Quality education opportunity for children but toxic leadership and favoritism
Pros
It provides an opportunity for families who may not be able to provide a high quality Montessori education to their child a chance to do so. The company attracts high quality teachers. Pay is fairly competitive. They are really good at "branding" themselves. People are proud to work there and families are proud to send their children. Families can have confidence that the teachers are passionate and care for their children and want to have a positive impact.
Cons
-They are constantly hiring non-classroom employees to work remotely and make 3 times or more than the employees actually serving the children. It feels like they keep hiring "high up" staff to do nothing and pay them a crazy amount to do things that in the end don't really impact the mission, benefits teachers, families, or children. -The hiring team is sneaky. Was offered a lead position and during the interview was told they will pay for moving expenses to then be told they wouldn't offer that. They dangle carrots to get people to work there and then take them away once they're already committed. -It was the most toxic leadership experience I've EVER had. They hire experienced teachers and micromanage them and move the goal post constantly undermining their talent and making them doubt themselves. The best, most confident teachers have crumbled and left because leadership doesn't know how to lead and do not trust teachers to do their job. You could try to chalk this up to a disgruntled employee who was upset it wasn't a good match but this was/is a pattern and BA is unwilling to reflect inward and instead keep finding a reason why it was the employees fault even though these employees had glowing reviews before working for BA and did again after leaving. -You will be over worked. And they will not care because they know they pay you well and you should be grateful. -There is favoritism. It is obvious and feeds into the toxic atmosphere. -They want to serve low income communities but don't have systems in place to ACTUALLY support the population they serve. They hire employees from privileged backgrounds and who have worked in privileged communities and expect them to know how to support teachers. -They need to model their program to be more like ECEAP and other programs that serve low income communities and LESS like an Amazon off shoot. -They need to actually prioritize self care for teachers in a way that's impactful and avoids burnout. -There are no ABA and special education support for children who need it.