Parent meeting was great, everything after was horrible. Couldn't get them to meet with me to discuss the diagnostic, couldn't get them to schedule my child, then couldn't get them to tell us what they did with my child.
I have read other complaints about the Huntington Learning Center and found it time to write an honest one. I will preface by saying I was the Center Director of three of them in Nassau between 2012-2013. I came to them after serving as first a High School English teacher and then a principal. I have since left them and am again working as a principal.
The Huntington Learning Center IS NOT a learning center. They are a business. It is ran by men and women who have backgrounds in business. They prey on the desperation of families. What they do is they train managers to manipulate assessment results to fit into the business plan they have come up with. Directors there must spend 1 hr before the conference with a business coach, who tells them how many hours to go after and what to say. Eileen Huntington herself trains her people that "If they Cry, they buy." As an honorable school principal I was very upset by this. Programs are not permitted to be less then 100 hours and no student is allowed to come for just one subject. A family that is truly looking for math help is told that they are struggling in math bc there reading is poor. The ops manager that I worked for Michael Gangi was the definition of crook. He made a base salary of 70,000 but was able to make up to an additional 45,000 in commissions per year by having his staff generate revenue. I get it, there a business but one of the hardest things for me to ever comprehend was that a cent was never spent on updating material. They thought reading still with texts that were never modernized. TO a point i also know that reading is reading so it really didnt make a difference.
The Huntington policy was that no parent was ever allowed on the teaching floor. They were not permitted to see the ripped and dirty carpeting, the unkept bathrooms, and books that were taped together. Our Heating unit died and I called the heating tech to come down to the center and Michael actually refused to fix it. He connected a space heater and said that it was not worth spending money to fix. During Hurricane Sandy, my center lost power for two weeks and Michael saidcenters could not close, he had us calll families and demand them to drive from Amityville to Baldwin.
Being that I was the educational expert I used to use my own money to buy updated curriculum pieces for my center. I also maintained my integrity and was able to offer the families the programs they needed. If a kid needed math he got math. I would gladly allow a family to buy 20hrs of math. I was written up because I didnt sell an honors kid a 135 hr reading /math program but only 25hrs of math tutoring. We were told that we can only programs that were bulks consisting of $3000 or more. One night I came back to the center because I left my planner in my office to find Michael in the safe, it turns out he had been using our center as his own personally savings account. Michael was good at blaming everyone but himself. Schools in the area refused to deal with us because they know the deal with Huntington.
Also, do not believe any feedback from staff of HLC on here about how great there center is. Current staff has been told by Jeanine Camporine, Michael Gangi and Eileen Huntington to leave great feedback on these sites. They are given monetary incentives to do so. I know because Michael used to offer us $100 to do so. He also would tell us to pull competitors signs and flyers down and throw them in dumpsters. I can tell you first hand that Huntington does not work. There goal is to keep you in the center as long as possible and staff is trained to alter students test scores to generate more revenue. I had an AP student who was #1 in her junior class come in and score 3 years above grade level, Michael didnt believe it and asked to look at it. He took several answer that were multiple choice and changed them saying "How do i know they didnt put another choice and all of a sudden the girl came out 1.5 grades below level and in need of 188 hrs of instruction." This was easy to do because the family only sees the score we are never allowed to let them see the actual test.
Finally, you are trained that you can never meet with only mom, if the dad does not come we are not to meet with them bc according Mrs. Huntington and Michael Gangi, it is the dads that make the money decisions. I am happy I saw the light like everyone else that comes through there and went back to being principal of a school on Long Island. The first thing I did was ban any sales reps from Huntington into my school. I will say that if a parent really is looking for help for their child, SYlvan Learning Center is the one to use. The teachers are all state certified and they are ran by teachers and school principals. Huntington is a joke and are no different then those shady used car lots. STAY AWAY from any Huntington on LONG ISLAND and know that any one who tells you otherwise is probably being paid to do so.. THey use these sites as a free marketing outlet to suppress truth. I know I spent more time for them then I should have.
Huntington Learning Centers, Inc. Reviews
They don't care about kids or parents
Parent meeting was great, everything after was horrible. Couldn't get them to meet with me to discuss the diagnostic, couldn't get them to schedule my child, then couldn't get them to tell us what they did with my child.
never again.
I have read other complaints about the Huntington Learning Center and found it time to write an honest one. I will preface by saying I was the Center Director of three of them in Nassau between 2012-2013. I came to them after serving as first a High School English teacher and then a principal. I have since left them and am again working as a principal.
The Huntington Learning Center IS NOT a learning center. They are a business. It is ran by men and women who have backgrounds in business. They prey on the desperation of families. What they do is they train managers to manipulate assessment results to fit into the business plan they have come up with. Directors there must spend 1 hr before the conference with a business coach, who tells them how many hours to go after and what to say. Eileen Huntington herself trains her people that "If they Cry, they buy." As an honorable school principal I was very upset by this. Programs are not permitted to be less then 100 hours and no student is allowed to come for just one subject. A family that is truly looking for math help is told that they are struggling in math bc there reading is poor. The ops manager that I worked for Michael Gangi was the definition of crook. He made a base salary of 70,000 but was able to make up to an additional 45,000 in commissions per year by having his staff generate revenue. I get it, there a business but one of the hardest things for me to ever comprehend was that a cent was never spent on updating material. They thought reading still with texts that were never modernized. TO a point i also know that reading is reading so it really didnt make a difference.
The Huntington policy was that no parent was ever allowed on the teaching floor. They were not permitted to see the ripped and dirty carpeting, the unkept bathrooms, and books that were taped together. Our Heating unit died and I called the heating tech to come down to the center and Michael actually refused to fix it. He connected a space heater and said that it was not worth spending money to fix. During Hurricane Sandy, my center lost power for two weeks and Michael saidcenters could not close, he had us calll families and demand them to drive from Amityville to Baldwin.
Being that I was the educational expert I used to use my own money to buy updated curriculum pieces for my center. I also maintained my integrity and was able to offer the families the programs they needed. If a kid needed math he got math. I would gladly allow a family to buy 20hrs of math. I was written up because I didnt sell an honors kid a 135 hr reading /math program but only 25hrs of math tutoring. We were told that we can only programs that were bulks consisting of $3000 or more. One night I came back to the center because I left my planner in my office to find Michael in the safe, it turns out he had been using our center as his own personally savings account. Michael was good at blaming everyone but himself. Schools in the area refused to deal with us because they know the deal with Huntington.
Also, do not believe any feedback from staff of HLC on here about how great there center is. Current staff has been told by Jeanine Camporine, Michael Gangi and Eileen Huntington to leave great feedback on these sites. They are given monetary incentives to do so. I know because Michael used to offer us $100 to do so. He also would tell us to pull competitors signs and flyers down and throw them in dumpsters. I can tell you first hand that Huntington does not work. There goal is to keep you in the center as long as possible and staff is trained to alter students test scores to generate more revenue. I had an AP student who was #1 in her junior class come in and score 3 years above grade level, Michael didnt believe it and asked to look at it. He took several answer that were multiple choice and changed them saying "How do i know they didnt put another choice and all of a sudden the girl came out 1.5 grades below level and in need of 188 hrs of instruction." This was easy to do because the family only sees the score we are never allowed to let them see the actual test.
Finally, you are trained that you can never meet with only mom, if the dad does not come we are not to meet with them bc according Mrs. Huntington and Michael Gangi, it is the dads that make the money decisions. I am happy I saw the light like everyone else that comes through there and went back to being principal of a school on Long Island. The first thing I did was ban any sales reps from Huntington into my school. I will say that if a parent really is looking for help for their child, SYlvan Learning Center is the one to use. The teachers are all state certified and they are ran by teachers and school principals. Huntington is a joke and are no different then those shady used car lots. STAY AWAY from any Huntington on LONG ISLAND and know that any one who tells you otherwise is probably being paid to do so.. THey use these sites as a free marketing outlet to suppress truth. I know I spent more time for them then I should have.