Main Street Christian Education Center - Alexandria KY Licensed Child Care

I would not recommend this program to anyone. I understand that the tuition is much lower, especially compared to other programs (nearly half the cost), but you get what you pay for. We sent our child to the CEC’s full-time, all-day program. Our experience with the CEC included poor communication, structure, and management. Our child picked up several poor behaviors and habits after spending time in the program that promptly dissipated once our child started a new preschool. In addition to our child’s regression while at the CEC, we also experienced the following:

We were disappointed when the director sent out lengthy communication regarding wearing masks that was defiant, unprofessional, and quite divisive. We were surprised to see individuals who not only hold themselves out to be childcare professionals, but also Christians, take such an extreme and polarizing stance that was clearly rooted in political and personal beliefs, not objective fact. We expected neutrality and class from preschool leadership, not defiance and political pandering.

Do not expect any communication about your child’s progress or activities - you will not hear anything (genuinely - zero communication) unless your child engages in poor behavior that warrants an incident report. If your child engages in poor behavior or is on the other end of another child’s poor behavior (such as hitting, pushing, spitting, kicking, etc.), you will not be notified unless someone ends up with a mark or is bleeding. To repeat, if your child is aggressive towards kids or other kids are aggressive towards your child, you will not be notified unless there is a mark or blood, even if you request to be notified of these incidents (we asked multiple times to be notified). The staff will frequently throw around the word “partnership,” but in our experience, zero efforts were made to partner with us and our child.

You have a 15 minute window to drop your child off and if you’re a few minutes late, you are charged (including if you are there well before the start time of 8:30). If you drop your child off outside of your 15 minute window (again, by just a few minutes and well before the 8:30 start time) more than once, the director will threaten you with termination from the program (all through passive aggressive messages delivered through the app - she doesn’t have the spine to deliver messaging in person).

If your child has a doctor appointment or other commitment and you drop them off later in the day, you will wait in your car for 20+ minutes until someone comes out to take them inside as punishment for showing up late (and you will be told that you shouldn’t schedule your child’s appointments in the morning - perhaps telling a family how they should schedule appointments is how the CEC views “partnership”).

The director called a “snow day,” but said in her messaging to parents that she was cancelling due to low student attendance. We were surprised that the attendance of other children impacted our child’s attendance, and when we questioned the director, we received a lengthy, defiant response that didn’t answer our question about how low attendance was a factor in the decision to close. Our email clearly stated that we weren’t questioning cancellations due to weather (which make sense and are listed out in the contract), we were asking about cancelling due to low attendance (which isn’t specified as a reason to close in the contract).

The director sent out a message one afternoon that stated “if you are able to pick your child up early today, we feel that would be best.” This message did not ask for a response. We weren’t asked to pick our child up by a certain time, nor were we asked to state a time that we would be picking our child up. Therefore, we didn’t respond to her message, but planned to pick our child up 45 minutes earlier than normal. Since we didn’t provide a response to a message that didn’t ask for one, we received a subsequent petty follow-up. We were also lectured about being courteous to teachers when it is snowing in a subsequent email (the one where we asked about “low attendance” cancellations). Again - the communication is horrendous. If you are closing by a certain time or want a response, ask for it. State it. Be direct.

Some teachers are certainly better than others (the lead 2s and her mother are fantastic, and unlike the other staff members, they seem to genuinely have a heart for children), but unfortunately, the director’s poor leadership and abhorrent communication trickles down throughout the program. We regret sending our child to this center and would not recommend it to other parents. If you do send your child here, go in with the knowledge that communication will be terrible, you will see unexplainable, confusing, and petty power moves from the director and certain staff members (and you will absolutely receive different treatment for having the audacity to ask questions), and your child will receive mediocre care (at best). If sending your child to a Christian-based program is important to you, be aware that under this current leadership, you will not work with individuals who live out and exemplify basic Christian tenets - you will work with individuals who are controlling, petty, passive aggressive, and genuinely don’t seem to like kids. I would strongly recommend avoiding this program at all costs.

I have worked at Main Street Baptist Church's C.E.C. It is a wonderful place and ran by a wonderful group of people.