Please donate to help us keep this website operating. Your donation will help further our mission to share information about Prince of Peace Lutheran on site alluschurches.com. Please keep in mind, that while the site supports church-related causes, this is a directory website; this is not a Church. Your donation will also help humanitarian aid.

By helping us, you agree to terms and conditions page

Please add your review. Your comments help to get feedback and an honest opinion about the Prince of Peace Lutheran.
Thanks to the reviews, other people are able to learn of mistakes or read of the warmth and delight of your gratitude. Please keep your comments--whether praise or criticism--kind and appropriate. This is not the place to ask questions, or post contact information. Inappropriate language, off-topic or duplicate comments, names of individuals criticised, phone numbers, etc will be X'd out or removed, according to the moderator's notice and discretion. Thank you for your comments and participation!

• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

  August 25, 2016
  Dear Community,
  I have taken quite some time to investigate the concerns with the preschool. I wanted to thoroughly go over each concern expressed and find information from multiple sources to address each one. I have taken this very seriously not only for the concerns that raised but also because I prefer to have information that is verified and not rumors, gossip and half truths when it concerns individuals reputations and livelihoods.
  
  First I would like to address the teachers/students who have left the preschool program. (Any individual will be identified by a number to protect their privacy. I have sent the detailed information to parents who personally contacted me.)
  Teachers:
  #1: She was the aide in the class who “mysteriously” disappeared. She left because of issues with the teacher. She had concerns over organization, professionalism and condescending treatment by the teacher. Remaining staff was being professional in not broadcasting this event and trying to finish the school year as smoothly as possible. This happens when personalities rub the wrong way.
  #2: She is moving to California because of her husband’s job.
  #3: She is having a baby soon and decided not to start the school year and then take maternity leave. She plans to return at a later date.
  #4: She decided the prep time for class was taking more of the time she wanted to spend with her family, but is returning as an aide in a classroom this year.
  #5: This teacher resigned. She was unhappy with the director as the director was unhappy with her. She was not going to be hired for the 2016-2017 school year.
  Students:
  #1: Mom pulled her during the 2015-2016 school year because baby at home kept getting sick from germs brought home from preschool.
  #2: Transportation for the 2016-2017 year would be difficult with transporting older sibling to elementary school.
  #3: The family has moved too far away to still attend POPP or they would have kept her enrolled.
  #4: One daughter was in the Jr. Kindergarten class last year so she should be in elementary this fall. The second daughter would be in a three year old class and as far as POPP was told the parents were not sure if she was ready to attend yet.
  
  Sincerely,
  Ami Elliott
  Prince of Peace Council President

  Added July 13, 2017 by Ami Elliott
• ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

  I have been a mom at prince of peace preschool and I have had a great experience all three years. I read the policy book and it does state doors don't open until 8:55 am. The teachers do a short devotional and pray before class. They have always been in their room by 8:55. They also use handwriting without tears their curriculum and it was great for my daughter. In the threes class they start off doing activities that are very age appropriate and as the year progresses they do some more challenging activities still very age appropriate. The fours continue learning all the things they need for kindergarten and are very well prepared at the end of their year. My daughter loved the teachers their and I felt like she was prepared for kindergarten. If a person is wondering what they will be learning they could come and check out our curriculum in all classes. I would definitely recommend this school.

  Added February 25, 2017 by Susan Cole
• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

  I was very disappointed to learn recently that this preschool isn't required by law to be licensed. We had our son signed up for the 2016-2017 school year, but withdrew him a couple of weeks ago based on several people's first-hand accounts of some serious accusations of shocking behavior by the staff toward the kids. The teacher's aid in his class mysteriously quit one day. The parents weren't informed of this, nor were we informed when she was replaced by 2 new aides in the classroom. Schedules were ever changing. I arranged for time off from work based on the event calendar, and then events would just be cancelled, again, with no announcement of the change to the parents. The last few months of school, every day on the way to school, my son would complain "I don't want to go to school". He loves learning, but he was afraid of this school. He verbalized, back then, that it was "scary" and he didn't "like it when the lights went out" or when "other kids got in trouble for yelling or hitting". Knowing what I know now, I believe he was afraid of how the staff, specifically the director, was handling "rowdy" children. I've talked to several other moms from his class, and they all have stories similar, and one unfortunately far worse, than my story. I am joining a growing line of parents pulling their kid out and scrambling to find another preschool for the coming school year. That's extremely hard to do 2 weeks before school starts, especially when Prince of Peace denied us our deposit money back. I have heard that the authorities are looking into the accusations made against this school. There was no choice for me as a mother to send him back there. Many of the good teachers quit last year, anyway, supposedly due to the instability of the current director, Sue.

  Added January 24, 2017 by Allison Morgan
• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

  I don't typically have time to leave Google reviews but feel compelled to do so in this particular situation. So disappointed in this preschool....which came highly recommended. We are the third family to pull our child out of our specific class, so our issue may be teacher related. If you are looking for a place to send your child to draw pictures all day, this is it! I will say they are consistent in their teachings of Christ, but not with any sort of curriculum. Highly unorganized in most every way, our teacher was so gossipy with some of the mothers that we found out through word of mouth that our child was "difficult". To this day, we have never been approached about this this issue, and our child has suffered because, of course, nobody wants a play date with a "difficult child". Well, I think he is just BORED OUT OF HIS MIND because they spend an entire MONTH learning a single color and shape. He already knew these things plus numbers and the entire alphabet, sight words, and could write his name before preschool started but we assured during our tour that "the curriculum would be challenging enough for such a 3 year old". I have also found they are very inconsistent in following policies they have printed in their hand book: First, it states they will go outside on any day above 20 degrees. Our teacher often kept the kids inside to play upstairs if the toys were wet or especially on days that required her to dress the children in warmer clothes. Also stated: you may drop off your child beginning at 0845 and pick up no later that 1145...well I have a 9 to 5 job, so the drop off time was perfect, allowing me to still get to work on time. HOWEVER they never open the class before 8:55 (and sometimes the building isn't even unlocked until 9am) with hoards or parents waiting outside, which forced me to change to an evening shift if I wanted to keep my job. When I approached them about their policy which was not being followed, they said there was nothing they could do.....??!! So now I miss out on my family M-F while I am at work all evening, thank you POP! Also, the teacher aid quit halfway through the year....again I found this out through the gossipy moms, but still don't know why she quit and every day it seems like there is a different random person in there. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea. Overall, if you just need to socialize your child and you don't ever expect any kind of update on their progress, POP will probably meet your needs. If you want your child adequately prepared for kindergarten, however, I suggest looking elsewhere. This school has a poor curriculum, doesn't follow its own policies, and doesn't care about quality improvement when approached with parental concerns.

  Added December 16, 2016 by A. Hamilton
• ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

  The director of this preschool, Sue Ricco, is horrible. We had some red flags around enrollment time and I wish we would have listened to our gut instinct but instead decided to send our daughter here anyway. Aside from the fact that the only skill our daughter seemed to gain here was using scissors, I feel the methods of discipline at this school are inappropriate and several parents that I know who pulled their children out prior to the start of this school year for that very reason. I ran into another mother today at the park (which is what motivated me to finally write a review!) who told me she just recently canceled her enrollment and that she had witnessed Mrs. Ricco screaming at my daughter during the school year in a manner she felt was inappropriate. As a parent, I expect to be informed if my child has a disciplinary issue! I was NEVER informed any such issue occured!! And while I am fine with other adults appropriately disciplining my child when she needs it, I am not okay with an adult she is not familiar with screaming in her face. This was witnessed directly by another parent. When I talked to my daughter about it today she immediately burst into tears and said she didn't want to talk about it, so I know the event occurred on more than one occasion. Our teacher's aide mysteriously disappeared during the year and no one would tell us why. Two teachers resigned this year and the pastor of the church also left. If this is such a great school then why are parents and teachers alike leaving? I'm sure many of the kids have a wonderful experience there, but I know of several parents (and teachers) who did not, so if you decide to take a chance on this school I really encourage you to ask a lot of questions and be extremely Vigilant and involved and ask your children daily how their experience was. In my opinion, there are much better preschoolspreschools to send your child to, quite embarrassing for a Christian organization. Mrs Ricco, why are you still there? And perhaps the real question is why are you even in this line of work? Perhaps the DMV would be a better line of work for you.

  Added December 13, 2016 by Jill Olsen