LePort Montessori Irvine Spectrum

My son was at Le Port for three years since he was 6 months old. After 3 years the school's management met with us and told us that they do not think our son's personality was compatible with the Montessori material. Not 3 months- 3 years! They expect children to be young adults which is completely antithetical to how a school should treat any child. They (the staff and management) do NOT want to bear any responsibility and are unable to put in the extra effort for children who might require a bit more care. To summarize- they care about making money and not the child's welfare.

First, I want to say that LePort has some amazing tenured teachers. Specifically, Ms. Stacey (Infant Head Teacher), Ms. Monica (Toddler Head Teacher) and Ms. Priya (Toddler Head Teacher) are amazing women. The school is very lucky to have them. If you can get in to their classes, you'll likely be shielded from the school's poor administration and have a really good experience. However, the school's administration is severely lacking. Dr. Eric Daniels is in no way equipped to be working with toddlers, much less leading a school for young children. If you look at his history on LinkedIn, his background is in working with college students - and it's clear when speaking with him that's the case. He displays little empathy and doesn't know how to communicate with children in the slightest. They are not growing, individual minds to him. Leport has had trouble keeping heads of school for any length of time, and one must wonder why this is the case. Our daughter is extremely high functioning autistic but when she was attending LePort she had not yet been diagnosed. She had behavioral issues and we worked with a behavior specialist to try to resolve them. We had the specialist come to the school and observe how they interact with our daughter, and she provided them with advice. The school is expanding so teachers are moved around frequently - in 18 months, my daughter had 4 different assistant teachers in her Toddler room because they kept shuffling teachers around. This completely goes against the Montessori principle of having kids build a rapport with their teachers. Plus, they have high turn over. The result was that when my daughter moved up to a Primary room, she ended up with a very inexperienced teacher. Ms. Emma Jones had no AMI certification and only a year prior had been a floating assistant for the Infant room - she was not equipped to lead a classroom of 36 students 3-6 years old and yet that's what she was doing. On our daughter's first week after moving to Ms. Jones's class, she had 12+ incident reports. This was MASSIVE compared to what we'd seen in the Toddler room. That week, I also observed signs of social bullying towards her from other children in the class in response to her behavioral issues. I reported my observation to the school and we were given 9 weeks to show improvement or leave. Meanwhile, we brought in a neuropsychologist to observe her in Ms. Jones's room. The neuropsychologist recommended we withdraw her from the school regardless of how her behavior changes. Ms. Jones was not able to work with a child who is not neurotypical and Dr. Daniels was not equipped to work with the family of a child who is not neurotypical. We ended up following ex-LePort head of school to another Montessori school (Guidepost). We've been there for 6 months and it's been a night and day difference. The new school actually cares about the children and has worked with us to create an environment that works for our daughter until we can complete an IEP and figure out the most appropriate environment for her. They allow her to use a sensory necklace, which LePort would not allow. They allow her to have an aide, which LePort would not allow. They recognize that Maria Montessori believed in inclusion and in helping children blossom. There is a genuine love for children at the core of their very being there, while Dr. Daniels was completely alien to such a philosophy. The administration at LePort used to care about these things but they clearly don't any more. I directly attribute this shift in philosophy to Dr. Daniels taking over as head of school, and the obvious lack of oversight by upper administration. We thought Leport was the best Montessori education Southern California had to offer, and maybe it was at one time, but today it most definitely is not. While Leport has an amazing campus and some truly stellar tenured teachers, they also have an overabundance of very inexperienced teachers and assistants due to high turnover and expansion and worst of all, an incredibly poor head of school.

One of the best schools I have ever been to.

I love this place green areas and rest areas plus all play areas for the kids

We are extremely happy with the infant program at LePort Irvine Spectrum! The facility is immaculate and the teachers and staff are extremely professional. Our son is very advanced for his age due in large part because of the expert care and instruction he receives on a daily basis at LePort. He is allowed to follow his own feed/sleep schedule and he takes two naps a day at school. Plus, he is an only child so he LOVES interacting with the other children - and it is amazing to watch! When I pick him up at the end of the day after 9 hours at school, he is very content and not irritable or over-tired. Before we moved to LePort, we had a full-time nanny working at our home. We definitely prefer the LePort setting with so much supervision and predictable, safe environment for our child. The only downside to putting a child in any infant program is that they pass around a cold or two pretty early on. However, our son's immune system is now much stronger and he hasn't been sick in a long time!