Prodigy Kids: Learning Center at Costa Rica

Our Not So Excellent Experience at Prodigy Kids Academy in Escazu, Costa Rica

Originally written in September 2009.

(For the purpose of maintaining privacy, generic nouns in brackets have been substituted for proper names.)

We have had one or both of our kids at Prodigy Kids Academy for almost a year and are leaving on a very bad note.  I’m writing to warn other parents about the lack of professionalism at this school.  Our baby was kicked out on four days notice because we persisted in requesting information about her diet and activities!

An Attempt at Communication…

More than a month ago, I met with the director and told her that we were concerned that there was so little communication coming from the school. In my meeting with her, I very nicely suggested to the director that if she can’t handle written communication perhaps she could invite interested parents to drop in once a month and ask questions and see what’s new at Prodigy Kids Academy. Optional of course, but something engaged parents like us could take advantage of. She said she thought it was a great idea, but then nothing happened.

Last week I sent two emails. Both were sent to the director’s email address, although one had the director’s husband’s name in the subject line. I did this because, even though he was barely around, he seemed to be the default administrator since Prodigy lacks an administrative director and doesn’t even have a secretary.

Email #1:

We never received a menu for September but in any case we have learned to doubt what is on it because [our son] would tell us that he ate different things for lunch than were on the menu. Now that it’s only [our baby] we have no way to know what she is eating. Do you have a September menu and, if so, will you definitely be following it?

Thanks,

Email #2:

It continues to be a problem that there is so little communication from the director and teachers of Prodigy to the parents. Over a month ago, I told [the director] that my wife had no idea what was happening at the school. I suggested that if she can’t handle written communication that she might have a monthly time when parents could come and ask questions and get informed. And yet the information blackout continues. [The director] has no official office hours during which parents are welcome to drop in. Though Prodigy is certainly a warm and welcoming environment, many times [the director] is not around or she is otherwise occupied so parents never can be sure when they can catch her.

There was recently a “book fair” but we were not notified about it until the day it occurred, and then only in passing. There was a children’s day party but all we received was a tiny slip of paper asking us to contribute a fruit salad. This slip did not indicate if parents were welcome or whether we were just being asked to provide food for a party for the children. The slip did not indicate the time of the event.

We’re not expecting Prodigy to be like the Humboldt School [which our older son attends] which sends us communications on an almost daily basis via email and/or sheets sent home in [our son’s] snack pack, but we do need more regular communication, esp. since [I] am the only one picking up and dropping off [our baby].

I know you will take these comments seriously, and we thank you for that.

And the Result….

There was no response to email #1.

The response to email #2 came four days later from the director’s husband. He wrote:

You are the only parent that has a problem with the communication. I know [the director] is very accesible. [sic] Perhaps your expectations are not reasonable…..

I found this to be a rather unprofessional response, and rather off-base considering that another one of the parents told us he feels exactly as we do.

Bad Judgment Day…

The next Monday was Yom Kippur—the holiest day of the Jewish year. We sent our baby to Prodigy Kids Academy that day so that we’d be able to concentrate on the service at the synagogue. I picked her up at 12:30 pm as usual.

Because of the lame response I’d gotten from the email, I told one of the teachers that the next day I would come and observe to see what was going on. I figured that is the only way I would find out, since they considered it an imposition to tell me.

Well one hour later my cell phone rang. It was the director’s husband. You’d think he would have known not to call me on Yom Kippur, considering that most of the kids at Prodigy Kids Academy are Jewish.

But anyway, he called and I told him it wasn’t a good time to talk, that it was a major Jewish holiday. He replied that he had something very important to tell me and that it would be short. I allowed him to continue and he said, “This will be your daughter’s last week at Prodigy Kids Academy. We don’t feel it’s a good fit—”

I couldn’t let him go on. How dare he throw our daughter out of preschool on such short notice, just because he didn’t like us asking questions! I told him, “I definitely do not want to talk about this on Yom Kippur. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

The next day I took our daughter to Prodigy Kids Academy and her teacher was all nicey-nicey like nothing was wrong and received her as usual. The director and her husband were nowhere to be seen. I asked the teacher if they were around and she said the director was talking with someone and her husband was not there.

When I picked our daughter up that day, I was slipped a little piece of paper that told what she had eaten that day, so I figured they had resolved my concerns that way, at least my concerns about the food, and that her husband had simply lost his temper. After all, he is not the director of the school or my child’s teacher—actually, he has no official role at the school, so why should I take his phone call seriously?

The next day was Wednesday; our daughter’s teacher was there and acted as if nothing was wrong. I asked if the director or her husband wanted to talk to me and she said no. Again, when I picked up our daughter, she gave me a slip of paper saying what she’d eaten that day.

On Thursday, I dropped off the baby again and this time the director was there. She was all smiles, as if nothing was wrong. We engaged in some small talk and then I asked her about that phone call from her husband.

Her face fell and she said quietly that he made the decision that this would be our baby’s last week. I couldn’t believe my ears.

“But that’s not in the best interests of [the baby,]” I said. I was thinking of the week I had spent helping her get adjusted, of the gradual increase in her comfort level, which by that time had solidified into solid trust. The director shook her head in agreement, but wasn’t willing to contradict her husband. “But you’re the director, I said. He can’t just make a decision like that.” She shook her head and replied, “He’s the owner.”

I explained that it would mightily inconvenience us; we were just adjusting to our son being at Humboldt and to have to run around looking for a new preschool in the middle of the school year would be really stressful. I knew that the best preschools often only have openings at the beginning of the school year, which is February here, or maybe in July. Again she nodded her head sympathetically but then said, “Well, you could put her somewhere….”

It suddenly hit me that here they are, claiming to run a preschool for “parents who want significantly more than traditional preschool,” a place where “every child is loved, every child is special, every child is a star,” and then she lets her husband kick our baby out of the school in order to get rid of parents he apparently feels are a pain in the ass.

Well, today is Friday, our baby’s last day at Prodigy Kids Academy, and my feeling is that we have certainly been treated unprofessionally and perhaps vindictively. Either that or the director’s husband is simply clueless as to what’s involved when parents have to find a new preschool midway through the year, how the sudden loss of daily childcare affects a family’s stress level. So part of me is like “Good riddance” because it was becoming increasingly clear that Prodigy Kids Academy does not have its act together.

Thelma Rubenstein Prisma Dental Costa Rica

I’m sorry I haven’t kept to my original plan, but better late than never so here is some more information.

First I’d like to mention a dentist with whom I had a negative experience: Thema Rubenstein at Prisma Dental. I feel obligated to mention my experience because Prisma does tons of advertising and is going after the medical tourism market very aggressively. To be fair, I only went to this office once and finished the treatment with a different dentist at a different office, namely, Dr. Anibal, whom I continue to see twice a year. What happened at Prisma is that they told me I had gum disease and that I would probably need surgery and then commenced a root planing and scaling. The root planing and scaling was done by some assistant, not Dr. Rubenstein….which I thought was kind of lame because they charged me quite a bit by Costa Rican standards and I expected the work to be done by a dentist. They also shot me up with an anesthetic AND an antibiotic, not giving me time to tell them that I often forego anesthesia even when I’ve had deep cavities filled and that I prefer to, because I don’t like the numb feeling and not being able to feel my lips, etc., and prefer to not have chemicals like that in my system. I also am against use of antibiotics unless truly necessary and didn’t appreciate them injecting me some in what seemed to be their standard operating procedure. They also prescribed a powerful antibiotic and told me I should take it for a few weeks in order to minimize the risk of infection. Again, I thought this was over the top…I looked up the antibiotic and it wasn’t just a simple one like amoxicillin but a complex expensive one that simply seemed unnecessary. I was very relieved to find Dr. Anibal and have him assure me that I did not need gum surgery and that antibiotics were not necessary either. He finished the root planing and scaling, oh that was another thing: the Prisma people wanted to do it in four visits…Dr. Anibal finished it up in one visit. It just seemed like the Prisma people were overmedicating, overprescribing, overtreating. Again, I haven’t had much experience with them but what happened was enough for me not want to go back. To be fair once again, they were pleasant enough and their office looks gorgeous but that, of course, wasn’t enough! More next time.