The Academy of McCrory Lane

Thanks to a really big change in our life's circumstances, we found ourselves in need of childcare for our 5-year-old granddaughter. She's a smart, rising kindergartner but needed some classroom exposure and time to develop social skills with other children prior to starting school. We found The Academy of McCrory Lane, and we're so glad we did! Kelsey Stevens and team are phenomenal - friendly, positive, warm and above all transparent. If you have questions (and you should) about the center's history, they are candid in their answers. The center is bright, clean, cheerful, and it smells good when you walk in the front door. Because our time at AOML was short, we only worked with a couple of teachers, but Megan and Brianna set a high bar that our kindergarten teacher may find hard to beat this fall. The path this spring wasn't always smooth, but I always felt like I had partners who were helping to ensure that the path forward would be bright.

In all honesty I was hesitant to even look at this academy due to the past reviews and news. It fell from my list. However, through certain circumstances I went for a tour and asked all the hard questions in regards to those reviews. After speaking at length with the new director, taking the full tour, hearing all the new procedures and protocols in place, meeting who would be my daughter's teacher and feeling completely welcomed, I decided The Academy of McCrory Lane would be a good fit for us. Now, after 3 months of being there and watching my daughter flourish, I am so happy I made the choice to become a part of this community. Communication is outstanding, staff is caring, friendly and knowledgeable, curriculum is wonderful and the director is amazing! We feel safe and welcomed every day. Highly encourage anyone who is looking at this center to go take a tour!

My family has had 2 kids at The Academy of McCrory Lane for 1.5 years and our 3rd starts in 2 weeks. The Admins, Kelsey and Skye, are so great and do everything they can to make the school fun. They are transparent and quick to communicate. We love our teachers and my boys love their school!

We absolutely ADORE AOML. We’ve had stressful experiences at other childcare centers in the past and I can say with genuine honesty this is first time I don’t feel anxiety at drop off. Our toddler walks right in, excited to see his teachers and friends! The teachers and staff genuinely care and Kelsey is a godsend. Highly, highly recommend!!!

Update to add as of 2/25- if you’re seeing positive reviews between early spring (2/2024) and late summer (9/2024) take them with a HUGE grain of salt. Cause there are too many in that time period given what happened. This facility was closed from April thru August that year due to major safety violations. Locking young toddlers in closets, failure to report institutional neglect & the pk3 teacher who had a gun in her classroom as she made active threats …..so- do the math on when a post was made. If I could I’d give no stars. The facility is beautiful and they seem great on paper but big issues: teacher turnover is a problem, special programming that was promised rarely occurred, very limited hands on learning (just a lot of rote saying the alphabet). But most important - total lack of communication or transparency during MAJOR safety issues. After the “kids locked in closets” and the teacher making active threats while having two guns in their possession (and admin did nothing. Staff had to call 911), these people had the audacity to not tell parents what was happening (we found out about the gun incident when our kid told us and it was on the news), kicked out the kids of parents who asked the school to hold a community meeting to address concerns, and basically discounted/failed to respond to how unsettling the series of major safety violations was. They can change management all they want- but the entire company is rotten to the top.