Fio 360 Childcare254

Wow, that review on 5/10/11 was quite a read. As a parent of a child at FIO, I heard "through the grapevine" about the review so of course I had to come and check it out for myself. As I went through the review (what must have been a 4-5 page Word document), I quickly realized that excluding the "insider information" that was shared regarding budget, staff meetings, reasons behind menu selections, etc. which of course as a parent I can't validate, a lot of the general information about the school and the information from a parent/child point of view is accurate (less the name calling and attacks on the owner and/or staff). Our child has indeed experienced A LOT of teacher turnover in the short time we have been at FIO. It seems that as soon as we find a teacher that we really like in the classroom, it's not long before that teacher is/was gone. This has by far been our most troubling issue with this school, starting only three months into our enrollment. The information regarding the curriculum is also absolutely correct- there is not much of that going on unfortunately. The information regarding the cleaning staff is also spot on- there were once two ladies that "seemed" to always be around doing something related to cleaning the facility. There was about a month or two stretch of time after they were "let go" where it was indeed noticeably bad (trash piled up) however that has since seemed to have improved with a new cleaning company. Also, the information regarding the "no shoe" policy was also spot on- FIO used to have slippers and/or foot covers that were mandatory before entering the halls where the classrooms are located. That policy was ended and they switched to some sticky mat type of "technology" that is supposedly used in hospitals. The idea, you wipe your shoes across it a few times and your shoes are sanitized. If you could see these things however, it doesn't take a M.D. to figure out there is no way these things (that look really dirty all the time) can be doing that great of a job. And sadly, the last time I looked, FIO is indeed still advertising a no shoe policy (or something similar) on their external website. The other info regarding better care for infants is correct, the Spanish course work is correct, the broken toilet is correct (but I don't know if was really for that length of time), the info regarding the art room being used as a junk room is correct, the info around there being a piano on the first floor that I have never seen used and/or offered via any type of music lessons is correct, etc. etc. etc. Again, I have to give it to whomever wrote that review that less some of the name calling, the info is solid. In a nutshell, they have what should be a great concept however they somehow continuously find a way to not do things right. I've only talked with the current director quickly in passing however he does seem to want to do the right thing however it does indeed seem as if his hands are tied. On the positive side (there is always a positive side), the classroom space is great- large windows and large classrooms really give kids room to explore. To the last reviewer, I have yet to see any roaches in the classroom so that is a new one to me. Also, the Atlantic station location is great as well- two private entrances (off of different parking levels) make getting into FIO a snap. Also, the parents at FIO all seem to be really solid- there seem to be some really great families that have been drawn together via the FIO concept. Even if FIO misses the mark, I can honestly say that our child has still learned while in attendance. Is our two year old child able to write the ABCs backwards in cursive while reciting the Chinese alphabet? no. But has our child ultimately grown while in the FIO environment? yes. Would we do it all over again with FIO? no. If we had to do it over again, we would definitely give Suzuki a second look. Oh, and to the earlier reviewer (March 2011), the cameras in the classrooms, play spaces and playground (viewable via the Internet) are indeed a great add- I think had it not been for the cameras (that we use daily), would have pulled our child out long ago.

Don’t be blinded by the beauty of the school, because its ugly on the inside! I worked at this school for well over a year up until recently. Everything that has been posted about events that have happened at FIO is true. A baby was indeed given the wrong breast milk (and the teacher responsible for the incident is still there), children are left in the elevators more often than reported (the previous director even left a child in an elevator before after firing others for doing the same thing), there are no art lessons (there’s art thats been on the wall for over 2 years), and the children are not fed enough! They did recently hire a new Spanish teacher, she’s nice, but she’s not nearly as engaging as the previous teacher so do not expect your child to actually ‘learn’ Spanish; its not that intensive of a Dual Language program like the school promotes. Feel free to sit in on your child’s Spanish class yourself! The school was sued by a former teacher for age discrimination and that teacher won. She won paid salary for 3 years actually. That is the kind of treatment the staff gets at this school. The awesome cleaning staff was fired because they didn’t fit the owners budget anymore. These wonderful ladies who cleaned the school did an excellent job of taking out trash twice a day, washing the rugs frequently, stocking the room with trashbags and cleaning supplies, and they were truly needed by the school. Now poopy diapers sit in the class all day funking up the rooms. Look at the door handles too btw...they’re gross and crusted with god knows what. There is no telling how long its been since the rugs were last washed either. When taking a tour, open your eyes to what you see...no toys on the shelves, no supplies for the classrooms, and just smell some of the rooms!  Now mind you...the infant rooms operate differently than the rest of the classrooms. Most of the infant parents are happy (you’re providing most of their food and they eat as much Yummy Spoonfuls as they’d like), so you’ll rarely hear complaints from them until they get to the 1 and 2 year old rooms. The owner hurried the teachers to get the older infants on table food so that she could cut down on her budget and not spend as much money on Yummy Spoonfuls.  The three classrooms for young toddlers hardly have any toys on the shelf, yet there is a boutique downstairs full of overpriced toys and products. The children who started out in the infant room 1 or 2 years ago have had at least 12-15+ teachers in their lives. To me that is just a ridiculous turnover rate for what is supposed to be the best eco-friendly childcare facility ever built! The owner is trying to blame the teachers for families leaving, when actually its her poor management skills at fault. The broad is crazy... As far as eco-friendly...thats a load of crap to sell parents. Yes the school was built with a focus on green using zero voc paints and ceiling tiles, but those tiles are moldy and collapsing...so much that they closed one classroom (the first one that you see from the lobby), and there’s bulging tiles in the ceiling of the preschool room that were reported. The ceiling tiles actually collapsed while children were present in the room! There is NO RECYCLING program in place...so all those plastic baby food containers of Yummy Spoonfuls go right to the trash dump instead of being recycled...how eco friendly is that? Previous teachers have tried to put a recycling program in place, and some even took it upon themselves to recycle items in the break room, but that was short lived. Those lovely heated floors no longer work in half of the rooms. They didn’t work at all this past winter in the infant rooms, where its most important because the babies spend more time on the floor. Parents got the excuse “oh it just takes awhile to heat up,” whenever they inquired about the floors not working. When I first started working there, we were discouraged from displaying the children’s art in the hallways because the owner feared that it would ruin the paint job. Every attempt was made by some staff to find products that wouldn’t ruin her precious paint, but she didn’t want to spend money on it. Its a preschool...not the High Museum. This is by no means the "first eco friendly preschool.'  The school is on its 3rd director now. He’s a very nice and eloquent gentlemen, but I sense his frustration because he has to enforce policies and take orders from the  owner with her bipolar-like ways. He is just a puppet unfortunately, and I bet he’s on his way out the door soon too.  A lot of the food that they eat isn’t really organic anymore. There are a lot of canned foods being served now (Old El Paso anyone?). With former Chef Chris, the kids got lots of fresh cut fruits and veggies everyday. To see frozen or canned fruits being served is just another indicator of how the quality has went down with this place. Right around the time I left, we were told that the children were being ‘overfed.’ There’s no way these children are being overfed on cucumbers and hummus! Imagine how the teachers feel when a child is begging for more and we can’t give it to them. Imagine how a teacher must feel when given a single pack of Ritz crackers(not organic btw), and a small bowl of cheese to feed 18 one/two year olds and be told “Make it work!” So the kids essentially get one cracker, 2 small cubes of cheese. The staff does indeed understand that snacks aren’t intended to make a child ‘full,’ but for damn near $1500/month your child should be getting a lot more! There’s not a single obese child at FIO. So this ‘overfed’ talk is BS. Cut out the morning snack...thats fine, but this decrease in portion size is ridiculous. The owner ended the FIO Shoes policy, yet its still being touted on the website. It was a good thing for children to change their shoes when they entered the building, especially in the infant rooms. No one really minded doing it. In place of that, they now have Tack/Sticky Mats at both points of entry from the lobby to the classrooms. These mats use an acrylic adhesive...not really an eco-friendly choice is it? And if i step in dog crap, rinse my shoe off, then step on this mat then its ok to walk in the room? There should at least be a no outdoor shoe policy in the infant rooms, but i guess the owner was spending too much money on shoe covers and laundry detergent to wash the slippers everyday; so these sticky mats fit right into her budget.  Safety should be the biggest concern of questions to ask. What would happen if the school was on fire?  Your child would die is the answer.  Especially if your child is an infant/young toddler. The rear evacuation staircase isn’t even fireproof! At all of the centers I’ve worked at in my career, I was always trained to evacuate children from a building within 30-40 seconds. That just isn’t possible at FIO. All of these new teachers they recently hired in the past 6 months have no clue as to what to do in a fire drill. In the state of GA we’re supposed to have these drills monthly. At FIO we have had them 4 or 5 times a year. When we do have a fire drill, they’ll sometimes do it around 6pm, when there’s not many kids in the building because administration knows how chaotic it will be to do it schoolwide.   If the owner had a brain, she would’ve built the infant rooms on the ground floor. Instead, they wasted thousands of dollars on useless Safe Babies aprons that take over 60 seconds to put on and put a child in. The aprons are made for newborns with no motor skills...not the pudgy wiggly babies that are at FIO. It might work if there was a way for their feet to hang out from the aprons, but its just a pocket (google it for yourselves!). After donning this apron with four heavy wriggly babies you have to walk down several flights of stairs, put the babies in a fire proof crib, and walk across the street with the crib. Thats the idea, and thats what the infant teachers/administration are trained to tell parents. With previous fire drills it never happened this way btw.  What actually happens is that they round up every helping hand they can spare to carry two babies at a time down the stairs during the drills. How realistic is that in a real fire situation? The teachers will put on aprons, but there will maybe be one baby in it, not four. Its all a front! If the school was at capacity (32 babies in the infant room, 8 teachers) and an actual fire DID indeed break out, there’s no way those petite infant teachers will be able to carry four babies down 4 flights of stairs without some serious injury happening. Think about it folks.  If the owner had any brains about her she would have considered this potential situation when building the school instead of what color to paint the walls. Even ramps instead of steps would have been smarter. One of the two toilets for girls that is shared between two classrooms (the potty training age and the newer fully potty trained), was broken from Aug. 2010-Mar. 2011. So you had a total of around 18+ two and three year old girls sharing one toilet between two classes. That is just gross and unsanitary. Of course the teachers reported it, but it took 7 months to get the owner to have someone come unclog it. There even used to be Yuck Buckets to ensure that toys were sanitized twice a day, but no more. Its a shame that there’s a piano downstairs, yet no music lessons take place even though there are staff on hand that can play the piano. There’s a lovely dance room with a mirrored wall that goes unused even though there are staff members classically trained in ballet and martial arts. The older preschool students do indeed do yoga, but its something that is enacted by the teachers rather than by the school. There are plenty of creatively talented teachers on staff, but no art lessons are given. With resources such as these you would think that more activities would be offered, but the owner will not give these teachers the slightest raise to make it happen, so talent goes by unused and unnoticed.  Speaking of art...have you seen the art room recently? Its the room at the end of the hallway with a green sheet covering the door and windows (for good reason!). I DARE any current parents to venture down there and open it. Its become a dumping grounds of sort for all the crap in the school. Its really a shame to look at how ugly and cluttered the room is! You can not walk 3 ft in the room without tripping over something. I also dare any parent to go up on the 3rd level into the laundry room (your key fob probably won’t work). The laundry room is infested with roaches. I’ve seen them scatter myself. Its a serious and nasty issue. The administration knows about this, but nothing has been done. With the ceiling tiles collapsing it’ll only be a matter of time before the roaches make their way down to the rooms. I’ve already seen a few in the teachers break room. There is no curriculum which is one of the major downfalls of this school. They will tell you that there are FIO’s “Four E's of Early Education,” but I dare you parents to ask any teacher what those 4 approaches are and how they apply to the classroom. I BET none would know. These new teachers don’t even know what FIO means, or get the concept of ‘to become 360 (whole).’ This so-called approach is just wall art, where its posted across from the office. The staff was never told or given a break down on how to apply this FIO approach to our lesson plans and daily routines. We came to work one day and saw it on the wall...no explanation or description. We even had a staff meeting in February to discuss our opinions on what kind of curriculum we would like to utilize, and we agreed to a hybrid-approach, but since then there’s been two meetings and nothing has ever come of it, nor has it come up again. The teacher:student ratio is a joke as well. Indeed, the ratio is in fact lower than the state’s required ratio, but what they sell to parents isn’t often the case of how things really are. During the tour they’ll say...”oh we have a low 1:6 ratio in our 2 year old room,” but come around 4 or 5pm, two teachers are usually left with 15-16 kids during the afternoon because ‘they can handle it.’ Just because one can handle it does not mean that they do not need support to get things done in the classroom. Its even worse in the 1 and 2 year old rooms with staff being over ratio all the time. Its frustrating to the staff to say the least. I’m not saying that the staff can’t handle even the state ratio, what I’m speaking of is the frustration over telling one parents one thing, but doing another behind their backs. These young girls that they are now hiring and paying $8/hr have no experience in managing a classroom of toddlers. A degree means squat if you can’t calm a group of toddlers! They don’t know that its not okay to be by yourself with 10 two year olds so they won’t say anything. Its only when a baby gets fed the wrong breast milk, or a child gets his finger smashed in the door when they realize that its not right. The teachers have NO SUPPORT from administration. The owner limits our ability to do our jobs well by criticizing every single activity we would like to do for the children, which eventually makes us unmotivated to even try after awhile. The preschool children have never been on a field trip (don’t be fooled by the pics from when they went to a disappointing petting zoo in the Atlantic Station courtyard that featured 3 animals that weren’t really ‘pettable.’) despite attempts from parents and staff to do so.  Whenever teachers want to do activities involving the children and families that would cost less than $30 in supplies to purchase, they’re met with denials straight from the owner.  Crissy just needs to hurry up and close the school. Because that is the path its heading. There’s maybe a total of 70 children in the entire school and its about to be much less. Last year the younger preschool room lost 15+ children within 2 weeks. By July 2011, with this tuition increase, enrollment will easily drop to 50 kids or less. The owner tried to compete with schools like Suzuki, but wasn’t prepared to lose most of her money to The Children’s School, and now the new Primrose. These are establishments and programs that have been around for years and have...gasp!...actually proven curriculums that work! You can’t compete with that! It also says on the website that FIO teachers receive competitive pay...thats another load of BS. Teachers at other schools like Suzuki and The Children’s School get paid SALARY; and receive annual raises. Teachers who have been working at FIO for 2 or more years have never gotten the slightest raise in their hourly pay. And guess what, as of June 2011 Tuition is about to go up again!  Someone mentioned below about how the students from FIO go on to be accepted into institutions such as Atlanta International School, Westminister, Galloway and The Children’s School. Crissy sits on the Board of Trustees for AIS, so of course most of the kids get accepted there. No big thing there, look it up yourself! The previous director did a great job of ‘shopping’ FIO around to other schools and invited their heads and directors over to tour the school often for brunches. Linda’s great networking skills is how these children get accepted into these schools. They’re still young enough to where it doesn’t even matter where they are academically to be accepted for admission. If you can pay full tuition chances are you will indeed get into these other schools. All of the preschool teachers that were there did foster a wonderful spirit that is passed on to the children, so I think that has more to do with it more than the school itself.  FIO was doing well with the Pyramid Approach, and they should have stuck with that. It made FIO somewhat exclusive in comparison to other schools in Atlanta. All the teachers who had training in the Pyramid Approach have left...except for maybe 2. Now they are attempting taking on the Creative Curriculum. Its a start...but nothing special. It is much better than the previous themes though. Staff turnover is about to only get worse...I’m sure I’ve seen at least 70 people come and go since I was there. The owner has no compassion about these children or her staff. She’ll sit there biting her nails nervously when faced with confrontation from staff/parents and cry. Don’t fall for her fake tears! As the owner of ‘the nation’s 1st eco-friendly school‘ you would think that she’d have more backbone than that! These parents are fed up with all the changes with staff and policies. There is no consistency at this school. Thats all the parents and staff want...consistency and community support.  The administration needs to let the teachers do their jobs by educating these children instead of imposing Gestapo tactics on the staff and families. The former director would often eavesdrop on conversations amongst staff and parents in the classrooms through the telephones. How conniving is that! This newly formed parent board is a dim light for FIO. There’s a lot more going on in this school internally that you parents can’t change. The staff really does appreciate your support and efforts though!  The previous parent committee was called ‘rogue’ by the owner, when these parents just wanted the best opportunities for their children and the school. The biggest problem staff members have complained about is the fact that the administration can never carry things out to full term. We had a teacher scholarship type program at one point. Where is the money from that? There are plenty of staff who are in school that could use a little help on their $8/hour salary. What happened to the community outreach programs? What happened to the $1500+ budget every room had to buy supplies during the year? The school has been open for 3 years as of April, and the administration still fails to see things long term.  The tuition you parents are paying barely touches the amount Crissy has to pay in rent at Atlantic Station. She lost all her investors awhile ago. In her eyes, all of your children are essentially going to her school for free; so thats why she’s giving your babies the bare minimum. She’s coming out of pocket for every single thing, so of course she’s a tight ass. But thats not how you operate a school. She keeps looking at things ‘from a business standpoint’ (she says this all the time), to justify her actions.  The school no longer has much of the heart and spirit as it did when I was initially hired.   I really wanted to carry out Crissy’s vision for a utopia for young children. When I first started, Crissy didn’t even want us putting the ABC’s on the wall, or using flashcards, or ditto sheets; but its become the norm in all the classes now. It was challenging, but quite rewarding to find other ways to introduce some concepts to your children. And the Promethean technology is indeed a blessing, but most of the teachers don’t even know how to use it appropriately. They watch ‘Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,’ or ‘Starfall’ on it everyday instead of doing interactive activities. There were some amazing teachers there...but between the tactics of Crissy and Linda, we all fled when we saw the true workings of FIO.  I wish more former teachers from FIO would write reviews on here to get the truth out about this place.  Parents, take your money elsewhere and get your children an education where they will truly FIO360 (become whole/complete). Your children can get a quality education at other daycare centers, and still get accepted at some of the prestigious schools in Atlanta. You don’t have to put up with the crap you’ve went  through for $1500/month at these other places. Ask yourselves what are you truly paying for?  Crissy, do your current staff and families a favor and just close the school. You’re running a beautiful concept into the ground. Sadly, I think you’re doing it on purpose. This school is the laughing stock of childcare centers in Atlanta.  Yours truly, Free from Fio

Please do not be fooled by that one review and Check out the other reviews on the other sites as well. This school is a waist of money. Bunch of unprofessional and unqualified teachers and admins are running this daycare. The owner careless about the kids. That one review with 5 star had to be the owner. Because no parent with a right mind will give this place 5 stars. The only nice thing about this school is the facility and that can really fool you. They were great when they opened 3 years a go and that lasted for a year. They use to have great and qualified teachers. But they all quit because they were not getting paid or treated right right. The owner is a liar and hypocrite. Their new teacher are all unqualified and they can not even talk proper English. So how can you expect them to teach your kids the proper grammar? They do not offer any real curriculum. All they have different is cameras where you can watch your kid.

FIO is an excellent daycare. My daughter has been there for 2 years and we love it! The facility is beautiful and clean. The teachers are loving and engaged with children who are treated like individuals. I have compared the price to other daycares like FIO and I believe that it is worth the price. Other places do not serve organic food and milk (which is expensive). The quality of the food is much better than other daycares and the ratios in the rooms are lower. FIO may be out of ratio on occassion - but not frequently, the quality of the teachers is more important to me. Any daycare can fill a room with warm bodies to "baby sit", but FIO has great teachers that engage with the children to help them grow, learn and develop. I'd rather have one great teacher like that with 8 children than have 2 poor quality teachers ignoring 8 children. My daughter has thrived at FIO360! Her friends who have left FIO went to Westminister, Atlanta International School, Galloway and The Childrens School. With private school acceptances like that, FIO must be doing something right!