Montessori School of Oceanside, Oceanside | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

School experience seems good… for SoCal. They have all the Montessori tools. Kids seem to learn. Teachers are certified and seem to care. They’re at max teacher//student ratio now and things have changed a bit from back when they didn’t have as many students.
Price certainly is premium. I don’t think you can pay more. Admin Staff is very reasonable and friendly. Can find better, but not in a place like Southern California.

But it has logistical problems.

They require a “snack day” per month. (Yup even at that price, I hope they pay well) So one of your weeks is more like 50 dollars or more, more expensive because you have to supply 4 snacks to 30 kids. like a book club or peewee soccer team.
Some people seem to bring in candy and sweets others “veggie” labels potato sticks others cheese and vegetables. Maybe the sweets are stevia? I don’t know. A cupcake is a cupcake. All of unknown origin and handling.
This is at best borderline legal. My house is not an inspected food preparation facility. I can’t serve a school. Code exceptions are made for bringing in birthday treats,, but providing food daily from non-inspected facilities and from people that have not learned proper food handling? A complaint away from a fine I’m sure. Currently overlooked by a friendly or negligent inspector I imagine. Possibly letter, not intent, of law legal at best.
They have come home with candy or garbage party favor toys almost every day (this has gone down a bit recently). Have a bedroom full of Chinese junk. Ugh. (Nobody wants your party favor gift bags people, it’s tacky and gauche ). Most schools have rules against bringing in garbage. Er, at least most schools outside the south.

Parking lot often blocked by Starbucks drive through. I mean blocked. Wait 15 minutes to get by if you wait in line. I thought Starbucks was killed by pod coffee? Who doesn’t have time to make coffee but can wait 15 minutes and pay $10+ at a drive through? Kids I guess.
Not only the line going in, blocks road to the school, but there are the rich truant kids getting “breakfast” from Starbucks zigzagging through the parking lot, and drivers exiting the drive through looking at their coffee and not the car in front of them.
Sometimes the highway (Melrose) is even blocked by the Starbucks line. Go the other way round and the road is blocked by more truants skateboarding in the road. They’ve posted a security guard to protect the kids from people in cars getting in their way.

Speed bumps may improve safety (doubtful as they shift attention away from surroundings) but these are the suspension busting kind that can’t be driven over at any speed comfortably.

That said, it’s rare, that if I can get in, I can’t find a spot. It can get hectic. But people don’t all come at one time, so it’s not too bad once passed the roadblocks.

Besides the inconvenient location, busy parking lot there’s a lot that left me with concerns. While it wasn’t a bad experience it wasn’t great. I’d liken it to buyers remorse and not waiting a bit longer to get the exact same vehicle but with all the bells and whistles down the road with better customer service.

This school has been around a long time but I didn’t know the history until I accidentally stumbled upon a news article about a 3 year old that died at the school 9 years ago due to negligence; purely preventable. I found out weeks after enrolling my child. It probably would have affected my decision to enroll.

After Ms. Kelly left I felt like there was really no incentive to return she really was the light that made the school shine. With the Delta variant on the rise I made the decision to end enrollment in early July 2021 and I am glad I did because this school had two cases of COVID-19 that shut down two classrooms in August 2021 and I’m not surprised with the lack of infection prevention protocols there.

Lastly I did witness the toddler room staff allow two toddlers to sit out of sight behind one of the large pillars in the play yard for a period of up to 30 minutes. While the staff knew they were there they could not see the toddlers and the lack of interaction between the staff and toddlers concerned me too. I called licensing but they did nothing and took a sympathetic tone like oh well it wasn’t a big deal but a baby that young could easily put something in their mouth and choke like the one that died 9 years ago.

After the birth of my first son, I had to return to work before I wanted to. The idea of leaving him to go to work left me heartbroken. I am so happy we choose MSO. My oldest son has been attending for almost 4 years now. He is now in Room 6 and our youngest is in Room 3. They both started in Room 1 and we have watched our boys develop, flourish and thrive in each classroom.

I cannot say enough good things about this program. The relationships my children have developed with their teachers helps takes away some of the guilt I have of being a working mom. My sons love their teachers like family and their days are packed with fun and educational activities. They are always happy to go to school in the morning and they talk about their teachers and friends with us at home every night.

I am grateful my children have so many people who love and care about them. It takes a village to raise a child and I couldn’t be happier that MSO is part of our village.