Goddard School Of Wesley Chapel Celebrating Two Years Of Getting Kids Ready

Running a textile business in Baroda, India (500 kilometers south of Bombay), Dinesh Patel never considered a career in early childhood education. He loved children, their smiles and their laughter. But, aside from the joys of raising his own children, the possibility hadn’t crossed his mind. 

He moved to the U.S. in 1987, by way of Fort Pierce, FL, and got into the retail business, running a convenience store and later a motel. Then, a close family friend invited him out to Houston to look at a franchise he’d just obtained — The Goddard School. 

The rest, as they say, is history, as he now owns The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. across the street from the AdventHealth Wesley Chapel hospital.

Patel says his business experience and his love of kids made him a natural fit for a Goddard School, which uses a dual management system, incorporating both a business manager and an education manager at each school. 

Also to Patel’s liking was the school’s track record — The Goddard School is a 30-year old national franchise with 500 schools in 37 states (and in Washington, D.C.). 

“(Goddard) gives you knowledge and all directors have to go through the training,” Patel says. “Goddard (corporate) even assigns someone to your school for support.”

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel opened in May of 2017. Patel brought on his second education director, Christie Lemar, in August of 2018. 

Lemar was the Director of Youth Development at Brandon Sports & Aquatic Center’s child care center, where she ran a Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) and after school programs, which consisted of roughly 180 children. The skill set lined up perfectly with the direction Patel was already taking the school. 

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel added VPK classes in 2018, and recently acquired a small bus in order to expand into after-school care. 

“This spring, we hope to have three VPK classes,” Patel says. “VPK is important to prepare a child for kindergarten. It helps make for a soft transition. They go (into kindergarten) with computer time, sight words and math (knowledge) already.”

VPK is a free program for any family in Florida. All parents need to do is fill out an application with the Department of State’s Office of Early Learning. Patel also has applications at the school.

“The classes are for three hours, Monday through Friday, and the state pays tuition for anyone,” Patel says. “Normally, middle class people don’t qualify for any benefit, so this is a great opportunity.”

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel offers three different times for VPK classes to accommodate parents’ schedules. There’s also a wraparound program that offers hours beyond the VPK time. 

There are even full-day options, that go from 6:30 a.m.-6:30 p.m. The school also is open during many public school holidays. 

Patel says the summer camps, which were offered for the first time by The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel in 2018, will be expanded in 2019. 

The Education Side

“I believed in the quality of the instruction and I saw the activities that were planned,” says homeroom mom Faye Adams. “I saw how well organized they were. They had fun things for the kids to do. It’s not just child care; you know that they’re learning.”

Adams’ son Christian, who is 5, took VPK at The Goddard School last fall. Even as a third-grade teacher with more than a decade of experience and teacher ambassador & spokesperson for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, Adams was impressed with what Christian got out of his experience at Goddard. 

Now, Adams is the local Goddard School’s education specialist.

“I help teachers with their lesson planning, and help make sure they are hitting their standards,” Faye says. “There are seven domains, including science, math, motor skills, art, music and movement and our task is to find engaging activities, books and resources that will help target those skills and meet state standards.”

There are 14 teachers at The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel, and every lead teacher must have a Child Development Associate (CDA) credential, and oversight from the The Goddard School’s Quality Assurance program can be rigorous. The program stays in contact with the school on a weekly basis, assisting in every aspect, from the building to staffing to curriculum. 

Goddard representatives also stop by to ensure corporate standards are being met and to offer hands-on assistance. 

“At any level, if we have a problem or need guidance, they (Goddard) can always help us get through it,” Patel says. 

Additionally, there are bi-annual assessments from the state for the VPK program. Three months ago, Patel joined the Accredited Professional Preschool Learning Environment (APPLE) program, a national early learning program accreditation. In Florida, APPLE is accepted as one of Florida’s Gold Seal Quality Programs.

“APPLE has monthly training for teachers, helps with restructuring classrooms and also strengthens academics,” Patel says. 

Having Fun With It

Enrichment programs specific to Goddard include Spanish, sign language, yoga and B.A.S.E. (Balance, Agility, Strength and Endurance) for Fitness, which is specifically designed for preschool children with those four curricular goals, all of which address physical fitness.

Lemar and the teachers come up with fun ways to teach the programs.

“You wouldn’t even know we’re working on it,” Lemar says. “For instance, in our 12-to-18-month-old class, we use the word, ‘agua’ instead of ‘water.’ We use signs for, ‘more food’ or ‘I’ve had enough.’ This works particularly well for those who are non-verbal.”

It works well for those in between verbal and non-verbal, as well, she adds.

“Four months into the program and I’ve already noticed the progression,” Goddard Wesley Chapel mom Brittany Williams says. “She (daughter Savannah) was pretty much non-verbal when she got here. Now she knows all her colors and numbers.”

The FLEX Program, a Goddard standard, stands for Fun Learning EXperience. In the program, teachers are given the freedom to create their own lesson plans.

“They can create fun activities to achieve those goals,” Patel said. 

Extras…

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel also uses the Tadpole app, an application parents can download to their computer or smartphone that shows lesson plans, snapshots of what their child did during the day, even on down to what they ate for lunch.

“The parent can still ask how the child’s day was but now they can actually look at the report,” Patel says. 

For additional costs, Mr. Tommy’s Mobile Music Bus comes to the school every Tuesday. 

Soccer Shots, a soccer program that is, according to its website, consistently recognized by Entrepreneur magazine as the top Children’s Fitness Franchise in the U.S., also comes in once per week. 

And, this past December, the school hosted its first Angel Tree Program, providing gifts for nearly 20 needy children. 

The Goddard School of Wesley Chapel is located at 2539 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. The school’s hours are Mon.-Fri., 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. and prospective parents are welcome any time during business hours to schedule a tour of the school. For more information, call (813) 603-6100, or visit http://www.goddardschool.com/Tampa/Wesley-Chapel-Bruce-B-Downs-Boulevard-Fl. Or, see the ad on pg. 28. 

The Goddard School Wesley Chapel Makes Learning Fun For Preschoolers

Education director Melissa Jablonski (left) and owner Dinesh Patel run The Goddard School Wesley Chapel, which serves children 6 months to 6 years of age and focuses on teaching through play. (Photo: John C. Cotey)

Jessica Tyrone spent years working in pre-schools, so when the time came for her to find one for her 4-year-old daughter, she knew what she wanted: warmth, friendliness and a curriculum that would best prepare her daughter for pre-K.

She says she found all those things, and even a little more, at The Goddard School Wesley Chapel, located on Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd. directly across from Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel. The preschool chain serves children ages 6 weeks to 6 years.

“They were so welcoming and friendly and so into getting to know my child instead of just sucking up to me,’’ Jessica says. “And the programs were just tremendous when it came to getting kids ready for school. They make everything fun.”

That fun even includes when parents drop off their kids. Jessica says that every morning, owner Dinesh Patel greets the students and the parents with a happy-go-lucky smile, and seems to know everyone’s name.

“I could probably gush about 10 billion things I love about the place,’’ Jessica says.

Prospective parents and children are welcome to stop by anytime during the week, 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m., to check it out.

The local Goddard School is owned and managed by Patel, with Melissa Jablonski running the education side.

Patel opened the early childhood education school in May, after buying into the franchise with some hearty recommendations from a close family friend in Houston who owns a Goddard School. The Wesley Chapel location is one of more than 400 franchises in 35 states across the country for the company, which is headquartered in King of Prussia, PA.

Although Patel, who graduated from college in his native India with a degree in engineering, doesn’t have a background in education (other than raising his two academically gifted children), he says his 30-year career managing multiple businesses in the Fort Pierce and Punta Gorda areas — including a convenience store and a motel — serve him well at The Goddard School.

“They (the company’s corporate office) want someone with good management skills,’’ Patel said. “As the owner, I manage the facility, control the finances and marketing, and I leave the education side to the education director.”

Enter Jablonski, who Patel says helped create “the perfect team” to run the new preschool. Jablonski says she has 22 years of experience in early childhood education and social work, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services & Applied Behavior Science from Ashford University, an online for-profit university headquartered in San Diego, CA, as well as an Associate’s degree from Hillsborough Community College in Childcare Center Management. She also is a certified professional life coach.

Jablonski says that, like Patel, it was a friend’s referral that led her to look at the The Goddard School. She sent her resume to Patel, who decided she was the perfect fit.

“I kind of fell into his lap,’’ Jablonski says.

Jablonski adds that she was intrigued by the curriculum and the way The Goddard School is run. Two managers must be on-site at all times, and after years of juggling the business and education side of her job, she says she is happy to worry only about the teaching part. “There is usually so much paperwork that it takes up 90 percent of your time, but with Dinesh handling all of that now, I get to be the educator, look at lesson plans, be in the classrooms and help the teachers.”

The local Goddard School has 14 full-time teachers, and every lead teacher is required to have at least their Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential. A handful of the teachers at the local Goddard School also have a Bachelor’s degrees in Education or a Master’s degree. Jablonski, who says she is certified to teach the CDA course, notes that her teachers also take part in Goddard Systems University, which provides ongoing training through webinars.

The F.L.E.X. Program

The focus at The Goddard School is on the play-based F.L.E.X. Learning Program, short for Fun Learning Experience. The Goddard School curriculum is based on research that claims that children learn best while having fun, better forming the building blocks to future learning.

“It’s a fun learning experience,’’ Patel says. “Our teachers find out what a child likes and creates a lesson plan around their skills. The children seem to pick up very fast like that.”

Jablonski says that there is very little worksheet education performed, with more emphasis on a hands-on approach dictated by each child’s interests.

The F.L.E.X. Program also could stand for flexible, as Goddard School teachers are trained to adjust lessons at a moment’s notice if the situation arises. One example given on the school’s website states that if a lesson on the solar system is planned, but the children are captivated by the rain outside, the teacher can instead change that lesson to weather.

Teachers at the school develop their own plans, which are required to lead the children to certain goals and standards set by Goddard. There are monthly themes they must incorporate, but otherwise, teachers are given leeway to reach those goals.

For example, a standard goal for a 3-year-old child might be to cut paper in a straight line. The teacher is responsible for creating activities to teach those children to do so.

When the classes carved pumpkins for Halloween, Jessica, who volunteers at the school, said she was impressed by the process. “The children were included and involved, not just watching,’’ she says. “There’s an undertone of learning in everything fun that they do.”

It’s an approach that keeps learning fresh for everyone, says Jablonski.

“I love that the teachers plan and do all that stuff, as opposed to a box that says on day one you do this, on day two you do this…,” she says. “Every part of what they do is a stepping stone to make sure when the children get to pre-kindergarten, they have all those prerequisites to get to where they need to be.”

The Goddard School plan strives to have its children achieve certain milestones across seven learning domains derived from S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math) and P21 (Partnership for 21st Century Learning, which focuses on complex problem solving and teamwork).

The Goddard School Wesley Chapel also offers four enrichment programs, which are included in the tuition — Spanish, sign language, yoga and base fitness.

Jablonski says the focus on the learning process can be more beneficial than the product. “It’s not that your green frog looks like the green frog that’s in the book, it’s that you understood the color was green, that it has two eyes, it has four legs and it’s got webbed feet,’’ Jablonski says. “Whatever process you come up with to develop that, at the end, when you say it’s a frog, (the children know) it’s a frog.”

The school also encourages parental involvement. One way it does that is through a “Tadpoles” app, which allows parents to see what their child did all day, in the hopes they can reinforce some of those lessons at home.

They also hold a number of events for the children and their families. There was a trunk or treat event on Halloween that was well-attended, and the school hosted a food drive in November and is having an “angel tree” this month.

Corporate Oversight

The Goddard School Quality Assurance (QA) program is in contact with each Goddard School on a weekly basis, and sometimes more, helping Patel through each step of the way, from building the facility to staffing it. Representatives also stop in unannounced to ensure The Goddard School’s standards are being met, and as a way of providing guidance.

“There is someone to answer any question we might have,’’ Patel says. “They have been very supportive.”

Since opening in May, The Goddard School Wesley Chapel has slowly expanded to roughly 80 students; almost half of those are registered in two pre-K classes. Patel had originally planned to have just one pre-K class, but had to add another, due to heavy interest. The school is considering adding a third pre-K class next year, and there are plans to add a kindergarten class sometime in the near future.

Patel also plans to add an after-school program as well, and is currently looking into buying a bus in time for the start of the next school year.

Patel, who is 58, worked in textile engineering in India before coming to the U.S. in 1986, and has run his businesses in Florida since 1988. He says running The Goddard School has been some of his most fulfilling work. “I think this is a very good thing we are doing, providing a good foundation for the children to help make them successful in life,’’ he says. “I love it.”

The Goddard School is located at 2539 Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd.. The Wesley Chapel location’s hours are Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call (813) 603-6100, visit GoddardSchool.com/Tampa/Wesley-Chapel-Bruce-B-Downs-Boulevard-Fl, or see the ad on page 18 of this issue.