teacher

preschool teacher

daycare teacher

assistant cook

farm hand

Ardent Preschool and Daycare

Would never refer anyone to work here or send their kids. Management is CORRUPT to the point of no return. They play favorites and talk behind employees backs. They put on a front when corporate comes to make it look like everything is smooth sailing. Well let me just tell you, ITS NOT. They can’t keep staff because of the toxicity, they hire people straight out of highschool that only want to work for a few hours each week during the summer, and provide NO HELP with anything. Admin acts like because you aren’t “one of them”, you’re stupid and have no clue about anything. They won’t let sick employees go home because they are so short staffed (not the employees fault). So that causes kids to get sick. And half the time when kids get sick, they don’t care. They don’t want to call parents. They expect way too much out of the teachers for the little help we get. If a room is out of teacher to child ratio, oh well! They’ll “see what they can do”. You could be double your child ratio and admin acts like you have no reason to be stressed or off schedule. And not to mention some of the teachers are HORRIBLE and should never work with kids. Try to make admin aware? Well if they can’t see something on camera, they assume you are lying. And the parents have no clue what actually goes on because admin will lie about anything. There are kids getting pinched and left in classrooms or outside by irresponsible teachers but parents are never told. They tell staff when a parent tour is happening or when corporate is coming so everyone can be “on their best behavior” while it’s happening. Save yourself a ton of stress and unhappiness and just don’t work here!

I have been employed with Ardent since November 2023. They hired me as a floater which is where you are moved to different classes to keep ratio for DHR standards. They hired me with the promise of eventually becoming a lead. I was told I was  going to become a lead teacher in a classroom a month ago. I had a classroom evaluation to make sure all teacher standards were set. I was not told any of the regulations on this evaluation. I made a 76 and you need a 90 or above after the next month or you will fall into disciplinary action. They also are so understaffed that we have gone significantly over DHR ratio standards. I have also been hit, kicked, punched, etc by students in my class and it caused a concussion. I did not and will not get short term disability thought that was promised in benefits, they are not having me fill out a workers compensation for missing work, and these students are not unenrolled from the school. These are kids with very bad acting out behaviors that is brought up to the parents multiple times and most times are encouraged for parents to pull them out instead of keeping them and unenrolling. However, they still pose a safety threat to teachers. I also have been doing the lead teacher job for a month and only getting paid like a floater. Yet somehow, I can lose my job if I am not doing the Lead Teacher regulations on the evaluation. It is very poorly run and exasperating to be underpaid and doing triple the work while dealing with bahavioral issues and nothing being done about it. 

I absolutely love kids and I was so excited to be a floater and work at the Ardent at Cliftfarms because it was a new build but to put it bluntly the management team sucks! You are constantly over ratio and it becomes so stressful. The turnover rate was ridiculous! They could not keep lead teachers, parents were mad because there was a new teacher in their child's class every week (not an exaggeration) everyone was dropping like flies. Imagine being left in a room with 9 sometimes 15 one year olds running wild while you are trying to change diapers, prevent accidents and clean up the mess they made from breakfast. I called to the front desk multiple times to ask them to send help because I was overwhelmed at naptime. I didn't have anyone in the class to help put these kids to bed and some kids would not lay down unless you pat them or sit next to them but did they send help? No! Did they themselves come to offer a helping hand? NO! Instead they said "we're working on sending you some help but make sure you're staying on schedule". They acted like since they worked at the front they were to "good" to come and help us! They never had my back or any other worker there, it was clear we were just a number to them, and because I was young when I started working there (23) and I was always taught to have a "yes" in my pocket they used my kindness for granted on numerous occasions. They also promised a sign on bonus but they never gave it to me and came up with every excuse not to give it to me. If you can put up with being treated like garbage then go right ahead and apply.

If I could go back and do it over I would not have accepted this job. Management does not care that you have a life outside of work. They don’t care if you are sick at work and will not send you home. They claim they are all about families but then when you have a family emergency they will refuse you time off to deal with it. Management plays favorites and unless you are one of the few teachers that make the list you better watch out. They will nit pick and find anything to write you up over. One rule may apply to you but not to the teacher next door. Management will write you up for stuff that is out of your control also. They offer no support if there is a child misbehaving in the class putting the teachers or other students in danger. Management will tell you to be gentle when disciplining a child but then they will come in the room, grab the child by the arms while lifting them above their heads and scream at them. I would not recommend a job at ardent to my worst enemy.

Working here took such a toll on my mental and physical health that I had to leave even though I didn’t have another job lined up.  It was impacting my personal life badly because of how much stress I was under. Almost all of the teachers were lazy and made fun of the kids and parents. Kids were expected to do ridiculous things for their age. For example, kids under a year old were trained to “stay on the carpet” which was a small rug that was molded on the understand that kids had thrown up and pooped on multiple times. The enrichment for the children was awful. Speaking of mold, there was plenty of it inside the walls in the classroom I was in (a hole was in the wall and you could see it). Our air conditioner in the classroom went out frequently and management did not care. None of the teachers seemed to love their jobs. I know I didn’t. Management was cruel and toxic and played favorites big time. Walking out of there for the last time felt like leaving prison after being locked up for something you didn’t do.

I worked here for a very short time due to my health condition worsening while I was employed. Within about two weeks of being there, they stuck me in the classroom no one wanted to be in with another newer teacher. We had no head teacher and had no idea how to get these two year olds to listen to us as they had gotten used to the lack of structure. Countless times I had told them we needed help, but most times the help did not want to come (we only ever asked for a single hour or thirty minutes). There was a time the classroom coordinator asked another employee to help. The employee stated their discontent with my classroom and said they'd rather be in the infant rooms feeding babies than deal with my classroom... The coordinator basically said okay and let her. I get it, so would I, but why would you a) say that in front of me and b) give another employee the choice but not the two new hires that are clearly getting burnt out?

I have been working at Ardent for about 8 months now as a floater (part-time). Management is so un-organized and I have seen children being treated so incredibly awful. They overwork us, underpay and expect way to high of expectations for how we, as teachers, are treated. We are treated as below admin and they can't afford to give out raises more than 25 cents above your pay rate. Although, Ardent (Patchwork Farms) presents itself as a high quality, Christian Preschool and Daycare, it is nothing more than an overpriced, mis-managed facility for kids to not be taught anything on value considering how often admin likes to move up kiddos - even when some children need wayyyy more time in a classroom and it is obvious they are not ready yet. They do not care about you. Save yourself the time and money of them lying to you about how "great" Ardent is when you go on a tour of the facility. 

A typical day would include leading the infants/children in learning time, followed by play time, lunch, nap, and a review of what they learned earlier that day. I think administration could use some work in terms of what they expect from the teachers and especially in the way that they talk to and treat their teachers. There were times when we felt unwelcome and unappreciated due to their attitudes towards us. I felt more respected from the parents and my coworkers than I did from the admin team. Besides that, it was enjoyable to watch the infants/children learn and reach their milestones.

Admin never has an actual schedule made or backup plan for callouts so as a floater mornings automatically start out chaotic and u never leave on time cause again they never make a schedule when they have all day to do so.They never actually care about what classes you actually like or care for like they say they do. They come at you accusatory about anything they wanna talk to you about, your told your gonna get yearly raises when u get hired but that's a lie. I love the kids and most of the co workers and parents were cool but admin is just a bunch of catty girls. This job was terrible for my mental and physical health!

For the most part, Ardent is a good company to work for. You accumulate PTO, it's pretty easy to request days off, and they try to support you. However, there is occasionally a disconnect between the expectations outlined in the staff manual and what is communicated. They also tend to want you to do more work (base positions are Floter, Assistant, and Lead) than what you are paid for. For example, they will hire you as a Floater (part-time) and then put you in an Assistant position without actually promoting you or giving you a raise.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Teacher 1 salary reported	$15.00 per hour
Preschool teacher 2 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Daycare teacher 1 salary reported	$11.51 per hour
Assistant cook 9 salaries reported	$15.00 per hour
Farm hand 4 salaries reported	$14.25 per hour

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