Richmond Alternative School

If you want bed bugs, send your child here. If you want to have to fight for your child’s IEP to be implemented, then again, send your child here. I can’t even get a phone call back from the principal. Extremely disappointed in this school. Bed bug Sheppard is what I call it.

So far the worst school my little one has attended. Everyone is self absorbed and lacking in basic organization or coordinating skills. Has been a complete nightmare.

excellence, school all of the above in family support and emotional support for the children as well as welcoming loving and patient.

Poor communication from administration. Forbidden from talking to the teachers directly unless it’s during a twice a year parent teacher conference. Too much staff rotation during naps and poor record keeping. The owner of the school, Anita, said she doesn’t take action on parent feedback because she has no problem keeping students at the school. No transparency into how your vigils is doing at the school. Any concerns are brushed off as it being a “transitional time period” for your child. You are not allowed to directly talk to the teachers for SIX weeks and then only with Administration present and only during that meeting another parent teacher conference. No one at pick up or drop off at the gate know the Primary children (ages 3-5 years old). Unfortunately if your child is too young to communicate well you won’t know what is happening. Please see the multiple violations for this facility on the social services website (they conduct state inspections).

We had a very unpleasant experience with this establishment. From a revolving door of teachers to the absence of communication from staff and administration, much was lacking at Central. The communication issues were evident from the start. We never received a school calendar or got added to the mailing list upon enrollment, so we were surprised with several school closures in our initial time there. Over the course of roughly six months, the teachers were unable to follow through on the meager commitment of one short note per week to let us know how our child was doing in class. We had no idea what he was doing during the day and eventually he returned home with language and behavior consistent with a complete lack of Montessori principles being used in the classroom. ("I'm a bad kid... I'm going to sit in the corner....etc.) After voicing concern about multiple changes in teacher with no notification, the director told me the new assistant teacher wasn't certified, didn't have the requisite experience, but was "super interested in teaching Montessori." At this point, I started enquiring about our location of waitlists elsewhere. It is clear that Central knows they have parents trapped due to the lack of options for childcare in the area, because they let the disorganization and unprofessionalism continue. We eventually could tell that our child was not receiving the care or education we were promised, so we found a new school where he is absolutely thriving. I sincerely hope that a change in leadership can turn the ride at Central for the sake of the other children and families still enrolled.