Growing Room CDC - Columbus GA Child Care Learning Center

Been at growing room for at least 9 years. One child went through since she was 4ish and two since they were born. They are Growing Room kids! Have had good and bad teachers, seems the bad don' t stay around very long and we lost some of the ones that we cherished without knowing why. We left for about 9 months due to a conflict with a manager and looked high and low for another child care center, we came back to growing room. (After the manager left) Excited about the direction GR is heading, new playground, painting, and other updates. Current management is top notch! My family loves the teachers. A lot of efforts goes into managing a large child care facility such as this, with the parents expectations for it to be perfect, growing room may not be perfect put it is in a constant pursuit of excellence. Can't speak to the employees concerns but as a parent my biggest cost every day is the trust given to the teachers and staff, so far it has been a wise investment. The A Beka program is great! That said my middle child went through with Ms. Sonja, she was one of a kind. Thanks!

I was an employee with Growing Room for 2 years. I was paid minimum wage even with experience, while other people without experience were coming in making $9 an hour because they knew the owner. It is a very unfair work atmosphere. It was like a soroity and if you weren't close friends with the owners or front desk then you were treated like crap, even talked about and somewhat bullied. Its completely unprofessional, and children are hardly fed [breakfast was 1 mini muffin and 1 small cup of canned fruit, lunch was 1 or 2 chicken nuggets, 5 frozen french fries, and a small scoup of canned peaches]. It makes you wonder where the money is going if it isn't going to the employees or children. I loved working with the children, but the staff was awful. I could always hear yelling down the halls, whether it be one teacher to another, or even worse, the teachers yelling at the kids in line to the playground. I was let go for texting, it was the 2nd time I had been addressed about it. I am in no one bitter about that. But what makes me ill is the fact that I was there for 2 years and got in trouble 2 times for texting, while other teachers were getting write ups for holding babies mouths closed, yanking kids arms, and throwing toys at children. I was contacted by an outstanding number of parents who were outraged by the fact that Growing Room will turn there heads from teachers that are doing harmful things to children but will be quick to fire a loyal employee for texting. I think the company needs better structure and they need to apply the money to things that matter, not trips to New York for the corporate staff. I will not recommend this daycare to anyone and I have turned many people away from bringing their children here and I will continue to do so.

Now I know for a fact that the owner is more about the money then she is children. Its become quite clear that if she isn't squeezing the most amount of money possible out of someone, then they are less important. Sheree Mitchell is very cheap, which is probably why most of the stuff is so outdated. For a daycare that charges so much money you would think they would try to go above and beyond to not only satisfy the minimum georgia requirements. Their classes are packed to maximum capacity. You would think that there would be more teachers to handle even the maximum capacity, since you do pay way more at the growing room then you could elsewhere for the same service! But god forbid sheree pay any more than she absolutely has to.

I am the owner of this preschool and wish to respond to the above comment. We started this school 23 years ago with the health , safety and education of our children at heart. I am a registered nurse and have very strict guidelines for our teachers and classrooms.

We use the following consequesnces for inappropriate behavior: redirection and think time (one minute per age of the child). If the behavior is severe, our Directors initiate a Behavior Guidance Plan. This plan is signed by the parents and gives the child 3 opportunities to improve their behavior. After that time, the child is expelled from the center...in order to protect the other children.

Our A Beka program is done in small groups, thereby giving each child more one-on one time. Our video survelliance system is monitored both at each school and our business office. We have a zero tolerance for mistreatment of children.

We love and nuture each and every child. I wouldn't have it any other way. 

This discovery center or childcare provier is mainly interested in the money.  Children who are out of control are "redirected"  with no consequence for behavior.  Classes are packed to the maximum ratios with unrealistic activities for young children to accomplish.  The curriculum Abeca is designed for one on one homeschool or very small groups not 15 children.  Teachers act very differently when alone in the classrooms.  The video survelance systems needs audio to actually hear the teachers and not depend on body language alone.