Bright Ideas Enrichment Centers Inc

This center could improve if they wanted to. Their concerns aren't always about the children. They stay over ratio and the management team is more concerned with the computer than the children. They put on a show but they don't treat the teachers right either, they are overwhelmed and over worked. If they put in for vacation time they may find their pay cut or they may not have a job to return to. People be careful where you allow your children to be, and who has their best interest at heart.

This update deeply saddens me, because nearly everything that I loved about Bright Ideas when I first brought my daughter to them nearly 2 years ago, has been overshadowed by recent staff changes and incidents that have been handled extremely poorly by the newest director. Here is the story.

On Friday, April 17th, while the teacher in my daughter's classroom was aiding other children in getting ready for nap, another student (3 year old) was able to acquire scissors (independently) and cut my daughter's hair to the point where it needed some significant fixing by a hairdresser.

Honestly, yes, I am pissed about my daughter's beautiful ringlets being mercilessly chopped-off by another child; but this pales in comparison to the extreme safety concerns that this situation presented. Honestly, had the director simply contacted me, apologized, and offered to pay for the haircut to fix my daughter's hair, this would have been the end of it. Unfortunately, she has handle it so incredibly poorly that I feel compelled to take action against her and the center to the fullest of my abilities.

First, nobody at the daycare has any idea how my daughter's hair got cut. At first, my wife was told that the director was in the classroom, next we were told that she wasn't. At first, 'a child' brought the teacher a 'clump of [my daughter's] hair', next story it was my daughter, next story it was another kid. So first, nobody has their story straight, which leads me to believe that they are covering something up, or literally have no idea how a 3 year old acquired scissors and was able to be unsupervised for a period of time long enough to cut another 3 year old's hair. I don't know which is more concerning?

Second, the director has taken ZERO initiative to resolve this problem. She seems far too considered with chatting-up all of the parents in order to be liked, and less concerned with handling serious issues. She has repeatedly brushed this incident off as 'kids will be kids'. In the past, whenever my daughter has been accidentally kicked, hit, or bitten I have had no problems with it because, yes, kids will be kids -- it happens. But when harm comes to my daughter due to teacher / daycare negligence, that is a WHOLE DIFFERENT MATTER. Brushing-off my feeling and my wife feelings (seemingly) as a way to invalidate them is completely unacceptable and appalling.

Yes, it was only hair; but what if instead of playing 'hairdresser', the other child wanted to play doctor? What if the other child had missed and cut my daughter's ear, poked-out her eye, or done other permanent damage? Yes, these are 'what-if scenarios'; but they are entirely real scenarios that could have happened due to the daycare not doing their job. I entrust them every day with the thing that is most important to me, and if they cannot even be respectful of that and speak to me like a human being without lying and fabricating stories, then in return, I can no longer trust them or respect them.

Third, when I called to speak to the director about it, she quickly snapped at me to inform me that she 'wasn't in the room' and so I 'needed to speak with the teacher'. She had ZERO desire to address the situation, even though (allegedly) the first story identified her as being in the classroom during the incident. Sounds like someone is covering their own butt?

Unfortunately, based on the actions of this current director, and the general trend of where I believe this center to be headed, I can no longer fully recommend / endorse Bright Ideas as a place to bring your child. I still urge you to consider it as an option, but I am so disgusted with the way this VERY SIMPLE situation has been handled, that I will likely be removing my daughter from the center in the near future, as well as actively and publicly letting as many people know about this story as possible.

You would think that with all of this going on, the owner / the director would have contacted me directly to offer an apology, or at least the truth of what happened. Even if they called me and had said, 'I am so sorry, but I have no idea how this happened' -- that would have been better than spinning the endless lies that I have heard over the last two days. Just ridiculous.

I love the family atmosphere. Miss Jessica has taken over as director and has done a tremendous job! We could not be more happy about sending our grandson. He loves his school and his teacher. He is in the pre-K program and is doing great! Keep up the great job!

When I first toured this facility while pregnant with my first child, I was impressed with the infant teacher, which was ultimately the reason we chose to enroll our son there. After nearly two years (and another child later), we had endured nearly 6 different directors, multiple incidents that were NEVER documented, and ultimately a "situation" involving our child that resulted in the same teacher we were so impressed with being fired (aka....the facility cleaning house of the most qualified to hire minimum wage hires and getting rid of the ONLY people who had business caring for young ones...). The director was a JOKE! She would literally hide the two weeks I put in our "notice" and wouldn't even entertain a conversation with me. The best thing we ever did was leave...