Chapter 95 - Zoo (2)
“Sure, sure. Same time tomorrow. For sure I will provide you with a solution that you will be happy about.” The property manager was worried. She definitely believed that these parents would do all sorts of crazy things for their children, so the sooner she could have this resolved the better.
“Now that we are here. Why don’t we settle the issue with the afterclass tutorial center as well?” said one of the mothers.
Everybody turned to look at her, including Shu Yan.
At the beginning, the tutorial center boasted staffing with only foreigner instructors as the kindergarten’s principal and teachers said this was the best time for kids to start learning languages. Mainly, they have seen that all the other parents had signed up and were worried that if they didn’t sign their kids up, they would be ostracized, or worse, the teacher at the kindergarten would single them out. $100 a month fee was not cheap, but many of the parents gritted their teeth and shelled it out for their children.
The first week was, indeed, taught by all foreigner instructors. A week later, more and more parents noticed that the time the foreigner instructors were there had been dwindling, and it was the same kindergarten teachers that were teaching their children. The parents had talked about this previously, but they worried that the teachers would mistreat the children and chose to remain quiet.
“The tutorial center was an obvious bait and switch scheme. I suggest canceling the tutorial center altogether. As it was run by the same teachers as the kindergarten, we will just decide for ourselves which teacher we want taking care of our children. We will pay that teacher directly to compensate for their time. Same for the weekends, those who can take care of the children themselves can keep their children at home; the rest will drop their kids off at school and pay extra as they see fit. $100 is a bit on the high end.”
Many others agreed with her, especially some of the grandmothers.
“Exactly. I have retired to take care of my grandchild at home. I have plenty of free time over the weekend. The kid’s parents would like to spend more time with him on the weekends as well. But the school came up with this tutorial center idea. It just seemed like some scheme to make more money.” Thinking about her grandson who had lost a lot of weight recently, Grandma Wu’s heart was bleeding.
Principal Lin was just about to say something when he was, again, dragged back by the property manager. She gave him a stare and said with a smile, “I will definitely reflect all of your opinions to my supervisors and provide you with a satisfactory response.”
The property manager needed to report up to replace the management of the kindergarten, but all the cooks and workers responsible for maintaining the hygiene of the kindergarten were let go right away, as a means to quell the anger of the parents. Judging from the way the property manager looked, Principal Lin would most likely be let go as well. The parents finally felt a little bit better.
When they returned to the kindergarten, the kids were about to be let out. Seeing Shu Yan and the group returning together, a lot of the other parents wondered about what was going on. Finding out from them about the incident angered many of them.
“So what was the property management going to do about it?” The other parents walked over right away.
“We had a discussion with them today. We have demanded the kindergarten management be replaced and look for new workers in the kitchen. In addition, they must be someone that passed our interview. We also wanted to use someone that we trust for the helpers in the kitchen.”
The parents were all very cautious when it came to matters about the children. This was a reminder for many of them. The children at the kindergarten right now ranged from a little over 2 years old to the oldest ones that were 5 ~ 6 years old, all of them still at their formative age.