Heritage Montessori School Deceptive and Unethical business practices, illegal contracts, unsafe conditions Huntington Beach California

 The purpose of this letter is to let parents know to avoid Heritage Montessori School. Heritage Montessori School misrepresents the services to be rendered.  Heritage Montessori School engages in false advertising.  Heritage Montessori School exposed my child to an unsafe and dangerous environment.  Heritage Montessori School misled us and other families by allowing unlicensed and untrained individuals to teach and be responsible for our children.  Heritage Montessori School has an illegal contract that is unenforceable and unconscionable.  Our child attended kindergarten and the first three months were great so we signed the contract in January for the following year. At the time we signed the contract the school knew that the teacher was resigning, but this was not revealed to us or any other families.  The school secretary was then appointed as the teacher for the class and massive problems ensued due to her lack of training. Then there was a fire that burnt down the playground.  Heritage Montessori continued to charge full fees even after the playground was burnt down, and even though the playground was not usable or accessible to the students.  This resulted in our son making multiple visits to the office for burning and red eyes, ash in eyes and throat and smelling like smoke. We did re-enroll our son in January because we thought his teacher would be finishing the year with him. We re-enrolled our son because we thought the facilities would be solid and safe.  We re-enrolled him because we thought he would be going to first grade, not being held back because he did not enroll in the summer school program.  We are not the only parents who were shocked and dismayed at the fact that the school secretary was put in as the replacement.  This was followed by the fire and the dangerous situation with the playground, putting all of the children at risk. The ash was present for about two months, and a temporary fence was constructed to keep the kids away, but the ash and embers and wood chips were present in the air.  We were willing to give Heritage Montessori another shot for the next year, but after our meetings with the new teacher (she did not show for the first meeting) and the subsequent meeting, we realized that they did not adhere to Montessori principles, that they were more interested in extracting maximum fees from their students.  In fact, they informed us that since our son did not attend the summer school, he was a little behind in reading and he would be held back from advancing to first grade.  This was based on a 5 minute evaluation.  Additionally they told us he would have to enter into an afterschool program at an ADDITIONAL cost if he hoped to advance later in the year.  Even with all the crap we took from Heritage, we had been willing to give them a chance but after this meeting is was apparent who they are and what they do. We told the school we would not be attending the following year, and that we were done.  Then out of the blue we received a bill over a month later for $8000.  We explained that we were not attending school this year because of all of the above and we were told, too bad, you signed a contract.  Then they reported the debt to the credit bureaus, and put a collection agency on the case who calls and harasses us multiple times a day, claiming to be an attorney. (he is not). this is not an isolated incident and we are not the only parents who attended in this same time frame who feel this way.  Perhaps it will take everyone coming forward to get the truth out on the table. How can they force us to pay for a full year of school when we have not attended a SINGLE DAY