experience (probably as a way to deter me to write this Public review), and I filled them out honestly. I was never contacted by anyone to investigate about my experience nor was I ever offered an apology for the way my daughter was treated.From someone working in healthcare, I know COVID has brought insurmountable stress to those in healthcare and childcare— but these behaviors I witnessed go far beyond the stress of a pandemic.These are only the things I saw from the outside looking in. Seeing the reviews from former employees sadly does not surprise me. I feel awful for leaving my kids there as long as I did.
