SEEDS OF LEARNING

This school engaged in false reporting, deceit, and discriminatory treatment of children from disadvantaged households. They are not transparent about how donor funds are used, as they deny financial assistance. All families are required to pay tuition, either out of pocket or through third party grants. It is unclear how the donations support the school, even the school charges a substantial tuition for each child. Parents are also required to buy lavish Christmas gifts for the staff, under the instruction that it “teaches children the concept of giving.” However, the children are not taught to spend money on their fellow students or their parents—they’re only required to but gifts for the staff of Seeds. Given the high tuition that parents must pay, either out of pocket or via a third-party grant, it is again unclear why the lesson of given can’t be taught by utilizing those non-transparent mass donations to assist families with the excess costs required for gifts for their teachers and field trips. Children from poor families are taught to feel ashamed of their poor households, as the Director regularly bragged about her children studying abroad in Europe, while saying the poor children at the school didn’t have “as good a Christmas as their peers.” Furthermore, the staff should be required to take drug tests. One of the teachers wrote “beer” on her while another staff member wrote a “massage” on their wish lists for Christmas gifts, even these were handed out as guides for what to buy the teachers—and I have the photos of those lists to prove it. I highly recommend that parents record their conversations about needing financial assistance, which was denied a poor family. I also recommend that donors ask for transparency in reporting how those funds are used, especially when the school charges a very high tuition per student, and refuses to provide financial assistance for poor families when it is requested, as they instead say they have a wait list of other students whose parents are willing to pay the tuition. So, if the school would stop mistreating poor children and poor families, and would be transparent about the appropriation of donor funds and the reasons for denying financial assistance to help bridge tuition for children from poor families who could not obtain a third-party voucher, this would be informative for donors and stakeholders , who help to establish the mission of the preschool to serve the community as a nonprofit organization. The community includes children from poor households who are as much if not more in need of affordable childcare for children who are not yet old enough to attend school. Donors may feel their donations would be better spent in establishing programs that will meet the need of families with children living in poverty or at a threshold where the cost of childcare undermines the purpose of seeking childcare.