St. Michael’s Preschool & Infant Care Center

Our son (11 months now) has been going to this place since he was 6 months old. We are satisfied with their services. Teachers are very caring and accommodating. Our little one likes going there. They use the cloth diapers provided by us, which is a plus.

My seven-​month-​old was under the care of St. Michale’s for one month. When we visited, we were very pleased with Vena’s friendliness and the promised 3:1 ratio.
Over the course of the month, we never witnessed the 3:1 ratio we were promised. Instead, when we visited mid-​day, we often saw a 5:1 ratio of students to teachers, which is illegal by California guidelines. Each time, we were told similar lines: «A teacher is on break» or «A teacher is out sick.» Kids were often crying, stumbling about, or left in high chairs for long periods; teachers seemed more concerned with militantly changing diapers and did not routinely hold or speak to the babies. When I stopped by at 2:30pm on the last day I had my son enrolled, there were 13 babies visible with 2 teachers in the room — not even a 6:1 ratio. About half of the children were crying, and all but two were strapped into high chairs. I picked up my son, called work to explain, and never looked back from the place.
We documented the illegal student /​teacher ratios we had witnessed daily with the intention of filing a BBB complaint, but never got around to it. I hope Unilocal is a suitable alternative.

I created my Unilocal just to review St. Michael’s.
They have the kindest staff and most caring Director who truly cares about the children in her care. The curriculum is one of a kind, my child comes home excited to tell us all he has learned in class. And my infant has the biggest smile on her face when she sees her teachers! They are so organized and clean, I’ve had difficulty with cleanliness at other centers but they clean everyday here, yes a professional company cleans every single day! Unreal! I would definitely recommend to everyone! All my friends are so happy to find a center they are comfortable leaving their child in.

This is in response to the owner’s message:
When departing a daycare, the last thing one wants to do is creating a conflict, especially since your child is still going to be in their care for a period of time. The truth is, Vena, we put our child in a different daycare, where he has been thriving for the last year.
You mention my comment in your memory book — look at the photo you posted yourself. I did not mention inlaws or money issues anywhere.
My initial review was also posted several months ago, only after we were not able to settle our differences through the Better Business Bureau.
As far as the contract is concerned on termination, we followed the 30-​day notice rule. We gave you a 30-​day notice, which means our last day should have been mid-​december, You made us pay the last month in full despite the fact that your contract never mentioned that you did not pro-​rate monthly tuition. However you did prorate tuition when we started at your daycare mid-​month.
As far as the caretaker who did not speak English well, even in our review we acknowledged that she was very caring and loving to our child, which we did appreciate, hence the departure gift and memory book note. However when it comes to child rearing, it is more than just about being caring. It is about really understanding the progress and development of an infant. At an expensive daycare such as yours (and the one in which our child is currently enrolled), we expect to have discussions about how our child is doing and developing.
Let’s not start insulting each other about education levels and financial situations. I don’t think that is an argument you want on a public forum. However I would like to say that we are not the only former St Michaels parents to have pulled out our child — we have at least one other St Michael’s unhappy parent in our current daycare (and we are both so very happy with making the switch to our new daycare).
In short we were trying to provide a balanced reviews highlighting pros and cons of your daycare. Your bellicose response is not to your credit although we are not surprised since it has been the tone to most of your responses to critical feedback on forums such as Unilocal

I have had both my daughters enrolled here since January of 2015. Yes it is expensive but it is also for the entire day. I have not found a pre K or preschool that is til 5pm. I had my not quite 2 year old in the infant room but they bumped her up to the preschool room with her sister a few months back, she is now 2. I thought all the cribs in the side room was a really nice touch for the infant napping area. I think that taking not quite 2 year olds up to the preschool room might have something to do with getting a recent citation, but my daughters come home happy and exhausted so I’m not complaining. I was approached by 2 neurotic helicopter parents that alerted me to the citation, I didn’t notice it. They are probably the ones writing the crazy reviews, but I’ll tell you if you are that kind of Mom go to a CO-​OP where you can hover over your child all day. This is the place for working parents who TRUST others to take care of their children. I have noticed sometimes it seems like there are a lot more kids than the teacher can handle but at this age 3 – 5, I believe it is 12:1. So as I said to those moms, my kids come home happy so I’m not going to complain.
There is one thing I wish Vena could do at this school and that is communicate better with the parents. I got 1 picture of my kid the first day she was there, nothing since. I didn’t even know there was a «fake» graduation party/​day that the parents were invited too, nor did I know that the soccer class/​lesson was Wednesday mornings from 9:30 — 10:15am. NO CLUE, so I usually bring my girls in around 10 and now I am learning they were missing the soccer class. I am guessing there is a Halloween Party and Christmas Party and maybe a parent BBQ? NO idea, I would love to help coordinate a fundriaser or something to put an air conditioner in the preschool room window! But a monthly newsletter would sure be nice, introducing new teachers, and giving us a schedule of events and emailing it out.
Anyhow, it’s good enough for me and my kids and I’m pretty anal.

I created my Unilocal login just to write a review about St. Michael’s Preschool & Infant Care Center!
Our son started at St Michaels at about 13 months of age. We put him here after we had a very bad experience at his previous daycare named «Thumbling Child Care”(If you care for your child, please don’t even think about Mali Chikene’s Thumling Child Care). So we were kind of nervous about how St Michaels is going to turn out for our son.
Over the next few weeks he started getting adjusting and now at 20 months he actually looks forward to go to daycare everyday. The staff has been excellent and caring. They are very flexible. Whenever we had instruction for any special needs they would listen and take care of it.
The proprietor, Vena is very nice and soft-​spoken. She has been keeping us up to date about the progress of our son. Thanks to her and the excellent stay we feel comfortable leaving our kid. I would highly recommend the infant center. Our son is now transitioning from infant to toddler section so don’t have experience with the preschool.

I did not have anywhere near the experiences I have seen on this site. My child experienced wonderful care at the hands of the caretakers and while that experience is shared the director from the day I met her gave me cause to feel uncomfortable.
With the child care situation in the Bay Area one should pause and ask themselves why this place has openings and no waitlist. In addition in its two years of being open this place has had multiple complaints and at least 3 citations.
They are crazy expensive for what they offer and I guess if you work for google or one of the other tech giants money may not matter but for my little budget we had to squeeze to be able to afford the short time we had to endure this place. I have experienced other care facilities that offer more for less. As far as being able to reach out to the director at any point in the day… That is possible anywhere and I don’t see that as justification for other things that take place.
In this day in age there needs to be a more secure way to access the facility. A piece of paper to sign in with no other means of keeping unwanted people out is scary especially because Vena is often not in her office (ie «visiting the rooms», giving tours, she doesn’t arrive at work until after 9am, etc) which is the only set of eyes on people coming and going. In addition the back gate where the toddlers and infants go outside to play is not locked /​secured nor high enough to discourage anyone from entering.
In a previous place I experienced the CARETAKERS were allowed to reach out to the parents via phone/​txt for pics and direct contact was allowed during the day via the facility phone if I needed/​wanted to check in on my precious little one during the day. I saw that facility allow their workers when they had time to pause to call parents who had specific concerns (ie my little one is teething and has been cranky or hasn’t been eating well can you update me in the day to know what is happening).
There is another one star review on this site that expresses my feelings for when I toured the facility and the only reason we came here was we were in a pinch and every day that passed our distrust and unease with this place grew. Thank goodness we were able to leave here. We miss the women who cared for our child but are relieved to be gone.
I advise anyone looking into sending their child here to ask important questions like, are all your staff trained in CPR and first aide? What is your evacuation plan in case of an emergency? etc. If you don’t get direct answers (as I did not) and your gut tells you something is not right it probably isn’t.
Anyone who wants more specifics related to my personal experiences feel free to send a PM. I am more than happy to share.

We love sending our daughter here! She started when she was 14 months old in the 1 – 2 year old room. I was very impressed with how clean everything was (no shoes for anyone, every toy is cleaned every night and a professional cleaning service comes and cleans the center every day). Her caretakers are warm and welcoming and after a short time she had no problem saying goodbye to me every morning and running over to play with them. I like that they don’t have a schedule set in stone. If my child didn’t sleep well the night before, she can take two naps instead of one, and if she is hungry, someone is always available to help her with a snack. They sing songs everyday, read everyday, and weather permitting are outside everyday. She has learned her ABCs, numbers 1 – 10 and colors in a short time and I can tell they are doing some constructive teaching with the kids. Vena has been great. She is always reachable and often sends pictures throughout the day — a nice personal touch to a daycare setting.

Our son was at St. Michael’s for just a few months before we had to move out of the area; I wish we had found them sooner. The caregivers and staff at St. Michael’s truly care about the kids. They are very flexible to work with you and your child’s needs. When our one-​year-​old was having a tough time transitioning to being around a lot of kids and wasn’t napping, they worked with us to try several different ideas until we could find something that worked. Our little one was dealing with this persistent diaper rash that we couldn’t really figure out. One of the care givers gave us a couple recommendations and boom: turns out it was our wipes (seriously, the gentle, organic wipes were irritating our little one’s bum — never would have guessed it on our own). We liked all of the full-​time care givers, but I have to say that Marzena was a particular gem who always seemed to care deeply about the kids. Vena is great and takes a sincere interest in the kids and families as well. You owe it to yourself to at least take a tour.

So I gotta return back to my original four-​star review as things have changed since my last review.
Firstly, the main toddler-​class teacher who was out for a couple of months is back and I’m optimistic that she will be more effective in managing the situation.
Secondly and more importantly, Vena, the director got involved with my daughter’s situation and worked with the substitute teachers to keep hitting and pushing incidents under control, and I trust that she will keep this going.
Vena is easy to work with in such situations. She is polite and listening, acknowledges the problems, and tries to fix them. She is also a very hands-​on director and bonds with children. When my daughter was transitioning from the infant class into the toddler class, she took time and spent a few days with my daughter to make sure that her transition was as smooth as possible, so my husband and I didn’t need to take time off from work to sit with her in the daycare. Directors usually don’t get this involved.
About the hygiene complaints, they may not have those low toddler-​hight sinks and regular hand washes in the schedule, but they have a cleaning company that cleans the floors of all classes and all restrooms everyday, so I’ve never seen dirty floors over there.

We started here when our son was 4 months old, he is now 10 months old so we’ve been here for 6 months. I was nervous about it because he was very attached to me (mommy) and our first trial days did not run so smoothly, but as soon as I dropped him off for his first full day, he was fine. No cries or anything. I came to see him each day at lunch at first to make sure he was ok, but he was totally fine, so I quickly stopped going in at lunch.
He loves the caretakers there and smiles when he sees them so that means a lot to us. We know he likes it there though he can’t talk, his smile shows this.
There are always things I think we all wish for nearly any daycare, and may not get, such as the camera system that you can check on your phone that some daycares now offer (hint hint) so we can see what our kiddos do each day … but this place is good. It is in a church and the caretakers love the kids and I like the daily reports they provide on my child’s care, and again that my little boy seems happy.
I also love that we can text Vena for updates and she will provide that and send pictures, it’s nice to know we can reach out though during the day if needed.
Thank you St. Michaels for being a great place for our child!

Love this place!!! Because it was my first child & I can be neurotic about proper care of any child, I researched 6 different infant care centers before happily sending my son to St. Michael’s. My husband & I both work in healthcare so cleanliness & responsible care of sick «classmates» was a must. We also come from mixed ethnicities & appreciate the cultural diversity of the staff & children. Site is well equipped, ratios are safe, & I love that they have get togethers for kids & parents to interact & meet each other. We so far have been immensely satisfied with everything we have encountered & seen at St. Michael’s.

We take our 3 ½ year old there and we love it. We came from a school where they weren’t capable of managing a class of 3 – 4 year olds. My mom found St. Michaels as we were in a desperate situation and Viena took us in with open arms. We are very grateful for the support we have received from Viena and St. Michaels preschool. Teacher Shelly and teacher Amy are amazing, my son adores them both and he is excelling in his learning ability! Thank you St. Michaels!!!

Our little one goes here (15 months) and we enjoy the center very much. It’s very clean, the babies play in a large, carpeted, safe room with lots of toys. They have an outside play area as well. Vena, the Center’s Director, is very nice and accommodating. You can tell she really enjoys what she does. I really appreciate how flexible they are. They work with you and your schedule, which can be hard to find!

My son has been going to the St. Michaels day care for 6 months now since he turned 1. I am really happy with the center and would definitely recommend for someone who is looking for a daycare that would work on your child’s individual schedule and needs. The director of the center Vena is really a wonderful person who personally works with every child in the center. The teachers at the center are very loving and caring. They also keep the kids involved in age appropriate activities like scribbling with crayons, enacting rhymes, singing and dancing, etc. I remember just after a couple of months of starting the daycare when my son was dancing and trying to enact on rhymes at home after he learned it at the daycare. If you’re on the hunt I definitely suggest you stop by.

My daughter is almost two years of age and St. Michael’s is the first daycare she has attended. I was nervous about having her away from me, but she has adapted incredibly well to being there. Whenever I drop her off, the staff immediately include her in whatever activity is happening at that moment. I sometimes find myself sticking around to watch the kids during the sing-​along. My daughter will often sing songs that I know she learned at daycare. It has gotten to the point where my daughter stands by the door ready to go whenever she sees me preparing her lunchbox. She is always excited to be there. I am very pleased with Vena and her staff. They do an incredible job.

My daughter started just a little while ago and she loves it. The facility is very clean and definitely safe for the children to run around. They also have fun crafting activities everyday and my child loves art after being at St. Michael Preschool. The staff is so warm and caring they always hug the children when coming and leaving I can tell my daughter has become very attached to Vena and her staff and I am so glad for that!

This center is amazing, I couldn’t have asked for anything better than what they provide. It is not a place where you just drop your kid off and leave they truly make you feel at home, my son runs to vena and the staff the same way he does to our family members. And on weekends he always asks me why he’s taking a «break» from the center! He loves being there and as a parent I am so comfortable knowing he gets the love and attention he needs! Also– Veronica is complete wrong you would be lucky to have your children here

I’ve had my son enrolled since the beginning of the year and he loves it! He comes home everyday and all he talks about are his friends and his teachers, we always have to stop by Vena’s office when going home to give her a hug and kiss (even if she has a meeting). I am so glad I found this place after searching everywhere in redwood city this was the only place my son and I felt comfortable with!
Thanks Vena, we love you! :)

WARNING TO ALL PARENTS!!! Do not take your children here if you care about them. I know from experience. I put my two small children in here and it was a horrible experience. The place is dirty and the teachers do not watch the children. Vena, the director is more concerned about talking to the parents then watching the children. Also I walked in her one time to pick up my kids and my son and daughter were in the bathroom with the door closed and when I opened the door my son was in the toilet and there was urine in there. This place is a joke. They feed your young kids Oreo cookies and angel food cake at 8am and no where on the menu does it say that. this place is very unsanitary, I’ve never seen them clean any toys. they get you to sign up under false pretenses and when I asked for a refund they refused. I even filed a complaint with dss and they cited them. This place is the worst place to bring your kids and I would not recommend anyone to come here. The worst part of all is I complained to the director and she passed me along to the priest which is a rude man I might add. He wouldn’t let me talk and he spoke to me like I was stupid. He also has no idea what he is talking about and he contradicted himself throughout the conversations and when I called him out on it he had nerve to say «don’t pick my words.» The day after I talked to the priest they put up a sign on the door stating that no parents can enter the room for safety reason, which is a load of crap so I pulled my kids out of there ASAP for there safety because I couldn’t be sure what the teachers, Vena, or that Rude, dirty priest would do to my kids. It was a mistake to bring my kids here and it would be your worst nightmare to bring your children here.