San Jose Bilingual Motessori Preschool

My son started SJBMP at age 2, and on the whole we have been happy with it. This is not a school with a very traditional, old-​school Montessori approach — they do have some of the Montessori materials, but they also have the kids doing worksheets and things like that. That said, my son looks forward to going to school each morning, enjoys the other kids, and has picked up a lot of new knowledge including months of the year, numbers, and letters.
We did have a billing issue at one point — the school claimed we hadn’t paid one month’s tuition, when in fact we had — but I’m chalking that up to a one-​time glitch.

We took on a foster child after the school year had started and most schools were full or at capacity but San Jose Bilingual Montessori Preschool had space. Sure, I had my reservations about putting the child there since all the other schools were full. The school isn’t the most glamorous nor most pristine but sometimes there are hidden gems to be found. After all, some of my favorite restaurants are holes in the wall. We decided not to judge the book by the cover and to do a one week trial run.
Keep in mind, this is a foster child who had gone through so much to be removed and put into foster care. San Jose Bilingual Montessori was very empathetic to the child’s cause and our situation. They were able to accommodate most of our requests such as days where he had to come to school late or leave early due to parental visitations or social worker surprise visits and interviews, etc. He transitioned from a shy boy who barely spoke a few two syllable words to a child who was outgoing, verbose, independent, and intelligent. Of course, what he learned in school, we reinforced at home. The social worker and everyone who interacted with the child was extremely surprised with his change in a matter of months.
It was the diligent work of the school faculties, our reinforcements at home, and consistencies that made so much impact so quickly. We can’t thank the school and faculties enough for what they have done for the child. We will not hesitate to send any child to that school.

This is just a daycare with a fancy name. Don’t be fooled! I had my daughter enrolled for a few years before I decided she wasn’t getting much out of this school. My daughter learned more on ABC
than at this «Montessori» preschool. The teachers are mediocre, and always changing, I always thought it was a bit strange that the woman (director) who runs the school had her twenty something year old son in and out of the facility when the children were present, I would see him coming from upstairs where only the faculty was supposed to be allowed, he wasn’t a teacher or worked for the school, at least the parents were not informed of this. My daughter was bitten, pushed, hit and had bruises more than once, and was bullied by a classmate to the point they had to be separated during activity/​playtime and I sent a letter to the director about my daughter being bullied. There were a few instances where I was not notified when my daughter had been hurt by another child and I had to complain about that and question why she had a bite mark and bruise on her arm (this was a bad one, I have pics of this one). I decided to pull our daughter out and because we did so without giving notice, we had a remaining balance and had to pay for two weeks even though she was no longer at the school, shortly after my husband lost his job, and we were being harassed to pay the balance via cell phone/​work phone until I finally called and asked for the calls to stop and let the director know we would pay the balance when we could (my mortgage took precedence). After I made that phone call we received a letter at our home saying we now would start to accrue a fee of $ 25 a week, until the balance was paid and how saddened they were to hear my voicemail message after the director had just gotten out of the hospital. It was signed «Accountant», no name, no phone number or info for a contact. I pulled out my contract with the school, and noticed I had been over paying my monthly tuition by a few dollars a month, so I called the school to ask to have my account revised to reflect the overpayment from years past, and was told it would be looked into but I would still accrue the late payment weekly. I asked to speak to someone above the director I was told they were out of the country and could not be contacted and I would have to go through her. Doesn’t seem right that the same person who runs the school is the same person to issue complaints too. The letter sent by the «accountant» was postmarked in San Jose. It’s like we are being held hostage. I’m trying to pay this off, only to be told the balance will continue to grow until it’s paid off completely, meanwhile I am at the directors mercy waiting for my account to be looked into and credited. Such a headache and very sad this is the way they do business.