Esperanza School

It appears that those scheduling tours and waiting for admission give one star while those with admitted kids give five stars.
Our infant daughter has been with the school for a year now. She is always extraordinarily happy to go every morning. She seems very alert and socially interactive for a child of her age. We have constant and immediate communication with the teachers for her daycare room. We have been very satisfied to date with Esperanza and plan to keep her here for a few more years.

Our son loves this school however there are a couple of things I think could be improved:
$ 1300 /​month until your child is at least 18 months old on Sept 1^st, then it is $ 1250. This makes no sense to me it should depend on your child’s age as it does with other day cares. The only way to have your child’s tuition reduces (per talking with the school) is to have them switch classrooms at 18 months.
No fridges in the wee-​bits classrooms (the age after infants). So all food & milk needs to be brought in coolers. This has been a big change for us since all the infant rooms have fridges & freezers.
Apparently talking to my son’s new teacher last week they are only starting baby sign language this year. Our son did learn «more» with his infant teachers but is still working on adding words. So I asked his weebit teacher what signs they use at school so we can do the same at home, she didn’t really have an answer for me. I believe at orientation (which we attended before our son was born) they said Esperanza does baby sign language so I was surprised by her response. If this is a must have for you when choosing day cares you might want to get a more solid answer from the school. Now that my son has been attending for a year its not a reason for me to transfer but while enrolling it may have effected my decision.
My favorite things about this school so far are:
The campus is huge so the kids can really get a long walk in even when it is raining. They have the outdoors and indoors decorated with different objects for the kiddos to explore and identify.
Our teachers (infant & weebits) really care about the children and although the school has rules that seem strict at times the teachers will bend them and will let your child grow at their own pace. The teachers really want the kids to be happy and work with parents to achieve this goal. For example the transition from purees to finger foods.
We are having trouble getting valuable day sheets from our weebits teachers. These are required by state law up to 17 months. (Subtracting 1 star)

I was worried after reading reviews that I would suffer the same fate and not be able to reach anyone but I actually got a return phone call and managed to schedule a tour. I was pleasantly surprised and figured those were old reviews, and the school had improved their administration. Well, after the tour, I paid my registration fee to hold my spot. After a couple of months, I tried to contact the school again few times for more info on the waitlist, etc but never got a return call! I tried emailing the Director as well but no response! I don’t know how I can trust leaving my child with someone who won’t respond. They sure cashed my check fast though…

Esperanza has been the BEST experience for our son. Our only regret is that we did not find the school sooner. He attended Kids R Kids and a Montessori school out West and neither can even compare to Esperanza. He has made many friends and has really shined here. The Blue Eagle teachers are kind, patient, dedicated, and have lots of early childhood learning experience. As a current Assistant Principal, I can say that the curriculum is top notch, differentiated, and individualized. This preschool experience will be hard to top.

Very Organized, Structured and friendly. My boy is about 2 and is in Ms Lupe’s class. Over a short period of time, he was noticeably better with his ABCs, Numbers and playing Books than he had been previously. A 2 year old does naturally learn fast but I’m comfortable with saying that Esperanza has made a positive impact on his learning and behavior.
As others have mentioned, I too had a very hard time getting a tour. My advice is to take what ever you can get and just take off work if you have to. It is a pain but they do their job well so I can’t complain.
Don’t forget to check out the Saturday daycare.

I can’t say enough good things about Esperanza! The teachers are absolutely wonderful and have made my son’s transition into daycare as easy as possible! The administration has always been as warm and welcoming as possible as well– they absolutely keep in touch and I’ve never had a problem getting a hold of someone or getting a timely response. I would absolutely recommend Esperanza to any parent looking for daycare. The grounds are wonderful and they offer fantastic amenities-​for each age group. We’re getting ready to transition into the next class and while we’re very sad to leave our wonderful teachers, the next group seems as wonderful as the first. I don’t know how Esperanza could get any better!

I think the guys did a great job building a little oasis in the middle of the crazy washington avenu. My kid loves going there. its our second year and we are very happy! Side drop off and side pick up is a wonderful idea. Before i could not leave the kid there with out tears, but once pull up he just happy to get out of the car! not sure how it works, but i just let them figur the details out.
Thanks again and see you on monday morning!

Scheduling a tour is like finding the Holy Grail. I exchanged several emails with their admission coordinator in June about my interest in their preschool program and she told me that she can’t schedule the tour due to I only intend to enroll my daughter in next January. She asked me to call back after Labor Day holiday to schedule a tour.
I fully understand a wait-​list for admission but 3 months for a tour? You’ve got to be kidding me. I told her I can’t wait that long to have a tour since I am in the midst of searching for a good preschool to see whether Esperanza is a right fit for my daughter. So far… no response from her. Well, I guess the school is so well known and famous that they couldn’t care less about an anxious parents that want to check out their school.
I have no problem to schedule any tour from preschool that I am interested in, even St Rose of Lima. They said I can drop by between a certain time of the day, and don’t even have to schedule.
Unfortunately, my experience shows that Esperanza’s administration lags substantially.

Left a message with a live person… no return call. Sent email was bounced back… still no answer. How can I trust my child with you if you can’t even return my phone call?

Esperanza has a lot of great perks. The rooms are fairly large with plenty of toys and books for the kids to play. Some connecting rooms are still empty and I think the kids should be able to play in a bigger room while they remain empty. The children love to go outside every day and the playgrounds are perfect for outdoor play. I believe the schedule and nap times are good for the younger children; studies have shown that infants and young toddlers thrive better on a schedule because they know what to expect next. Flexibility is important though too. It is pricey and all food has to be provided, as well as paper towels, which ends up being an added monthly expense. I agree they should have an option for purchasing healthy lunch or snacks at a reasonable price. I had my son in another daycare when he was an infant & it was half the price of Esperanza and they provided a hot breakfast & lunch every day! Security at Esperanza is very good with gates surrounding the property & locked doors. My son’s teachers have been very good and informative and they seem to love all their kiddos. They also do a good job of making sure the teacher-​child ratio is never more than it should be.

My son has been going here since he was 8 weeks old and we love it. The teachers are lovely to the kids and the yards and the classroom setup, especially in the full-​time program, are perfect. He has learned so much since he has been there and you can tell they really give children the one-​on-​one attention they need. He was in the full-​time program, our favorite teachers were Miss Christina and Miss Jennifer in the Little Bloomers house. Honestly, the main reason I loved this school to start with was because of the home atmosphere, it is very welcoming and I love the little Heights cottages. Each cottage hosts a different age group and each room has even finer tuned age groups by about six month groupings. The full time program runs from 6:30 to 6 five days a week and you can start at 6-​months. But get on the waiting list quickly. We were on 6-​months before birth!
A few months ago we moved to the short-​stops program in the Discovery Center. We like it but we do not love it like we did the full-​time program. The staff is perfect, I think it is the building, yard and classrooms I do not like. It is sort-​of depressing and they are still planning the outside play area and should begin construction shortly. Because of that and because the Short-​Stops summer program is canceled (!!) I took away 1 star. Short-​Stops is a shorter day program and runs from 8:30 — 2:30 and you can do MWF, TTH or five days a week. The program is from 18-​months to 4 years.
Esperanza is on the pricey side but is normal for the area. It is more expensive than the church run schools and right around the other private schools in the area. Feel free to send me a message with any questions. I know choosing a school is hard; I wish more people would write reviews for the area preschools and daycares!