Guidepost Montessori reviews

This is a very for-profit school, they have staff working ridiculous long hours for minimal salary. This is essentially an overpriced daycare that has adopted the Montessori Pedagogy to profit off of wealthy parents who believed they’re sending their kids to a school with trained Montessori educators. There’s only 3 trained AMI educators in the school, and the rest come from public daycare. They offer a “Montessori” training but this is only provided when there’s an immediate need for a Lead Guide, the training is 2 weeks (though accredited AMI training is 2 years) and gives a staff member credentials to teach a certain age group. I’d suggest parents to look into other reputable schools with skilled and trained teachers, to make their money worth. And any potential staff to stay away from this school because you won’t have the opportunity to grow in this field, or enjoy time with your family during holidays as this school is open on holidays, nor work decent hours for a reasonable salary. Guidepost is also not being COVID compliant whatsoever. Several staff have gotten COVID on campus, probably as a result of the failure of the school to comply with state laws regarding COVID. Teachers flying from out of state have not been required to quarantine, parents have been lied to about exposures at the school, we’ve run out of PPE, and the school has also stopped taking temperatures of children all together. Management has really dropped the ball on this but places the blame entirely on their staff when they never even trained us on how to be COVID compliant.

Too many ideas coming down from corporate without the ability to support well in the classroom. Guides with outside training (both AMS and AMI) will find the Guidepost Way of doing things confusing, frustrating, and unyielding. Participating in the mentorship program sounds good at first, but adds additional work to already overworked guides’ plates. Only so much can be accomplished via Zoom. Mentor quality varies greatly. Child Study Program is the same. Finding substitutes is difficult. You feel guilty leaving your classroom understaffed. Enrollment is prioritized over everything, which means they accept children with needs that cannot be met with a 1:12 ratio and the whole class suffers for it.