Neighborhood Preschool- High Street

i can only speak to the last year, with the relatively new director and can’t speak to the relationship between the board and staff/school…just the direct care of staff. our experience at nps has been really great. the teachers are responsive, caring, and fun. my child acclimated quickly and absolutely loves going to school and is thriving, a feat since they were in no previous care outside of home prior to nps. the director has gone out of her way to help me on many occasions and i can’t thank her enough for that. though i only have experience with the preschool, every staff member has been so warm in any interaction. as a former daycare worker in a more subpar school and have worked within many schools in my career, my experience has been really positive with nps and it’s refreshing to say the least.

NPS is such a warm and welcoming place for my family. The teachers have been loving, kind, and effective and it really has a great sense of community. I love the play-based approach and continual interest in looking to the future.

As the other review here has stated, there’s a reason all other reviews are several years old. The current assist director there was abusive and neglectful towards my son to the point where DCF had to get involved. This was not her first DCF investigation either. Several other teachers who had previously worked with her as well as other parents came forward to tell me about the abuse going on with my son and despite that she was still promoted while my son’s investigation was still going on. I’m writing this now because my son was just diagnosed with PTSD from his time at NPS. He now struggles with extreme anxiety at school all because of one teacher and the lack of disciplinary action against her. This has to stop. Current parents should be demanding that cameras are installed immediately.

Unfortunately there’s a reason that at present there are no reviews less than 7 years old for NPS. It used to be a wonderful preschool with a dysfunctional infant/toddler program. Now everything has changed as the direct result of a series of disastrous internal promotions by a well-meaning board of parents who don’t have time or knowledge to run a school. Many of them have little idea of the difference between a PTO and a governing non-profit board. Some show up at the school and immediately run for positions of power with no institutional knowledge, making them very vulnerable to misinformation and poor decision making. The staff also mean well and are usually very kind and caring people with extremely poor leadership above them. The only serious improvement we’ve seen is in the infant/toddler room we were a part of, where the daily care was phenomenal in part because of the caring staff and in part from so many faculty pulling their kids whenever class isn’t in session. This is by far one of the most expensive daycares in the area, and the cost used to be worth the extra services and student-teacher ratio. For years there were reasonable pick-up times for parents who worked normal business hour jobs. Then a short-sighted board decided to get rid of the later pick up times, but a wise director (long retired) maintained an unofficial reasonable grace period. That disappeared without any warning when they moved to the new building. The current policies are very hostile to parents who both work full time jobs. Before covid, all snacks were included as was laundry washing (in their new laundry facilities designed for that purpose!). They were NAEYC accredited - the highest accreditation available in the U.S.. That disappeared without a word to families. Now you pay hundreds of dollars more than other places and get so few services in return. The university invests so much in this place for their families, who get so little back. I would recommend them ONLY for infant/toddler care because of the classroom staff, but with the caveat to be very watchful of the management. One of the biggest problems has resigned, but an even bigger problem remains with far too much power. They actively shift as much work as possible off of the staff and on to the parents, despite ever increasing tuition. Consequently, part-time families have an extreme advantage because they aren’t paying full tuition AND they have time to make three meals a day, pick up before 5pm, do the school’s laundry, and serve on the board. The preschool classrooms have never been full because of this situation, making it obvious why they can’t pay the staff more. The new situation is so sad because it had been so wonderful before, and the university parents make a wonderful community. But the expense plus the extreme amounts of prep, having to stop work before 5pm, repeated problems with mishandling of medical issues, and treating our child differently than other kids with no explanation, finally proved too much. Doctors’ notes were ignored. Emergency medications were repeatedly sent home. Our complaints were ignored by both the managers and the board for months. The executive board weren’t even checking their contact portal. Staff repeatedly misused the school’s app by sending urgent medical messages through there instead of calling parents - this was all due to a lack of proper supervision by managers. We feared for our child’s safety. The current executive board discourages new members who don’t like the status quo - again the confusion between a ruling board vs. a teacher support group. Since leaving, they have hired a new director from a YMCA, and hopefully she can improve the situation. However, considering that the most problematic staff member was given a vote on the search committee, I’m not holding my breath. If NPS ever decides to recommit to serving the families first (instead of staff first) like they used to, I will be very glad to hear about it. We found a much better school that doesn’t ostracize moms who work until 5pm.

Sending my then 2.5 year old to NPS was the best decision. Over the next two years, Ashley and Rommy did the best job taking care of her and teaching her. She really bloomed and grew in the classroom here, developing socializing skills and having a lot of very creative fun indoors and outdoors. She would come home with the best crafts and projects she completed at NPS...I’ve saved them all. The family-oriented environment and community feeling of the program is also excellent. There are potluck, picnics, art shows, etc. Susan the director is the best and this is a wonderful program! Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of it!