Guidepost Montessori at Lake Norman

Update***TLDR: there are ongoing investigations about multiple accusations of abuse on toddlers by an assistant. Teachers are being hired without background checks. The school is not offering any answers or solutions to the parents questions. Also, this is a one star school that is not an accredited Montessori school. Full post:We are extremely concerned at this time. Since my previous post boasting about the school, there has been a revolving door of adults coming in and out of our kids lives, most all of them with no Montessori experience or training. Some of whom, have commented that they do not believe in Montessori training, and therefore do not implement Montessori curriculum with our children. There have also been multiple adults who were hired without the school running any background checks on them. This is all reported by the state of North Carolina but you can read about online. There is clearly something very wrong at the school that is causing assistants and guides to leave so often, but this is probably the most disturbing part. As of Thursday night (12/09/21), we became aware that there is an investigation by the state into abuse on toddlers by an assistant. After speaking with parents who had children in that class, I have learned that the abuse was quite extensive. This was the message we were sent. The narrative is that this assistant was seen being physical with a toddler, and that the assistant would have remained an employee working with our kids had she not quit while on administrative leave. The school's stance is that they did not feel there was any abuse. Other guides in the school who witnessed abuse and made reports to administration feel otherwise. Parents, clearly, feel otherwise. Parents are now seeing signs of trauma in their children due to this ongoing. Our sons teacher who made reports on the abuse was fired. Her replacement is a woman who has never had any Montessori training, and will now be preparing some of our kids for first grade, which we are absolutely concerned about. The Chief of Program Operations (the CEO's wife) was on a conference call last night with all the parents, and instead of fully answering our questions, she said she would email us the next day by noon (we have not received any such email) and said "I have to end this call because I promised my kids I would do a puzzle with them and keeping my promise to my kids is important". I've never felt more unheard or anxious about my child's safety.

Years on the waitlist and moved to LKN because everyone said it was the best montessori around. The principal and assistant principal left just before we arrived and in 9 months two more principals and assistant principals left as well. My toddlers lead and assistant guide changed three times, different people were putting her down for nap daily (one was a male who she was terrified of whenever she saw him). If she stayed late afternoons there was a revolving door of assistants. She didnt learn a word of Spanish and moat of the time the guides were english speakers filling in until they could find someone willing to take the $12/hour they paid. The school charges a fortune for promises they dont keep. After abuse allegations, another lead teacher quitting, I hired private care and have thankful we found The Davidson Green School. Their curriculum, teachers (with very low retention rate) and approach is so much more stable AND far less expensive. This company that runs this is a business and they do not care about your kids. They pay guides peanuts and put smart, personable people in leadership roles to appease parents. Dont put your children and family through this money hungry place.

We found out that we were expecting a baby in 2019. We quickly started looking for daycares for our little one and found Guidepost Montessori. We were placed in the Nido community September 2020. We had a rough couple of months starting as  my daughter was 14 weeks old and the guides honestly didn't quite know what to do with her (they asked me during our first official day at the school, what I did with her at home). I understood though that she was young and that this was gonna take some time to adjust. After a difficult couple of months, she adjusted and started thriving. She started falling asleep well on her own, playing independently and learning new life skills. We were satisfied and glad that we hung in there. When COVID started worsening again in 2021, the school faced several shutdowns because of COVID. Our classroom was impacted at least twice (but perhaps three times). The two times happened to be in the same month, meaning that we were out of daycare for an entire month minus three days. I believe strongly in giving people a chance to hear my concerns and make things right, so I spoke to admin about my concerns. They told me that the best they could do is offer me 86 reimbursement for every two weeks they were closed (keep in mind that we paid 1350 per month for THREE days per week). They also eventually said "we can offer you a month free of daycare, but the catch is that your daughter wouldn't be allowed at the school, I don't know if that's something you're interested in". It wasn't. The guides in the nido room were wonderful, so we stuck with it even though we weren't comfortable with the heads of school. My daughter eventually transitioned to the toddler room in November of 2021 and things quickly went downhill. Our first day (on a Monday), I told my husband that I didn't have a good feeling about the guides, but he told me they seemed friendly. I shook it off as maybe it was just me. Tuesday hits and I make a virtual video conference for me to talk to the lead guide (the head staff had been trying to set something up for us as we just transitioned in that room). The guide failed to show up on the call. During the 20 minutes that I was waiting, I receive a voicemail from the lead guide ( I didn't know it was her otherwise I would have answered) saying that my daughter "slowly fell and bit her tongue. Umm it's pretty bad, but I don't think it went all the way through". She also mentioned in her voicemail how she waited THREE hours to call me and tell me this. I called her back and she failed to return my call. She also never mentioned the conference. The assistant head of school eventually told me it was her last day at the school and she wouldn't be there anymore. We sent her back on Wednesday due to the fact that this teacher wouldn't be there. Wednesday comes and I didn't get any updates about my daughter until three in the afternoon. In fact I didn't get any updates for the three days we were there. Friday of that same week we received a call that there were misconduct allegations in that classroom, but that my daughter was never present with the guide when she was accused. I have on pretty good account that multiple teachers and families raised concerns about the behavior, but they waited for at least well over a month and a half to actually report it or officially come forward to families about what was happening. The Nido team was wonderful, but ultimately, we don't feel safe leaving our daughter in a school that has this type of behavior going on and that furthermore does every effort to push it under the rug until they are forced to come out with it.

We had a mediocre experience here. Had a much better experience at the children's house of Davidson. Overall, I felt the teachers here were too inexperienced, especially for the hefty price of tuition. Full classrooms and too structured for our strong willed child. Pass.

Guidepost is amazing!! We were looking for an in person option and it far exceeded expectations. All of the staff is amazing and our son is thriving. Thank you for giving our family a safe schooling experience.

It takes a lot for me to leave a bad review. But after the treatment I have received I have no choice. My son started care here shortly after we moved to Mooresville in March. He adjusted quickly and loved the teachers. I got on a monthly plan and all was well until...The entire staff resigned due to poor owner management and no parents were notified. The new staff was incompetent and did not practice proper safety guidelines. When my child came home twice with a dirty diaper and a full drink (which he immediately sucked down like he had been walking in the desert) I knew something was wrong. That was when I found out all of the teachers he knew and I was comfortable with were gone and they were not only short staffed but the new staff was incompetent. They didn't even know which child was mine when I came to pick him up and did not ask for ID. To top it off I had just paid for a full month of care. When I notified the owner that I would not be bringing my child back and requested a refund minus the two days he went I received no response, and still haven't. I would NEVER recommend this place to anyone who cares about their child. Terrible customer service and dishonesty. If they had done the right thing and refunded my money I would have moved on but anyone who keeps $500 for 2 days of care is just not a good person.

It takes a lot for me to leave a bad review, but in this case children are involved and I think a review is warranted. Initially it seemed new management was going to help this place do big things, but that came and went sadly. Come to find out more than half of the teachers are not montessouri certified, what am I paying for? This is the least of my concern, safety is most important and I would not recommend this place to my enemy right now. The turnover is high. I gurantee there were days the child to teacher ratio was off, walking by classrooms it certainly seemed that way. Sadly the new staff onsite now minus a few good apples are incompetent sadly. I am sure they are nice people, but should not be working in the childcare industry. The leaders also do not ensure safety guidelines are followed. A temporary teacher was not told about an allergy of my childs that could have landed her in the ER.

Our knowledge of Montessori culture through our friends who certified it was the best for kids made us opt for this particular school as it was the only one in our neighbourhood. We enrolled our 3 yr old son here at Children's house. At that time, the teachers in the classroom were very experienced, professional, and caring for all kids. They trained the kids so well, did lot of group activities, encouraged kids to be independent BUT also taught them how to when they struggled. After a few months, the teachers moved out and new ones were replaced. The new teachers were clearly not experienced in Montessori education and couldn't handle large number of kids. We took time from our work to personally be inside the classroom once a week for a period of 3-4 weeks just to understand what they do in the classroom. And in the 1 or 2 hrs we spend inside the classroom, we realised the teachers weren't teaching the kids anything. And also they were biased to specific ethnicity as we always saw the teachers sitting with the same kid and personally helping them while leaving all other kids to just play and run around, and do nothing. During parent teachers meeting, one of the teacher (who isn't the lead guide herself) was telling us that they restrict kids to do group activities or sit together at the same table while doing any work as it creates conflicts. How is that going to help kids learn or be social? They also do not teach kids to read or write alphabets or numbers. Our son trained at home with us after school hours, but we have friends who tell us that their kids school (which is also Montessori) trains kids to read and write. We have seen this school go from good to worse in a year of joining, so our advice is to not waste your time and money in joining your kid here. There are much better pre-schools in Huntersville area, more advanced in learning.

Our 2 and 4 year old kids attend Guidepost Montessori 5 days a week and we are very pleased with the professionalism, care, daily updates shared on their progress and overall good feeling that we get when we drop off and pick them up each day. Highly recommend the school!

We are having a wonderful experience here in the Children's House Spanish immersion room. My daughter started at the Prosperity Guidepost campus when she was 6 months old and we moved her to this one a little over a year ago when they opened. Thoughtful, caring community!