Inspection Reports Show Widespread Problems At Beverly Daycare

BEVERLY, MA -- On April 20, the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care received a complaint about the Learning Zone daycare center in Beverly. According to the complaint, two teachers in the toddler classroom started arguing in front of the children. When they left the room to continue their argument outside the room, the daycare center was in violation of state requirements requiring two teachers for every nine students. When the staff member who complained to EEC told a parent why different teachers than usual were supervising their children on the playground, the daycare center's business manager asked her why she had discussed what was happening with the program with a parent.

That was just one of the more than 70 violations the Learning Zone has wracked up since the start of the year. Earlier this month the daycare center abruptly announced it would permanently close on July 13, leaving parents scrambling to find alternative daycare and employees facing unemployment.

Learning Zone Beverly owner Melissa Ananias has not responded to requests from Patch for comment. Ananias also runs Learning Zone daycare centers in Belmont and Framingham.

The April 20 incident, as well as a May 9 report from a parent who was worried that the Learning Zone had enrolled too many toddlers, prompted an unannounced inspection by EEC on May 10. The inspection resulted in multiple determinations against the Learning Zone, including a finding that staff "did not demonstrate courtesy and respect when interacting with adults" and that children were not assigned to a consistent group with consistent staffing. The EEC inspection report also said the daycare "did not maintain the sufficient number of qualified staff to promote the health, safety, growth, and development of each child."

"The program moves children from classroom to classroom placing the children in a classroom in a manner not consistent with the children's ability and/or within their chronological age," EEC wrote in its inspection report. "The program is not notifying the parents when there is a change with the educator in their child's classroom."

Among the other violations noted by EEC during the May 10 inspection:

• Learning Zone was not having required, monthly staff meetings.
• Bi-monthly teacher observations, annual staff evaluations, first aid and CPR certifications, and other records were missing or expired.
• Two staff members had not completed required criminal background checks before being assigned to classrooms.
• Background check files were not locked, as required by state law.
• Ananias threw out some consent forms instead of keeping them on file for five years, as required.

As a result, EEC barred Learning Zone from enrolling new students. That followed a similar disciplanary enrollment freeze from January 24 to March 23. Those enrollment freezes seem to have added to the center's financial woes: Cummings Center is seeking repayment of tens of thousands of dollars in back rent from the daycare center.

Inspections in January, February and March turned up a slew of other violations, ranging from missing parental signatures on permission slips to missing outlet covers in classrooms. But the biggest problems were with staffing, with not enough teachers to maintain state-mandated ratios to teachers without evidence of proper certifications.

The EEC documents confirm accusations made by former employees to Patch earlier this week. A former employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Ananias was rarely at the center from the time it opened in April 2016 until January 2018, when the director was fired. Ananias then took over day-to-day operations of the Beverly location, the former employee said in a phone interview.

When the state penalized Learning Zone in February and May by blocking it from accepting new customers, Ananias told parents the center was full and did not disclose the disciplinary actions. The abrupt closing of the center has led to rumors and speculation, with some parents being told that the center was closing because Ananias's commute from her home in Needham had become too burdensome, others being told enrollment had never taken hold as had been projected and still others being told the day care center's rent at Cummings Center was increasing.

Regardless of the reason for the closing, many parents contacted Patch Tuesday and expressed outrage at how the closing was handled. One parent who contacted Patch said she was told by staff as recently as April that the daycare center would be expanding in September.

"Now I'm questioning what the real reason is as she had told parents in the email that it was about her commute," the parent said in an email to Patch. "I'm so mad. I had only been going there for two months and we had loved [our son's teacher]. I can only hope she can find another job fast enough. And we too are now on the hunt for a new daycare, which is also very hard as we are scrambling with the short notice."

Kacy Jauron of Northeast Arc contacted Patch Monday to say their Danvers-based daycare center had some openings and encouraged Learning Zone parents to contact them about availability. Brandy DeAlmeida, the owner and director of Little Hands Children's Center in Danvers, made a similar offer to Learning Zone parents in an email to Patch.

Other parents said in recent months their credit cards had been billed for monthly tuition payments days before the agreed-upon date. Another employee said several of the staff members' paychecks bounced in recent months. Another time, W-2 forms showed that taxes had not been withheld so employees had to wait until the problem was corrected before they could get paid.

Staff complained that their assignments were constantly being changed and that kids were being moved from room to room "like pawns." When one parent threatened a lawsuit, Ananias said he "was crazy and had nothing better to do," according to one of the former employees that contacted Patch.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).