Mrs. O’s Learning Academy, Lubbock TX

My daughter went here before Covid it was nice in person meeting at first but Mrs. O definitely showed her true colors eventually I came back to the reviews looking again for a daycare wondering what happened just to see if I could remember why we took her out and after reading some of these reviews… well it’s kinda what I remember she was b****.

Lots of info here but worth the read!
My daughter attended Mrs. O’s from the time she was 4 months til almost 2 years old. For the most part the teachers at Mrs. O’s are loving and caring of the children in their care. My daughter always came home with a clean face. I’d receive picture updates of her day from time to time. I felt most confident when she was in the infant classroom. Her teachers were attentive, shared her day honestly, and allowed me to share ideas on how to make everyone’s experience there better.

After my daughter moved to the next class up, I noticed a shift. At one point, parents were asked to pay a fee of $135 to cover their special food days ($60) and a curriculum fee ($75). I didn’t mind paying a fee as many schools have that. However, the “school work” my daughter was sent home with was not age appropriate. There were coloring pages the teacher colored for her, and were about things like the life cycle of a frog and the number 57.

I express my concern to Melissa, the owner, that the curriculum wasn’t age appropriate. She agreed to have her teacher revisit the lesson plan. No changes were made.

There were other small annoyances. Things like the daily report never changing. It was almost identical from day to day. Even if she had a miserable day “happy” was circled under her mood.

However, there was one major instance that moved me to remove my daughter almost immediately.

In April there was an Easter Egg Hunt that was open to all families of the facility. On the way out there were characters that we’re dancing and taking pictures with the kids. They were not hired by Mrs. O’s but they stopped by. The directors were out there looking at them and taking pictures.

My older two children went to say hi to the bunny and peep and there was a little girl out there, probably 3 years old. As we started leaving, she started following and ended up wandering in the street as we had to park the next business over. I took her back towards the daycare and we were looking for her parents and couldn’t find them. I finally went to a director asked “have you seen her mom? ” She looked around her and said “oh no, I don’t think she’s here yet. ”

Unfortunately, this meant that the little girl was left to wander outside of the center on her own. If we didn’t see her, or if I was a crazy person, who knows what would have happened. The director apologized to me and told another director to take her in. I filed a report the next day.

I talked to Melissa the following Monday and told her I would be taking my daughter out. I told her my side and she said she knew what happened. She lied to me and told me a story about how the child’s father was actually there and he got distracted and the child slipped out.
When I told Melissa I was still taking my daughter out, she said “I can’t believe you’re going to punish us like this! After we’ve built a bond with her, you’re just going to rip her away? ! ” It made me so uncomfortable I had to stop the conversation and leave.

On the following Thursday, I received a call from the mother of the child who was left outside. She let me know that she only found out about the incident the day prior and was only notified after she was contacted by an investigator, so she wanted to know what happened. I learned that Melissa lied to me. Neither parents were there until about 20 minutes later when the mom picked her up. She went 5 days without anyone telling her. The child was left outside alone without any adults.
Melissa lied to me and she lied to the parents of the child by not even mentioning it to her. They wouldn’t have known if a report wasn’t filed.

Mistakes can happen and we can learn from them. But the fact is that Melissa lied about a critical situation and did not follow proper procedure. She tried to sweep it under the rug and tried to save face. If she had taken ownership of the situation and immediately notified the parents, that would have been fine. She is hiding evidence from investigators as well. I would never recommend any facility owned by her.

We have used 3 different daycares in 4 years, and not every daycare is for every child but we have noticed a tremendous difference in potty manners, tracing letters, ECT. Mrs O's is the daycare for our kid. Thank you to all the staff