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March 2021 by Yomann
Kids keep changing teachers, teachers are understaffed and are treated terribly. The director is quite rude.
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March 2020 by Naomi Fisher
The school in general is so fantastic! But the director is horrible!! My child teacher keep getting changed they have such a high turnover and when i went to personally ask the teacher why she left she says because the director mr Alby. She said he is a compulsive liar an only cares about himself. That he keeps drama going by talking about the staff which is so unprofessional. That school would be better off without him they should let ms Amanda or ms Kathy run it! She was my favorite an also my child’s favorite teacher it is ridiculous an I’m shock nobody has done anything yet. Alby is a disgusting human being who lie too damn much he wasn’t even going to tell me she was leaving until he got ready to!
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March 2019 by Coni Otto of Long & Foster Real Estate
My son has been going to this school for 2 years since 2 and has had the same primary teacher throughout each phase without changes and has transitioned to each level nicely. The staff is great and the learning has been awesome I'm very happy with this school.
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June 2018 by Brittany P.
I love the facilities and care that is given to my son. That is not the basis for my low review. I do not like the administration or how things seem to be handled. This is particular to the Maple Lawn location. One issue is that the infants are mixed in with older children during early morning drop off and late afternoon pickup. They do this due to staffing shortage at these times despite their numerous signs outside these rooms to not bring in older siblings. When this occurs, these children are all over my child and his belongings with illnesses. This is fine except for the fact that we are not notified when those children in different classrooms (because they are older) have contagious illnesses. My other issue with the administration is that they provide a free vacation week where you do not have to pay for that week. This is during the summer so that an amended schedule for teachers can be done to take vacations. I am on board with that. What I am not on board with is that when I was given the tour, I was explicitly told that this week is flexible because I take vacations in spring and winter. Upon receiving the form to fill out for the summer week, I was told there was no way I was provided that information. EXCEPT I WAS. They wanted nothing to do with any accommodation. I was not looking for a free week out of summer every year. But when I am given that information, I do believe that this year should have been an exception. I am writing this post so that other parents have this information and there are no "misunderstandings" for any other parents out there. The administration is great until you have a problem, and then they want nothing to do with your suggestions or concerns.
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March 2017 by Anthony Benites
After a few months having my LO here, I can affirm this is a great school deserving a five star rating in my humble opinion. The teachers are lovely and warm to the kids. They are also strict enough to enforce rules and control the chaos otherwise would exist. They are knowledgeable and skillful enough to daily transmit the different learning topics to the always playful toddlers. Overall, everyone plays an important role to make this school one of the best. However, I believe that the teachers, specially the ones in room 9, are the main reason why parents want to get their children enrolled here. What's a school without great teachers anyways?
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December 2015 by Julia Konovalov
Great schools!! Our oldest attended their daycare/preschool and now goes to their elementary school. Our youngest goes to the preschool now. Both school provide excellent structure, learning environment, curriculum, and personalized care! Love it and highly recommend it to all!
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March 2015 by Ron K
The teachers (and the director) at this location keep leaving every few months and the kid has to start with a new teacher, which is a huge issue for kids at that age. They don't seem to be able to retain a few good teachers that do come in. The focus on teaching and making the kid ready for the kindergarten seems to be totally missing. I get a feeling while dropping my kids here every morning is that I am dropping them at a baby sitter rather than at an academy where I expect some value addition.The management here does not seem to care much about kids and issues. The only thing going for the management here is the location and layout in community which parents find convenient and attractive. Other than that I cannot think of anything positive and would recommend staying away from this place if you can.
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February 2014 by Amanda L.
Columbia Academy definitely deserves 5 stars if my rating was based on facility alone. The building is very new, large, and clean. The play areas are very impressive, especially compared to nearby daycare facilities. Also, the front desk staff are all friendly and professional, not like another daycare my child attended where all the front desk did was sit on their fat a**es and gossip.... I'm also impressed by the quality of lunches they feed the kids. We opted for hot lunch for our child this years based off the menu because they really go out of their way to serve a well balanced meal including veggies and protein, not processed junk carbs. I can't verify the quality of the ingredients but it's just nice to see a balanced meal served daily. I would love to give Columbia Academy a higher rating but I can't based on the inconsistency of teacher quality. My child's head teacher is really great, a perfect balance of loving and strict and very forth coming and truthful about how my child behaved each day or other important matters. However, the assistant teachers are hit or miss. Thankfully they are just assistants. One in particular seems bi-polar, one minute hugging and playing with the kids and the next yelling over nothing. It is very apparent that my child doesn't like being around this teacher and gravitates immediately to the head teacher upon drop off. Another area where they lose points is the amount and quality of snacks and junk food constantly being shoved at these kids on a daily basis. I get it, kids need snacks, but they don't need to graze ALL DAY on junk. My child normally doesn't eat any of the healthy portions of lunch simply because the amount of junk food the kids are aloud to graze on ALL DAY LONG!!! I'm sure most of them are basically full by the time lunch rolls around so no wonder they won't touch their veggies. So basically, their attempt to serve healthy lunches is negated by the nasty crap they feed the kids all day long. I know this is just my opinion and some folks think kids should be able to eat whatever whenever, but as a health care professional, I know that this is truly teaching kids poor eating habits that will potentially lead to health problems down the road. It's hard enough to get our kids to eat the most nutritious portions of their meals when they are home and it makes it MUCH harder when my child is fed loads of processed junk right up until pick-up time each day. All they have to do is say, "I'm hungry." Really? You are hungry when you just had a giant package of fig newtons and a full cup of vanilla pudding with a handful of m & ms??? Columbia Academy is much better than other daycare facilities I have experienced and if they focused just a bit more on nutrition and consistency in teacher quality, they would easily be top notch.
