St Nicholas Day Care & Preschool

I love this daycare. My child is 7 months. It’s not perfect but they really care. My daughter is getting excellent care, they’re super accommodating. They do cloth diapers. Give her my organic foods via my directions. She’s safe and well cared for. My only critique is that she’s had a lot of colds since she’s been going there.

It’s great in theory that the Church has daycare. With that said, there are way too many license violations and complaints when I looked them up. Maybe they need to reform and restructure. Until then I will look elsewhere

My son has been going here since he’s been about 11 months old. He is now 16 months and just moved to the «bigger» or toddler side of the Caterpillars room.
Like other people have written, this is a big daycare. So if you are looking for an intimate small setting for your child this is not for you. Also, they do not serve organic food like others have mentioned. I frankly could care less but if that is a big deal for you then you shouldn’t send your kid here. (They *do* regularly serve fruits and veggies. I think the selection of food is healthy and great for toddlers to try.)
However, if you are looking for an affordable daycare with teachers that care about the kids then you have found a good place. My son *loves* his teachers and runs and hugs them when I drop him off in the morning. They have plenty of toys for the kiddos and they do regular music time and circle time activities. They also do special events for the holidays like easter egg hunts and making cards/​crafts for mothers day.
My only complaint is the people managing the front office were a little disorganized on our first day. When we first arrived it was unclear which teacher would be my son’s primary care giver and I essentially had to wait around until Rebecca, the director, showed up to clarify. (She doesn’t get in till 9am. I would complain about the lack of «front-​desk» staffing in the morning but I imagine this is how they can keep costs so low! I’d rather pay a lower tuition fee!)
So be prepared on your child’s first day to spend the morning with them. It will be helpful for your child and the teachers.
Also, besides our first morning, the communication with the director and our son’s teachers have been great. Whenever we’ve had issues they have been addressed exactly how I’d like them to be addressed.

My daughter went to a smaller (but not home-​based) daycare center from age 3 – 10 months. Then she moved to St Nick because the location was much more logical for us. As others have written, St Nick is very large, so it may not be for everyone. Also, it’s not terribly fancy and doesn’t serve organic food or milk. I worried about her getting on *their* schedule with naps and food, but she adjusted more easily than I did (heh) and now our weekend schedule tends to mirror their schedule.
However, these are the big pluses in my book:
–Can’t beat the hours: 7 am — 6 pm (plus much fewer closures than our previous center)
–Everyday, they serve 2 meals, a snack, and cow’s milk for those that are old enough. Not preparing and toting along food and bottles takes a huge load off the parents. Additionally, my kid (kind of a peanut with a fast metabolism) often needs an extra snack later in the afternoon — they pay attention and give her that.
–My kid is excited to see her friends and teachers in the morning and almost sad to leave them at night. For her, they’ve become like extended family. On the flip side, I feel a real caring attitude from all the teachers toward my kid. A few times, I have seen a few of them off-​duty at a place like the grocery store and they’ve taken several minutes to either talk with me about her development or to engage with her if she’s with me. They don’t act like «I’m off the clock and that’s it.» This means a lot to me.
–They have a variety of toys and activities (music, reading, art) and an indoor playground where she can get her energy out.
–It’s like a real school. There is a holiday party, parent-​teacher conferences, and school photos. At Halloween, they had a parade in the local shopping center and a visit to the pumpkin patch. Our previous center had none of these things and charged us much more money.

We have our baby boy there since he was 4 months old. Unfortunately we will be moving out of town and will have to find a new daycare.
Our experience with St Nicholas was impeccable. Our little one is always happy to go there in the morning and always has a smile on his face when I pick him up. As I work from home I have visited the facilities at random hours and find that he is extremely well take care off. His caregivers, Salam and Kathy, can’t be sweeter. It will be heartbreaking to have to leave them both. Kathy is on top of everything and knows everything that is going on. As a parent I felt extremely reassured to have her there. Salam truly cares for the little ones as if they were her children.
I can’t comment on their food, as he is still too little and I bring his solid food from home. But they definitely help me to put him on a schedule with eating times which was really beneficial.
I also love the fact that the crowd at St Nicholas is extremely diverse and multicultural. My husband is from Europe, I am from South America. I found lovely to see little ones from all backgrounds.
The hours 7am-​6pm are fantastic and the fact that you can drop off and pick up at anytime it is a bliss with our hectic schedules. I do prefer to pick him up around 4:30pm as I feel that is a solid amount of time for him to play and also staff is lighter after then.
I highly recommend St Nicholas based in our experience.

I highly recommend you find alternate care for your child instead of here. I found the teachers/​care providers to be rough, disorganized and lacking responsibility for their actions/​the actions of the day care. I felt there was a divide between teachers and a lack of willingness to take responsibility for things that happened to my child. I was told most days «I was on my break when that happened». There was a recurring incident with my child and the response I was given was essentially «oh well, it happens, we can’t control it». I sent my child with all home food as I felt the food offered was not nutritious or good; corn dogs, cheerios and ritz crackers are not acceptable. At least twice a week the daily report stated the day care food was given to my child, when I asked about it I was told «don’t worry, that is a mistake». All these things added up to me being very unhappy and removing my child from St. Nicholas, we both are much happier.

Yes its true they had bad reviews but i think its retaliation from teachers that no longer work there which i never liked anyways… yes their naps are 2 hours long between 1−3pm which i wish they would move it to 12−2pm but when you spend all day there watching/​spying on your children while they do not see you, you will see how well behaved these children are with the teachers. Children need structure.
I’ve had all 3 of my children attend St Nicholas and it definitely is not as bad as some people make it sound. The bottom line is my children were ALWAYS happy there. The teachers are wonderful! (and the ones that were not are all gone now) This place feeds them breakfast, lunch and a snack, where as most places you have to supply your own meals. And the teachers truly love the children, (with some exceptions of course) Every year on my children’s birthdays they are given gifts from their teachers which is not mandatory, and it is given from their hearts. My oldest went to kindergarten and was in the 96 percentile of his class. When he left St Nicks he knew how to speak in English, Spanish and Chinese and knew sign language too. He knew how to read and write all of his alphabet and numbers 1 – 100 and knew adding and subtraction already. Elsabeth, Angeline, Jasmine and both Kathy’s are doing a great job!

The teachers here are really sweet and care about the kids. It’s comforting when i drop her off in the morning that there is a smiling teacher to greet her with a hug.
My favorite thing about this school is that as she grows and moves up to the bigger kids’ classrooms, she will always be greeted with familiar faces of her friends who have moved up before her. She also gets to see her previous teachers occasionally in the play area. The caregivers are the best part of this school. They truly care about the kids.
The two’s room does not require that the kids are potty trained and actually the teachers in that room do an amazing job at potty training the kids.
This is not a super fancy, high-​end daycare. My only complaint is that i wish that they served the kids more healthy, nutritious foods. The facilities are also getting a bit run down.

We’ve had our 2 children at St. Nicholas for about 2.5 years total. As another St. Nicholas parent mentioned, it is a large daycare, and therefore those looking for small, home-​based type care for their child can quickly cross it off their list.
The teachers and staff at St. Nicholas truly care about the children and their well-​being, and there is no doubt in my mind I am leaving them in good hands. My oldest is almost 3 and knows all her letters, numbers, colors from circle time. She also knows all the names of her classmates and happily recognizes them when we are outside of class, at the playground, etc. My youngest usually has terrible separation anxiety, yet cannot wait to go every day and literally runs into the arms of his caretakers. The staff in the infant room is experienced and provides loving care for the infants/​toddlers. Some of the caretakers have been there for 19+ years, and overall, it seems to me the staff turnover rate is relatively low.
The meals served, while not organic, are kid-​friendly and nutritious. I am thankful as a working parent not to deal with the extra chore of packing lunches daily. As another parent mentioned, an important factor for us as well is hours, and the 7am to 6pm schedule has been wonderfully accomodating to our busy work schedules.
The parents are very supportive of the teachers, for example, they bring in art supplies and volunteer for field trips when needed. The potlucks and Christmas parties are always well attended by St. Nicholas daycare families.
For those researching daycare, my advice would be to talk with current parents of the children who attend this daycare before making a decision.
I find it interesting that even with Unilocal’s supposed «filters», two of the 4 reviews (50%) on St. Nicholas daycare are written by people who have no personal experience with children at the school. Then again, any parent evaluating preschools/​daycares would know to take a «my friend said .» review with a grain of salt.

My kids spent 2 years there. We owuld have left after 18 months, but they were settled and heading for Kindergarden, so we stuck it out. The teachers are wonderful, but the principal Rebecca and Father Nicholas (or The Devil) as the staff call him are useless. We had a huge lice infestation, that was completely mishandled by the school, causing multiple families time, emotional and financial costs. The administration is unable and/​unwilling to cummunicate unless its in their best interest. Its nothing more than a cash cow for the St Nicholas parish. It is cheap compared to other schools, but I would absolutely not recommended it

We’ve now had our two-​year-​old daughter at St. Nicholas for almost two years, since she was about 6 months old. We selected St. Nick after checking out a number of other day care options, including «formal» centers like Katherine Michael School and smaller family-​run daycares.
While it is on the large side (not sure on the numbers, maybe 80 kids between infant and 4 yrs), and not highly academic in nature, St. Nicholas is clean, well lighted, well supplied, and most importantly staffed with competent teachers who the kids seem to like a lot, and who seem to really care for the kids.
Though it is run out of an Orthodox church there’s nothing religious about the daycare or their «curriculum» so to speak. They feed the kids well (and are currently exploring going to all organic food, though at the moment they’re still in the conventional realm).
One of the key factors in our choice of St. Nicholas was the hours — they are open from 7 AM to 6 PM, which made a huge difference for us two working parents. Many other centers close at 4:30 or 5, and don’t open until 9, which is pretty much a non-​starter for anyone with a demanding job and no stay-​at-​home parent.
St. Nicholas could be more organized — there’s not much in the way of administrative support other than the director Rebecca — and sometimes their efforts to manage things become annoying (fines if you forget to sign your kid out at the end of the day), but they get good marks on all the important stuff. To their credit, they make great efforts to keep on the right side of legal regulations for such day care, from teacher to child ratios, when kids must be kept out of school for illness, etc.
We feel like our daughter is well cared for, safe, and learning stuff while getting the chance to be socialized with other kids. In another year or two we will want to get her into a program that is more academic in nature but we highly recommend St. Nicholas for anyone with children from 3 months to 3 years.

Very bad first impression. I had an appointment to meet the preschool and teachers. When I got there the teacher said that all the other teachers called in sick today and there wasn’t anytime to give me a tour. She had my phone number, but never bothered to call me ahead of time to let me know this. Needless to say being inconsiderate to us my daughter will not be attending their preschool.