I'm really stuck here and looking for some opinions on what you guys would do.
A new school just opened literally across the street from where my girls are currently enrolled. Our current school, which I'll refer to as TT is OK. There have been a lot of changes in the last year with the staff and I have a few minor concerns, but nothing major and nothing that can't be addressed and rectified.
About 50% of TT's current enrollment has moved or is moving to the new school, which I'll refer to as COA. COA has recently opened 3 schools in our area and about 30% of TT teachers have left to join COA. It's a nice school, obviously because everything is brand new. There is some concern (although just rumors and speculation at this point) that TT will not survive and will end up closing. The prices are the same.
The two schools are almost identical in every way. In fact, the founder of TT sold the idea to COA, so they're virtually identical. TT is owned by an Australian company and COA is a franchise. COA offers some benefits that TT does not. These benefits would be really nice, but they aren't critical.
Safety is my number one concern. TT's layout is very safety conscious. The entire school is located on one floor and there are exits in every classroom to the outside. These exits are locked - they're for evacuation purposes.
COA's layout is much different. The school is a two story layout and the classrooms are upstairs. I am confident in the event of an emergency that my 4 year old would be fine. My concern is my 17 month old. The maximum in her class is 10, with a 5 to 1 ratio. The protocol in the event of a fire is that all directors, maintenance crew, bus driver and floaters report directly to the two toddler rooms to help evacuate the kids. Assuming that the center is completely full (unlikely), you're looking at 20 children total, which means that you would need 10 adults to hand carry these kids out of the school.
While I know the chances of a fire are slim, it's not impossible. DH is pretty much against it. He can't get past it. He just sees a potential nightmare in the event that an emergency does occur.
What do you think? Are we being ridiculous to worry about this? They practice fire drills once a month, as well as hurricane and tornado drills once a quarter (both of these are extremely rare here). The teachers are never notified when a drill will occur. No one is. The drills are handled remotely from another office. So everyone is completely unprepared.
How would you feel about this set up?
Thanks, Amy
A new school just opened literally across the street from where my girls are currently enrolled. Our current school, which I'll refer to as TT is OK. There have been a lot of changes in the last year with the staff and I have a few minor concerns, but nothing major and nothing that can't be addressed and rectified.
About 50% of TT's current enrollment has moved or is moving to the new school, which I'll refer to as COA. COA has recently opened 3 schools in our area and about 30% of TT teachers have left to join COA. It's a nice school, obviously because everything is brand new. There is some concern (although just rumors and speculation at this point) that TT will not survive and will end up closing. The prices are the same.
The two schools are almost identical in every way. In fact, the founder of TT sold the idea to COA, so they're virtually identical. TT is owned by an Australian company and COA is a franchise. COA offers some benefits that TT does not. These benefits would be really nice, but they aren't critical.
Safety is my number one concern. TT's layout is very safety conscious. The entire school is located on one floor and there are exits in every classroom to the outside. These exits are locked - they're for evacuation purposes.
COA's layout is much different. The school is a two story layout and the classrooms are upstairs. I am confident in the event of an emergency that my 4 year old would be fine. My concern is my 17 month old. The maximum in her class is 10, with a 5 to 1 ratio. The protocol in the event of a fire is that all directors, maintenance crew, bus driver and floaters report directly to the two toddler rooms to help evacuate the kids. Assuming that the center is completely full (unlikely), you're looking at 20 children total, which means that you would need 10 adults to hand carry these kids out of the school.
While I know the chances of a fire are slim, it's not impossible. DH is pretty much against it. He can't get past it. He just sees a potential nightmare in the event that an emergency does occur.
What do you think? Are we being ridiculous to worry about this? They practice fire drills once a month, as well as hurricane and tornado drills once a quarter (both of these are extremely rare here). The teachers are never notified when a drill will occur. No one is. The drills are handled remotely from another office. So everyone is completely unprepared.
How would you feel about this set up?
Thanks, Amy