The Academy of Mt. Juliet

As of March 4, 2024, I am the new Director here at the Academy of My Juliet! As an educator and a mother with my extensive background in education and operations, which spans (over 30 years) from early childhood education to owning and operating my own successful facility, I am committed to providing a high level of care and educational services to the children, families, and staff at Academy of Mt Juliet. Our leadership team and staff are excited about both the challenges and rewards of being a critical part of your childs future. Trust, communication, and understanding are vital components of our relationships with parents and guardians. I am a strong proponent of an open-door policy, and I welcome conversations regarding your child(ren) to ensure your child's success. As the Director, I am fully committed to collaborating with our staff to ensure each family and child has a positive early educational experience. Thank you, Robyn
Mar 28th, 2024

I did not personally have a bad experience with my 10 month old here but I will say there was a lot of inconsistency the few weeks we were there. The one constant was Ms. Ilyssa. She deserves 10 stars! If my little one could have stayed with her throughout his time there we would not have switched. Shes amazing. I do hope that this place finds a way to level out because I do think it could be great.
Feb 10th, 2024

The installations are great and the care the teachers provide for the children are wonderful. However there is a poor management at this place. Thats why there has been a tremendous inconsistency in who cares for the children lately, the staff does not last and is my understanding is due to leadership, employees are treated unequally, management shows preference to white people and there is different treatment to black and other races so sad. I dont want my children under this type of management.
Feb 7th, 2024

Updated to 1 star, further updates below: I wish I could leave a good review of this place as we were very excited for our daughter to come here, but it's frankly been a disaster. Our child is 3.5 and from day one she's been punished for IMO behaving age appropriately. Being sent home for temper tantrums. One teacher even said she felt unsafe which is absolutely unhinged. She's a toddler! They finally moved her up to an older room and she had been doing much better until recently when they had a bunch of teachers leave. Now there is no consistency, someone different is watching the kids every day and now both the directors are leaving, too. The last straw was when our daughter was hit in the face purposefully by another child and caused her mouth to bleed but this child was not sent home, when our child is being sent home for tipping over chairs and throwing a fit. Yet our daughter is the one that is "unsafe". Give me an effing break. We pay $370 a week for this nonsense. I don't even think our daughter is very happy, she is constantly coming home saying the teachers and other kids are mean to her every day. We will be taking her back to the other daycare which we LOVED but didn't want to have to dive back and forth to every day when The Academy was right down the street. I would rather spend twice the money in gas then bring her here ever again. Update: Also, if you complain then you will be gaslit and invalidated, because sometimes kids play rough. I know the difference between rough accidental play and someone deliberately bullying and causing purposeful hurt. We are not waiting until this child pushes our daughter off the playground equipment for this establishment to take things seriously. Update 2: I expressed my frustration to the teachers and director and that under no uncertain terms was I to get another call or another sheet sent home saying that my daughter had been hurt by another child. The exact wording I used was "This better not happen again." Later that day I was told they felt "threatened" (I kid you not), and that my daughter could no longer attend. I am literally laughing as I type this because this place is so ridiculous. Another parent also informed me they had two more license violations on top of the one they already had (see another review about a child falling out of a highchair and sustaining a skull injury). Apparently they were over the child to teacher ratio, and some teacher PULLED A CHILD'S HAIR and DRAGGED them over to a corner of the room. This place is a JOKE. They charge $370 a WEEK for your child to be treated like this. And the directors a whiny snowflakes who feel "threatened" when you tell them to do their jobs. Stay away!!!!
Mar 4th, 2024

The best word to describe The Academy is inconsistent. We were there for two years, starting their opening day in 2022. When it was good, it was great. When it was bad, it was horrible. Our daughter's class seemed to have the most turnover of all the classes, having 20+ full-time teachers in two years. Most of them would average 3-6 months, but some of them would be in and out in a week. Because of this, half of my daughter's class left (including us) when a new daycare opened a few minutes away. There were also 3-4 directors during this time - the last resigning about 6 months ago, so we're talking 3-4 directors within 18 months. There were large gaps in-between when the facility wouldn't have a dedicated director. It's my understanding that leadership is the reason for the unreasonable amount of turnover. Turnover is normal in childcare, but this daycare has more than I've heard from other places in the area. And when it's also one of the most expensive in the area, you expect more. You don't expect your kids to be free-range without receiving the top-notch education that you're paying for. Because despite this being a daycare, they have strenuous curriculum that the children are supposed to be following. Despite the bad, there were many positives that came from The Academy. There were so many teachers who we adored - and who adored our children. It's unfortunate that almost all of them have moved on because they couldn't deal with leadership. Special shout-outs to Ms. Jena, Ms. Adriana, Ms. Kim, Ms. Rachel, Ms. Lissa, Ms. Nicole, Ms. Alexus (who have all left), along with Ms. Jaimee, Ms. Liberty, Ms. Jackie, Ms. Peyton & Ms. Elisa who are still there. I truly hope they can figure this out. The kids deserve it, and the staff deserves it.
Feb 15th, 2024