Mallard Creek Learning Center - Charlotte NC Five Star Center License

I wanted desperately to give this facility a positive review; however, after experiencing the facility, its staff and more importantly its staff leadership, I am unable to do so. My grandchildren attended this facility for 3 weeks. My twin granddaughters (19 mos.) had never previously attended childcare so I was very accepting that there would be an adjustment period. Frequently dropping off 2 children at once would knocked them immediately out of ratio, which I would question. I would be assured that there would be someone coming to support "soon." Children would frequently be running around with snotty noses and dirty faces, on 2 occasions during a pick up their father had to request that the girls' diapers be changed prior to him leaving. My grandchildren screamed almost traumatically during drop off and pick up for 3 straight weeks. When I picked them up they were often sullen, whiny and irritable. I had to bring heavy snacks at pick up, typically between 5-6pm, because they would act as if they were starving when they would get in the car. I was told the last time they received food was at 3:30pm which for busy toddlers is quite early in my opinion. The final straw came when I received a phone call that one of them had a temperature of 101. I immediately left work to get them both. Upon my arrival approximately 15 minutes later, I was informed that she, "may have had a seizure!" I began asking a multitude of questions while gathering her and her sister's belongings. I wanted to have accurate information when I arrived at the emergency room; my granddaughter has no history of seizures. My first question was why didn't anyone call 911 and then contact me again IMMEDIATELY. The responses were: "we knew you were on the way", "if it had happened again then we would have called 911", "well...we're not medical professionals so we didn't know if that was what it really was." Needless to say, I was rattled, concerned and confused. Three different staff members as well as the director and I was given 4 different accounts of what had happened. Thankfully the hospital staff at Levine’s Children’s Hospital were attentive and amazing despite the minimal information provided by Ms. Jackie and members of her staff. It must be noted that the Dr. had me contact Mallard Creek Learning Center again so that he and the nurse could attempt questioning and possibly get a better assessment; the call was on speaker and they had no better success at achieving clear, concise, nor definitive answers. Interestingly enough once I ended the call, the Dr. looked at me and said, “Well grandmamma, if I were you I would not be taking my grandchildren back there.”
 
I attempted to go back to the daycare the following day in order to speak to the director, Ms. Jackie again. Surely by now I figured she had to have spoken to her staff and received adequate information. Not only was she rude, condescending and disrespectful but she even stated to me that it seemed that I was, “possibly too overprotective”, and that it, “sounded as if I were expecting them to watch them too much.” Wow was all I had. I could feel everything in me fighting to remain calm and respectful and at that point I made a conscious decision to disengage. We agreed that this clearly was not a good fit. Any CHILD-care facility that is IN THE BUSINESS OF CARING FOR CHILDREN that has a leader that would verbalize something so utterly ignorant and inappropriate was not somewhere that I wanted my grandchildren to attend. To say this so boldly aloud forced me to take pause on what her thoughts had to be. If you are willing to speak this, what are your true feelings about young people that you do not speak aloud?

The twist in this review; I am so extremely grateful for Mallard Creek Learning Center and Ms. Jackie as well as their substandard care of my babies during this situation and for their levels of negligence. Had they not behaved so blatantly inappropriate in this matter, my granddaughters would have been subjected to this poor quality of care on a daily basis.

The facility is very cluttered and class rooms are very small and dark. The administrators are very rude and condescending to parents. You don't get any written reports of what your child has learned, homework assignments, behavior or anything.

When taking a tour of the facility amongst other ones to find the best place for my daughter, this one by far is the worst. The outside is uninviting. The inside smelled horrible like they had never cleaned up after anything. They had no visual stimulation. For the children. The staff was yelling and rude. The owner Jackie was not professional at all. She would be on the phone or rude to her staff and even to the children. I would NEVER take my child there EVER!

It took me a while to find a daycare that could fit my budget and actually be decent and close to where I lived. Came to this daycare and was surprised at the price and the people. Beside all the comments, I'm a young mom just trying to get by and and feel comfortable enough to have my son to be watched by someone else, because I was a stay at home mom and very nervous about this. When I came to this daycare I took my son so he could take a feel for it because he has a say in this too and I loved it. It's a small intimate setting an I don't mind that at all. They are strict and make sure the kids wash there hands for everything. They take time with the kids and especially with my son...and I love it. Every time I stop by I see my son sitting in the circle with the kids doing story time, or playing with toys quietly, he knows when to put on his jacket or take it off, he knows when to sit down and eat at the table with the kids. Because I'm a working and I can not work on my child as much as I can they def help me with that, and I love that, because I see progress. I love my child dearly and I know when I see that he is doing good and loves the fact he like to go there. The workers I love. They are very nice and treat you like your family, I love that. And I like that they have a connection with my son and pays attention to him. Now business part of that I do see comments about payments. Now I been their every since June.I take it like this, as long as u communicate everything that you are unsure about , than that is good your fine. If u are not sure about it than okay u ask. When I came there it was make a payment every Friday or Monday after that is late. That's understandable to me , its just like a bill. I make sure if that. If I'm late I'm late and pay late fee. But I have to say , I had tough times and Jackie the director works with me, which is a blessing. So advice, u get your feeling of it, have your child, and business part of things , always if your unsure communicate, cause it works with me.
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I am a formal employee of MCLC and as stated by other reviews it deserves no star at all. First off, the staff is great. They are hard working women that are very underpaid and mistreated. This is the absolute worst place I've ever worked. The owner, Mrs Jackie Williams is a tyrant and she is abusive to her staff. She has no respect for her employees and the parents. She talks to her employees like they are dogs. She has talk down to the children and even threatened them with using a ruler on them. She even yelled at an elderly employee for going to the bathroom. She is not a team player. The classrooms are always over ratio and she follows the state rules and regulations when she feels like it. Her employees are yelled at for using supplies and are told that it is not in the budget. At one point, there was no running water at the center for a few hours. The phones have also been out for hours at the center. While the employees are great, they are unable to do their jobs effectively because it is such a hostile environment to work in. This was my reality for a while and I would not put my child in this center even if it was FREE. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND PARENTS AND EMPLOYEES DO THEIR RESEARCH BEFORE GOING TO THIS AWFUL CENTER.

I wanted to do a thorough review of this daycare because there were not any available when I was considering enrolling my toddler. Well we tried it and unfortunately, me and my husband were not satisfied and recently switched my child from this daycare to another due to several reasons. One, being this daycare is not educationally stimulating enough and I say that because there is no clear cut curriculum that is used, they allow children to take 3 hour naps, watch videos and teachers do not seem to be well trained in child education/development. Two, the atmosphere is not clean and organized, this deterred me at first but I decided to give this daycare a chance, I shouldn't have. The daycare does not have a bad smell or trails of crumbs on the floor, however it is lacking the clean, colorful and welcoming atmosphere that most would expect a daycare to have. No student artwork on the walls, no calendar of events, no pictures of students or teachers, no themes for the month/week, no decorations for holidays, just no visual stimulation at all. It has a very cramped feel, there are some maintenance issues on the outside and it could use several upgrades, such as paving the gravel pit parking lot. The daycare is very small inside with hardly any standing room in the hallways and definitely no room to use a "bye bye buggy" for infants or have a sitting area for parents/visitors. Fourth reason, there are no activities such as "parents night out", open house, picture day, special interest classes like "jump bunch" or field trips. Can you believe they do not even do a special art project for mothers day (or any holidays for that matter), an Easter egg hunt or Valentines day party? It just does not seem like a fun place for a child, plain and simple. Lastly and most importantly, the owner/director of the daycare does not have the best attitude, atleast not the type that seems like she loves children and truly enjoys what she does. This is a line of work that requires that type of personality and I do not know any parent that wants to leave their child in someone's hands that does not appear warm, caring and passionate about child care, including myself. I did not do this review out of any malice or bad intentions, Just wanted to give parents some insight. Best of luck on your child care search!

I am the 1 and 2 year old teacher at Mallard Creek Learning Center. I am writing this review with my experience at Mallard Creek Learning Center and Director Jackie Williams. I have been employed at Mallard Creek Learning Center and the interactions with Mrs Williams and parents I have seen are very respectful and the parents are glad that Mrs. Williams are involved in their children's learning and well being. Mrs. Williams speaks to every child's parents when they arrive to center to pick their child up at the end of the day. She has always let me talk openly and upfront to my children's parents. I have my 2 children at Mallard Creek Learning Center and they love the center and Mrs. Williams and all the teacher. Mrs. Williams is helping me with going back to school to get my Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education. If a child does run out of supplies we do not let them stay in wet diapers or pull up. We have extra diapers that we use if the child does not have any of their own or the parents forgot to bring them in. The Mrs. Jackie Williams that is being displaced in this review I am responding to I do not know her. The one I am writing about in the Mrs. Williams I work for and with everyday. Mallard Creek Learning Center is an Awesome Learning Facility for you to enroll your child into if you are looking for a very warm and caring center with a Awesome Director that talks with every parent and makes sure the staff is trained in what they need to be Awesome Teacher to care and teach your children.

As an employee of MCLC, I had the experience of dealing with Mr. and Mrs. Marable on several occasions. The Marable’s child was sick a lot. Mrs. Marable would ask the staff to keep her inside if the class was going outside. If the class went outside, which was a state mandate and natural part of their daily routine she would have to stay inside with another class. The infant classroom with 0-1 yr. olds would be the only appropriate space since she could not be in a room with pre-schoolers. This was done to keep Payton safe and from being exposed to the cold air and other external influences per Mrs. Marable’s request. Ms Marable says “My daughter (AGE 1) is an extremely gifted child and...On many occasions my daughter and other children were placed in classes with younger, less advanced children. “ Mrs. Marable is not aware that in the infant room it is licensed for children to stay in this classroom until they were 2 years of age. Also the student/teacher ratios requires for 1 teacher per 5 children, we had 2 eight month olds in this classroom at the time and her daughter had just recently turned 1 years old. Another issue, I dealt with was potty training. I remember listening to her teacher talk with the Marable parents about the need for pull-ups. The parents said the daughter was potty training, but every day we saw her in tights and diapers. Her teacher would send home with daily notes asking for pull-ups. I also spoke with her father about it one day and he seemed to just dismiss my conversation with him. It became really frustrating. We wanted to support the parents with potty training, but they were not providing us with what we needed to do that. As per the It’s SID’s training we are to ask the parent’s not to overdress the child or over bundle the child due to temperature as well as potty training. Every day the Marable’s child had on tights, tee shirt, diapers and a sweater. Again, when we spoke to the father about the tights he seemed annoyed that we had this request. How did they expect us to potty train their child with all these clothes on each day? All parents of every child in the infant and in her classroom went home with notes, everyday that said what was needed for their child. She would not read the notes or follow the directions needed for her child's benefit. She was always in a hurry and only wanted to speak to any of us if she needed something, not if her child needed anything. We are a daycare center so we always have and will have extra diapers and wipes, so no one would be called at worked about leaving a child in a wet diaper, my Director does not operate like that and neither does our staff. I answered the telephones each day and Mrs. Marable called every other day for 2015 tax request upon giving her notice, when it was clearly explained that the 2015 tax paperwork would be given the following year (2016) as required by law. No explanation was good enough for Mrs. Marable and her expectations were always outlandish, as well as she was almost always uncooperative. No matter what the situation she would blame the center’s staff for every incident she was not pleased and she was rude on most occasions. Personally, I feel she needed to take her child out of the center as we could not be team players in working with her for her child. Her child was a happy little girl on a daily basis. To say she was gifted is stretching. We loved the child and wish her well.

Mallard Creek learning center has been a savior for me. I just moved here from a small town where my daughter was attending a daycare that was like her family. Moving here to Charlotte was very exciting for us until I had to experience the diffeence in daycares. We tried a few when we first got here, and my daughter screamed everytime I left her. I was devistated and felt so bad that she was so upset. Then we found Mallard Creek Learning Center. My daughterloves going there and has not cried one time when I dropped her off. She constantly talks about the director Mrs. Jackie at home, and it always excited to go to school. Finding them was a God send and they have become family to us. I am very grateful for all of them and would recommend them to anyone.

As the parent before me has noted the center is awful and indeed one star is far more than it desrvess. The center's only saving grace was the teachers that were there during my daughter's enrollment were very caring and qualified; however, they are grossly underpaid because of the director, Jackie Williams's mismanagement. In addition to her her ineptitude as a leader she is extremely rude and disrepectful to her staff and parents. She cuts corners and often goes against state policy in how she directs her teachers to instruct and care for the children. My daughter is an extremely gifted child and were it not for the care of the teachers would not have stayed at the center as long as she did. On many occassions my daughter and other children were placed in classes with younger, less advanced children in order for the director to meet child to teacher ratio requirements because she did not want to pay a teacher to be available the entire day. During this time my daughter was potty training and digressed in the process. When I confronted the director she stated that, "she would switch my daughter from classes with the younger children to a child whose parents wouldn't mind so much." Parent's can't mind what they don't know and thankfully her teacher made me aware of the situation but because she attempts to keep the teachers from speaking with the parents many parents never become aware of what actually takes place.

On another occassion, my daughter ran out of diapers because they were allowing other children to use them. Without having notified me prior that she needed more supplies, she called me in the middle of the day at work and told me that if I didn't bring some more to the center that she would have to leave my child in the same wet diaper the entire day.

The outside grounds of the center are dilapitated and quite frankly dangerous. The toys are old and run down; the teachers have no technological resources to engage the students, and the few books they have are old and falling apart. Don't be fooled by the inexpensive tuition! You get what you pay! This is not an environment designed to stimulate learning and growth and your children will suffer.

This center is AWFUL! The staff is underplayed and overworked. The director Jackie Williams does not care for the children not does she take any of the money she makes and put it back into the center. Toys are run down & gross, classrooms are smell without the open airy feeling conducive to learning. No updates to the center to make it more modern and fun. Very gloomy and depressing. This center does not deserve one star- it deserves negative 10. Although not rated with the BBB the rating is a D-.... Don't waste your time or money going there. If you want your children to learn, grow, and prosper this is NOT the place!!!!