Sunshine Community Childcare

I was an employee of Sunshine Academy for over five years, quitting in 2010.  I was an assistant teacher, a pre-K teacher and assistant director during that time.  I was in the classroom teaching each day as well as assisting in all aspects in the front office.  The main problem with this daycare is its director and board of directors.  In my time with Sunshine, the director RARELY entered the classroom to interact, encourage or check on the state of classrooms, children or staff-although she was asked to do so many times.  Staff who had little or no training were hired and immediatly put in classrooms without appropriate time to get to know the kids (this happened to me and everyone I worked with).  Staff and children were constantly shuffled to various rooms and the student/teacher ratio was always maxed out.  Managment was distant at best, horrible with communication, and had very little respect for the employees, making it impossible to retain quality employees.  In spite of the fact that the employees addressed the board in March of 2010 with concerns about the director, program, and training, nothing changed and today 75% of the staff are new.  I am not writing this as a disgruntled emplyee, but as a disappointed employee.  This facility has the potential to serve many families in Newton, but due to the complete lack of integrity and caring of management and the board of directors, it has remained a day care with a poor reputation.  It is a place where parents who MUST work and who need transportation to area schools are STUCK with taking their children.  My advice it to ask around Newton before choosing this daycare-and do not get a list of references from anyone at sunshine-as you will not get an honest representation of them.  My experience and education in Early Childhood spans 20 years, and in my opinion, this center offers nothing more than a babysitting service, and not a very good babysitting serivce at that.