Creating Five-Star Preschools: VDA Inc.’s Approach with Hanadi Rousan | Daycare & Early Childhood Education Series

Intro  

Welcome to another edition of inspired stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes, how they’ve overcome adversity, and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti (05:52.714)
Welcome to another edition of the inspired stories podcast where leaders share their experiences So we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity My name is Anthony Cotaspodi and today’s guest is Hunati Rassan Program director of VDA Inc which is part of the largest state -funded preschool program in the country They have six locations in California’s Central Valley Which is just north of Bakersfield spread across three counties Fresno, Tulare and Kern

The program provides both part -day and full -day services while providing a core class curriculum that is developmentally, culturally, and linguistically appropriate for the children served. They meet Title V regulations and Community Care Licensing Title 22. Before we get into all the good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Ad Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team

and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year to their bottom line by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible. To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency .com. Okay, now back to our guest today, the program director of VDA Inc., Nadi. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Hanadi Rousan (07:17.636)
Thank you for having me. I appreciate you contacting me. Thank you for having me here.

Anthony Codispoti (07:21.61)
Absolutely. Okay, so Adi, tell us in your own words, what does the collection of your childhood care centers do? And how did you first get started?

Hanadi Rousan (07:32.324)
So I started out in this field as a teacher assistant back when I was 18. I’m 53 today. So I’ve been in this field since I could really…

Since high school, I’ve been interested. I love children. I love education. And I started my journey as a TA and with school and experience, I was able to move up in every single position as a teacher, lead teacher, site supervisor, and now a director for about 12 years.

Anthony Codispoti (08:12.778)
So you’ve held every position that there is to be held. You understand what it’s like at all the different levels.

Hanadi Rousan (08:19.748)
I really do, and I think that’s one of my perks of being a successful program director. I understand the teachers and I understand the classroom because I’ve personally done it myself. I’ve been in this field for over 30 years and I have been just in preschool, so I’ve been very in tune with all the different positions and what it takes, yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (08:46.186)
So tell us more about what makes VDA special. What is the curriculum? What is the school? What are the offerings? What age groups? Paint a picture for us.

Hanadi Rousan (08:56.036)
So VDA is very special and it stands out from a lot of other programs because it comes with a lot of quality and the quality is very sought out and very intentional. All of our sites go through a quality rating program and they’ve been going through that for the past probably about six years. It’s an outside agency that comes out to the centers and

They look at every single aspect of the center and it’s in many different categories. They look at staff qualifications, curriculum, environments, leadership. They look at the different assessments we use, how we rate our environment, all kinds of places, and they score you from zero to five stars. So all of our sites have been going through this program and all of them have

a solid five stars except two that are two points away from a four. And it’s really exciting to see the growth. I think what stands BDA is from other places is we’re very, very intentional with what we do. We grow brains every day. We believe that our work is so important. I truly personally believe that preschools is the foundation of any, you know, it’s a foundation for

years to come for parents and for students. So we instill the love of learning. We work a lot with parents to teach them, you know, their rights and how to advocate for their kids. We look at the child as a whole child. You cannot serve a child when you can’t serve his family and what’s going on at home. So…

We’re very, very intentional in what we do. We believe in quality and we truly believe that our work is so, so important. It’s no different than a doctor’s work. That’s how I look at it.

Anthony Codispoti (10:58.602)
You know, you’re building the future of our world here, so. I’m curious to hear you say more about teaching the rights. Are you talking about teaching parents their rights and what they can, sort of how they can place their children in schools?

Hanadi Rousan (11:15.908)
It’s a lot of things. So I look at preschool as the beginning, first step to hopefully a lifelong learning situation for those kids. So when a parent comes in, we definitely look at them as an advocate. How do you have a voice for your child? How do you ask for more services for your child? How do you navigate community services?

What is the next step? What are the milestones that your child should know at this time? So preschool looks a lot different now than it did 10, 15, 20 years ago. We see a lot of families that come in and they are just seeking our program to be able to go to work and do eight hours of work and have somebody to care for their children. So we rate their children, we assess them, we find

A lot of situations like, for example, a lot of the kids come in and they need speech therapy or they have behavioral situations. So we do a lot of assessments and we try to work with the parent. So the parent is able to see what we’re seeing and we put children on plans or we seek outside help for them. When the parent buys into this process,

and the same practice happens in school and at home, it’s a win -win situation. So parent education is really, really big and it comes and it supports the whole child, not just what’s happening in school. So in our programs, we’ve hired a family services coordinator. And this person basically is there to create relationships with the families. She’s there to, there’s an intake form that

once a child is enrolled, you know, the parent starts telling us what are their needs? What areas of need do they want? It could be as simple as I’m looking for extra resources on behavior, or we would like help with our PG &E bill, or we don’t have transportation. So in order to help the child fully, you have to look at what’s happening at home in their life.

Hanadi Rousan (13:40.932)
So that’s one way that we can create those quality services is by really creating deep relationships with our families. And it starts really at enrollment time.

Anthony Codispoti (13:52.202)
I’d like to hear you say more about the assessments that you do. My wife is a speech therapist for preschool kindergartners in a low -income school district where we live here in Columbus, Ohio. And so I know she’s getting kids a lot of times at those grade levels that, man, it sure would have been nice if somebody had identified areas of need even earlier on.

You like it? That’s good.

Anthony Codispoti (14:18.026)
and to hear that you’re doing this in a daycare, in a preschool setting even earlier on. Tell me more about that.

Hanadi Rousan (14:25.284)
that’s huge. And your wife would totally agree with what I’m about to say, but early deduction is everything. Everything for the child, for his best well -being, for his confidence level, for the mom too. So whenever we seek help right away, we see a lot of amazing results. Sometimes the parent is not aware that the child is having

some, you know, speech issues or behavioral situations or is not focusing or such. So we start out with the first assessment and that’s done during enrollment time and that’s called ages and stages. So it’s an assessment that is very age specific and it talks about milestones. And what happens is we take the parent one copy and we give ourselves a good couple of months.

complete one on every single and mobile child. We ask the parents to do the same thing. We come together and the assessment is done in a very, on our end it’s done in a very play -based way, in a fun way. We don’t sit there and go, well, what color is this? Or what number is this? We create very age -appropriate activities to kind of gather those findings, to look for these things. So we give ourselves a couple of months to go over this assessment and it’s really very age -specific.

So you score that at the end and it does give you some areas where there’s red flags and some areas where like, okay, we’re doing really good, we’re on the same page. We come together with the parent and we compare those assessments and we realize a few things. One is we’re so much on the same page. The parent’s goals are aligned with ours, they do see that.

you know, Anthony does need a little bit of speech because, you know, Anthony’s not on speaking like everyone else or is delayed in this area and such, or the opposite, which is like, no, he’s fine. And I don’t, my kid is very okay and I don’t need anything. And that’s also okay because the more relationship you create with that family, that parent, the more they’re going to feel very okay being vulnerable and coming up to you and telling you.

Hanadi Rousan (16:48.9)
Hey, I’m reconsidering your words from week one. It’s the second month of school. I feel very connected. I feel like you’ve been consistent. Let’s go back and look at that referral that you have for Anthony. So relationships are really huge, but assessments are there. So ASQ is one of them. The second and biggest one that we do is desired results. That’s an assessment that we are required to use by the state.

Anthony Codispoti (17:09.445)
Bye.

Hanadi Rousan (17:17.092)
I am one that loves this assessment because it is very inclusive and it’s huge and it’s done through observations. So our teachers are trained to observe children and take notes on them and share those notes with their families. Our note taking is done in a very different way. We are users of this program called the Learning Genie. The Learning Genie is a

program and a platform that really provides a lot of connection between us and the families. Every family gets to log in or create their own login information and they’re literally able to be with us throughout the whole day. They’re able to see their children doing activities, they’re able to read notes about certain observations, they’re able to send parents notes and whatever it is, it’s another way to communicate.

The notes are taken in picture format. They’re taken in writing. They’re taken in a video. So there’s a lot of live documents there. The assessment, it’s California state assessment, and it’s huge, and it talks about different areas of growth. And basically looking, the way you create your lesson plan, and our lesson plan is, or our curriculum is,

all a play -based curriculum. So it’s written in house and it is 100 % aligned with the desired results. So all of our activities are created in a way to actually pick up data from the kids and see where they’re at in this area. Are they at the beginning? Are they in the middle? Are they advanced? And how do we go about their milestones and their growth? That information is captured every day of the year.

and an assessment is done at the beginning of the year and another one is done at the end of the year. And there’s a lot of comparison between the first one and the second one. What growth did we have? Where are we at? What more things do we need to work on? That information is shared with the families during a teacher -parent conference as well. So every child gets to be assessed in so many ways. And that’s classroom.

Hanadi Rousan (19:43.62)
We also have assessments for our environment to make sure that our environment is kid friendly, it’s safe, it’s appropriate. It meets the purpose. It’s another way to communicate with families and kids. So we’re not comfortable at any time. We’re always uncomfortable because we’re always growing. And I feel like when you get comfortable, you stop growing. And I don’t want that. So we’re always…

There’s always something better to do. There’s always something better to perfect. So that’s where we’re at with those assessments.

Anthony Codispoti (20:18.852)
So correct me if I’m wrong, but what you’re describing here, the assessments, developing curriculum and adjusting the curriculum based on what you’re finding in those assessments for each of the individual kids, this is highly unusual in a preschool setting. Am I correct?

Hanadi Rousan (20:36.276)
100%. It’s we’re not an easy program to work for. I think our expectations are not not realistic, but they’re they’re high and and people meet that because we nothing happens in a quick second. There’s a lot of buy in with our team and people are hand selected and and

Our teams, our people, our site supervisors, our leaders at the site have the same vision and that’s how we make things happen. We’re also very big on giving ourselves time and grace and practicing some a lot and making it better. So there’s always a better practice. There’s always a better way of saying hello, honestly. You practice that every day.

So that’s the concept is that those kids are, I don’t know, that’s just, you know, people have gold and they go take it to the bank and they pay money to make sure it’s safe and it’s locked up. And people bring us their kids. Like that’s like, those are the gold nuggets that I look at. So it’s a big job and it’s a big responsibility. So because we’re,

Anthony Codispoti (21:50.883)
You’re a kid bank.

Hanadi Rousan (21:58.532)
vulnerable all the time because we believe in consistency, because we believe in quality, because we believe that this job is so important. You just have to keep perfecting your practices and easy doesn’t always cut it. So.

Anthony Codispoti (22:17.635)
Nade, you touched on something I want to revisit, because this is something that I’ve heard from my wife quite a bit, too, is as parents, it can be really hard to hear that maybe our kids are lagging a little bit. Maybe there’s a deficiency that needs addressed. Maybe they need a little extra help. It’s a reflection of us, we feel like, right? And here’s the little creation that we’re the, you know,

we’re more proud of than anything else in the world. And now you’re telling me that there’s some, wrong isn’t the right word, but you know, needs, the way our ears hear it is there’s something wrong with my kid. What we hear is my kid is deficient. What you’re saying is we’ve identified areas of need, we’ve identified ways that we can help them, but what I’m hearing is my kid’s broken. And that’s hard. I’m kind of curious to hear how you navigate some of those conversations.

Hanadi Rousan (22:51.779)
Yes.

Hanadi Rousan (23:16.452)
And honestly, they’re not easy conversations to have. They’re not. But again, when you have a relationship with someone, and we strive really, really hard to create those relationships, whether in person, whether making our calls and just saying, hey, how are you, whether sending resources, whether the newsletter, whether their communication all day long. So you have to have a relationship with anyone.

especially a parent to have those conversations. I’m a parent myself. I have three kids. My kids are grown, but I was one of those parents that sat in a kindergarten classroom with my kid and where a teacher told me, your child is not focused. Your child might need to repeat kindergarten. But I remember looking at that teacher and telling her, well, does she come and say hi to you? She says, yes.

I said, does she, is she respectful of like, now it’s time to transition from here to here and she transitions? Yes. Does she look you in the eye? Yes. Does she smile? Yes. I’m not worried. Her social skills are there personally as a mother. I’m not worried about it, but I did want her to see all these other things about my child that also make her who she is. So the first thing that I would do when talking to a parent about

any kind of situation or when I’m asked, you know, from a site level, how do we navigate through that? My first question is who has the most strongest relationship with this parent? That’s number one. A stranger cannot come to me and say, Mr. Rissan, your kid is one, two, three. There’s hardly any kind of, I don’t know you. I’m not going to take anything you say at heart, but when I know you, I’m going to pay attention. So there’s an art to speaking to a parent.

There’s a ton of things that are positive about your child. Say a couple of things and be genuine. What that teacher told me is your child has and thought for a minute and I thought you don’t know anything about her. There’s so much more to her than a nice smile, you know? So I try to get to know the children. Well, Anthony’s a listener. Anthony loves Snoopy. Anthony…

Hanadi Rousan (25:44.644)
smells really big when I bring in dinosaurs. Anthony feels really sad when I do that or when this happens. So I talk to the parent, let them know that I care about Anthony and I’m a voice of hope. I’m not the opposite, I’m safe. I want what’s best for Anthony and over time and being consistent, the parent will definitely understand that I am one on Anthony’s side, meaning that

I want nothing, only what’s best for him. And then I would explain the process and I would explain what it means to go and get speech therapy. What does that mean? It’s very scary to have a stranger come out and pick up my kid from my class and take him somewhere else and do, so maybe mom needs to be part of this practice for the first couple of times. Maybe mom needs to create that relationship with the speech therapist.

There’s a lot of built in work before that happens. A parent is not going to be okay giving you their child when they don’t know you and they don’t trust you. Plus there’s data. So I’m a big research person. I believe in research. I would pull out research and show moms, you know, from experience, I started here, this happens from research tells us early detection can do this and that. So I’m sharing resources. I’m

I’m doing all of that. I’m sharing videos of the child. I’m talking about, you know, confidence. What happens when a child speaks without any speech delays versus having some. I bring the brain and how the brain works at this age and what we’re, and it’s not so much a delay or it’s just something that could be perfected. So when there’s a relationship, a lot of things can happen.

And when you are genuine and sincere, a lot of good things can happen. I’ve never given up on a student because to me, it’s those parents that hardly said hello back, nor did they care to come into my parent meetings. Those are the ones that I, or they were extremely quiet, very, very quiet. Same as students, those are the parents that

Hanadi Rousan (28:03.236)
For me personally, I worked a little bit harder to get their attention because they needed that the most, but they didn’t know how to ask for it. So a lot of patience and a lot of respect and a lot of giving space too and a lot of advocating. That’s what it is. It’s literally, I am literally advocating for your child in the best way I can. And that happens within behavior, that happens with speech, that happens like right now and especially after COVID.

our sites are not looking the same. There’s not a lot of parenting going on. There’s a lot of, here’s my phone, look at it. Or kids are just like always fidgeting, wanting something to look at and see. So we do try to create things in our sites that can grab their attention. Whether we have a PE program, we’re big believers in kids need to play outside physically, feel good.

you know, get that energy out in the best way possible. So we have this program called KEEP and it’s kids enjoying PE, exercise, PE program where a coach comes out and creates all these games that are age appropriate and they’re doing PE. They’re learning how to do physical activity and getting that energy out. So there’s a lot of buy -in processes for a lot of things, assessments and behaviors and delays.

They’re all connected. They’re all connected in so many ways. So we start with that relationship and we build on that.

Anthony Codispoti (29:39.998)
So with all of the, what I’m gonna call extras that you seem to be providing with these assessments and the parent teacher conferences and adjusting the curriculum for the kids in need, are you able to deliver all of this using the traditional student teacher ratios or have you had to adjust that?

Hanadi Rousan (30:01.924)
So that’s an area, great question. And one thing amazing about COVID was the ratios. So we were able to, like our normal ratio in a normal classroom is 24 students. The way we work with that because of their age groups is we break them into groups of eight and we would have a lead teacher work with each one. So it’s not this many students.

And we have outdoor play and indoor play and outside time and indoor time. We get very creative with our schedules and our environments. You asked again that how do we make this all happen?

Anthony Codispoti (30:42.302)
Are you able to do it using traditional student teacher ratios or have you had to adjust that?

Hanadi Rousan (30:47.844)
So the ratios are adjusted. We now are working with 16 instead of 24. And the way we were able to do that is to really look at environment and make our outside insider, inside outside. We utilize every inch of the classroom to make up for those, to me, they’re larger ratios. But at 16, we’re able, I think that’s been a good.

number and we’re able to get through what we need to get through. Yes, 100%.

Anthony Codispoti (31:18.59)
I’m curious, with everything that you’re describing to me, this kind of business, like many others, word of mouth is huge, right? Parents know somebody who’s got kids in daycare, they’re looking for a daycare, they’re asking for recommendations. I would guess that with all the extras that you’re describing, people probably speak very highly of you to their friends and family. Do you have capacity to add more families? Do you have waiting lists at your locations? What’s the situation?

Hanadi Rousan (31:27.716)
Yes.

Hanadi Rousan (31:48.516)
We list pretty much everywhere. You know, our program is we follow the state qualifications as far as need and eligibility. So it’s not a need. Like I said, we set up appointments with families and go through their need and eligibility and make that happen. But in general, we do have a wait list and we

enroll right away. So our programs are always full and full to the capacity. And yes, word of mouth is amazing. Like a site here in Fresno, my own daughter that I was talking to you about went was a preschooler there. She’s 23 today. And that site, we hardly ever really do any type of, how do you say like

get people to… that’s the word because parents are you know and I’m one of those people if I if I’ve seen a good spot I’ll tell parents about it you know so parents tell their I have grandparents that are now bringing their grandkids that they brought their own children there so it’s continuous and people believe in something they tell their family and their friends and their churches and their

Anthony Codispoti (32:47.582)
advertising or promotion.

Hanadi Rousan (33:15.46)
masks and all that. So it does happen honestly and that’s one of the biggest blessings is that it does pay to put in extra work, it does pay to be transparent, it does pay to be absolutely consistent. If you’re not going to be consistent don’t even do it you know. So yeah it’s pretty nice.

Anthony Codispoti (33:36.606)
How would people go about getting on the waiting list?

Hanadi Rousan (33:40.292)
So we have a website. They can go onto the website and they can click on enrollment now. This year we’ve also done something really cool where we’ve changed our whole system, our data management system, where now families can enroll using their app on their phone to make it a little bit more easier. So there’s a lot of different platforms where they can go.

Our best thing is may, you know, call us. We love to do a face to face where we sit down and talk to our families about the program, give them a tour and all the forms. It just feels like they’re buying a house when they’re coming because they have to get all these forms and get all these, you know, make sure that they’re qualified and such.

Anthony Codispoti (34:22.526)
it

So I’m looking at your website now. The website is vdainc .net and the phone number for people listening is 559 -228 -3210. 559 -228 -3210 and the website is vdainc .net for anybody who’s interested. Hanadi, I’m kind of curious to dive into what’s probably a series of painful memories here, COVID.

You know, this was tough on everybody. Daycares in particular, you know, had to close your doors for a certain period of time. When you were allowed to reopen, there were changes in the student teacher ratios, there were changes in class sizes, dividers, you had to change the layout of the building. People were afraid to bring their kids back. Some employees were afraid to come back to work. Just so much chaos that I have to imagine your

Hanadi Rousan (34:59.044)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (35:28.062)
You know, every day you’re just sort of white -knuckling it, like, what’s going to happen next?

Hanadi Rousan (35:33.604)
I like you painted a great picture and you know it was I call it the dark times and they were dark times because there was a lot of unknown and COVID was interesting because COVID taught me a lot of good things. I was one to honestly I worked throughout the whole time and I didn’t stop a minute. I was shocked, shocked to my core.

to learn that schools were gonna be shut down. I thought Walmart is open, but our preschools have to shut down. What’s going on? So I understood that it was a scary time and we needed to figure out how to be safe. We shut down for about, I believe three months and we were the very first sites to open and we opened.

I felt very, very, very comfortable with our practices. We actually in Fresno, the newspaper came out and did a little segment on our preschool that we opened. We were one of the first ones to open and it’s actually still available if you’d like to view it. But what we did is we, first of all, we prepped our people, our staff. We talked about what it’s, how to be safe.

We did the mask, we did the whole six feet distancing. It’s very, very difficult to distance preschoolers inside the classroom, nor are you gonna monitor that. We did our best. To tell you the very truth, Anthony, I just was not one of those people that… I’m a big believer if you’re a healthy person and you practice good health, you…

eat right, you sleep right, you exercise, that your body should be able to fight anything that it needs to fight. So I was not scared during this time. I don’t know how to live my life scared. And so I was really big on encouraging staff to do what you need to do to feel safe. So we invested in the mask. I didn’t like the mask. And we ended up doing the face shield where

Hanadi Rousan (37:52.836)
Children are able to see your facial expressions as a teacher. Some of the kids were struggling with language, so that helped out a little bit. We really utilized our classrooms with shrunk our ratios. The biggest change for us also was that how do we receive children? So it was very painful to have parents sit in line forever and we asked.

all these questions and we did the temperature and we took the temperature of the parent and the grandparent because if something’s happening with the parents most likely happening at home we did our very best with every with whatever information we have to navigate through this time and we did we got through it I’m so glad we got through it it was not a normal time it was not that that’s not natural we are not meant

I’m not meant to be in a mask. I was a horrible mask wearer. But we got through it and we did what we needed to do and we got through it. I hope it never comes back again.

Anthony Codispoti (38:53.626)
I love you.

Anthony Codispoti (39:01.882)
Amen to that. You know, you made a comment earlier that I want to revisit. I’ve heard my wife say some similar things. You’ve noticed things are different now after COVID. Kids are different. They’re more, what I heard you say is they’re more fidgety, they’re on screens more. I’m kind of curious to hear more about that as well as maybe other differences that you’ve noticed.

Hanadi Rousan (39:04.708)
What?

Hanadi Rousan (39:25.536)
Sure. You know, we see it right at the enrollment time. So a child walks in and given a phone just to get busy. Instead of, you know, there’s not a lot of talking, a lot of, you know, there’s not a lot of talking. Children are being, they were, they had, we had to do school online with preschoolers. Imagine that.

where we had to turn on the cameras and it was not comfortable for a lot of parents. It was very uncomfortable situations where the child is saying things that they, you know, they’re children, they’re gonna say whatever they say and the parent’s not feeling comfortable with what being said or showing their environments and where they live and what they do. That was very uncomfortable for a lot of families. So we did a lot of…

What we did is to ease that up is we created a platform where families can, we can send them a lot of work home. So we created like backpacks for kids and gave them homework and not homework, like fun things to do, activities. And you could look, we have a Facebook for our VDA program.

Anthony Codispoti (40:40.986)
activities.

Hanadi Rousan (40:49.092)
also was highly utilized during that time where, you know, I would put it with teachers put in an activity and we would take it on a different level. So we tried to do what we can to keep the students busy and to also keep the parents busy and let them know if they have any questions. We did parent meetings over the summer. We try to give resources for families. Anything that has to do with health and safety too. So we utilized

Anthony Codispoti (41:08.218)
you

Hanadi Rousan (41:18.724)
any platform we can to keep that relationship alive and going and for the kids to see their teachers and for the teachers to see their kids. It was really not an easy time at all. For me as a program director, it was crazy because I work in the future. My team works mostly in the past. So it was like I had to undo so much planning and

It was like, whoa, how do we go about that? We have to create it with this. So COVID taught me as a human being how to be a lot more flexible and that rigid is whatever. And if you plan A, you can have a plan B, C, and D, and it’s okay. It’s more than okay.

Anthony Codispoti (42:04.634)
Say more about what you mean about you worked in the future and your staff worked in the past. What does that mean?

Hanadi Rousan (42:09.604)
So like reporting, planning, I’m the vision, I’m the goal. So I would sit there and put a calendar out for a year in advance. And we would literally have our conferences this time, planning this site supervisor meeting, all these trainings, all these things. And a lot of community, you know, I sit on a lot of different boards that, you know, you have things due for them.

It was just all put on hold. It was just all like, how do we walk without vision? How do I go? I don’t know how to do that. There has to be goals and pre -planning. So in my mind, I was stuck on a lot of things and I was, it just was a different time. Never seen this. You know, I’ve never seen a school. Our sites are always open 24 seven. I mean, all year round we serve.

families that need our service, that work at Walmart, that work at a doctor’s office. They need those services. They need to have their children in a safe place. So it was very evident for me that we needed to open ASAP, even though the state called it Hold Harmless Year, meaning you can spend your contract, but if you don’t feel like a lot of sites didn’t open up really fast, a lot of sites had a lot of struggles with staffing.

You know, I had to cancel a few classrooms because teachers got sick and I could not find anybody to come in. But, you know, we just did what we can and we became a lot more adaptable, a lot more adaptable. The time for the students was you could see the change in their behavior. They were indoors. They were locked up in so many ways. A lot of kids still came to me with masks.

And I’m like, why are you wearing a three year old? I don’t want my grandma to die. It was really hard for me to have a lot of empathy. And it was very, very, very hard for me for those three year olds. I mean, some of them still until today wear them because they do not want to go home and make their grandma sick or somebody in their household sick. And some of them are just very, very comfortable in it.

Anthony Codispoti (44:11.704)
Wow.

Hanadi Rousan (44:35.588)
I’ve had some teachers that they said this is a way of life, the masks, and it was like, you know, people are different and you just have to work with everyone and make sure that everybody is comfortable some way somehow.

Anthony Codispoti (44:51.639)
You know, you mentioned staffing being a real challenge as you started to open up. And I know for a lot of businesses out there, staffing is still a challenge. It’s still a really competitive job market. I’m kind of curious to hear if there are particular things that you have tried and found successful, found have been working for you to either recruit or retain good employees.

Hanadi Rousan (45:17.124)
Sure. You know, this is one of your questions that you sent and I pondered on it for a minute, but one of those challenges, definitely my answer would be staff retention. We work in a field that asks a lot of teachers as far as qualification. As far as, you know, you’re asked to have a BA to be a lead teacher, years of experience, you need a teacher permit, you need to

up with your professional development, CPR, first aid, mandated reporter, and your pay is at that of a minimum wage. You know, McDonald’s is paying a lot more than preschool teachers. The field, the world is not seeing the work we do. That’s something that has always upset me as an educator, as a mother.

Anthony Codispoti (46:11.383)
Society is not placing the appropriate value on that service.

Hanadi Rousan (46:13.444)
No, you look at a K through 12 teacher, she’s valued a lot more than a preschool teacher. And I don’t understand that. They look at doctors and doctors are a lot more valued than a teacher. I really wonder why. I don’t know. I don’t personally understand it. I come from a household where both of my parents are educators. My mom was a kindergarten teacher and my dad taught for a long time and then became

went into law, but there was a lot of like pondering and thinking why is something the way it is? I don’t understand, I still don’t understand it. Teachers make lawyers and doctors and everybody, it starts with a teacher. A lot of people that do well in life always remember a favorite teacher in a very young age. There’s a reason for that, you know? So when you don’t appreciate

someone a Okay, let me refrain let me step back when I appreciate you. I’m gonna you’re gonna know I appreciate you I’m gonna tell you all the time Anthony I truly appreciate one two three about you and to to make that a little bit more real I’m gonna back it up with The right pay I’m gonna back it up with a way for you to feel secure because you also have a family

and you have children and you need to be okay. So benefits would help 100%. If a staff, if a teacher feels appreciated and her basic needs are not, she’s not gonna go away because she’s in it for the right reasons. I’m in this field because I love.

what I do every single day. I love how it makes me feel. I love how it made me as a mother. I love that it’s, I truly get up every day and go, I’m going to change the world. One teacher had it. I literally do, Anthony. I don’t look at my job as I, there’s a lot of challenges in it, but I cannot forget why I’m here. And I remind myself why I’m here every single day before I come in.

Hanadi Rousan (48:38.052)
big, big, big, big, huge job for me because the decisions I make can affect those teachers, the children, their parents for years to come. And this is a huge deal, right? So I value what I do and therefore I value all my teachers. We are a team. I am nothing without them and they could use my support.

I’m a teacher at heart. I understand the struggles. I understand what it’s like to go home crying because I could not help Anthony today or Anthony was a little too much for me today, like way too much. And I don’t have the right tool.

Anthony Codispoti (49:17.751)
There are a lot of people who have said that, by the way, that Anthony was too much for them today. Ask my wife.

Hanadi Rousan (49:20.836)
It’s true. It’s all.

I bet, huh? So the idea here is to truly connect with yourself and know why are you doing this? I’m not doing it for the money. I’m doing it because I truly believe in it. There’s a big value in what I do. Therefore, I’m going to make the most out of it. So in my world, I spent two hours of my first time as a director just looking at people come and people go and people come and people go and all I’m doing is

Hiring and firing and hiring and firing and like why do you leave? Why do you have to leave? I learned very very quickly to let people go when they need to go and I Started observing. Why are we doing this? Why is this happening? Why can I not have consistency and you can’t have consistency when you have teachers coming and going and Kids are like, well, who’s Anthony today? Where’s Anthony? Where why is he not here today? So I looked at our budget and I

really started looking so closely on our budget. There has to be some major changes here. I started looking at main players like the site supervisors. Those people were already in a full -time position with benefits. Fabulous, great. Then I started looking at the classroom. Okay, we need lead teachers all day, eight hours a day. They are everything in this classroom and we need to support them and let them know this is important.

give them some security. So save money here, put it there, they’ll flip those positions into full time with benefits. Waited a couple more years and then added another one where that lead teacher has a support staff, a teacher that’s there all day too. The whole value changed. The people when they know they’re valued and I’m here and I’m comfortable, I’m gonna bring a lot more to the table.

Hanadi Rousan (51:22.372)
They just, I’ve had people stay with me for 12 years. I have not had issues of people coming and going because people know they’re valued. Find different ways to show them you’re valued. If I don’t have the money to do it, there’s so many other ways to do it. So appreciating people by letting them know that you are important. What you do every day is so important. Pay them right. Be nice to them and understand like I’m a big believer that

Your family comes first. And I tell my stuff this all day long. If, if, if I’m sitting home, if I’m sitting at work and I’m worried about Anthony, Anthony has a big fever and I’m sitting here worried and Anthony might get, I’m not going to do what I need to do. So a, when you value that and people understand that and, and you meet halfway, it’s very difficult for people to leave because they know that you will always do what’s right. So.

We are a team of a bunch of ladies and a couple of men and we all support one another and respect one another and build on that. It’s just no other way.

Anthony Codispoti (52:38.231)
I want to go back to sort of the dark days of COVID for just a moment because I’m kind of curious to hear, was there any kind of a support system in place for you that you were able to lean on during this time or was this just like, I’m just reacting every day and I’m alone on an island.

Hanadi Rousan (52:56.804)
My family, my husband, my children, my dog. my gosh, my dog. I lost a very sweet pups and this is not work related. Seven years old suddenly right before COVID and that was my pal. That was my seriously, that was my pal. And right around, right when COVID happened, my husband surprised me with this little cute thing that has become my world and that has just done a lot to me.

My husband is a very huge part of my world. He’s a very solid human being. My dad, who’s 88, my sisters. I come from a family that’s very close and that is really my tribe. The ladies here in the office, they’re my sisters. I love all of them. I call her my HR queen, my physical manager. We’re partners.

Honestly, everybody here has been an amazing asset to everything that we do and I count on everyone.

Anthony Codispoti (54:07.282)
That’s great. I’m kind of curious to hear maybe, you know, and tell me if this is within the purview of your role or not. You know, as business leaders, we’re always, you know, in addition to trying to provide all these services to the families and to the kids, you know, somebody’s also got to be keeping an eye on the bottom line. You know, we’ve got to make sure that costs are held in check. We’ve got to make sure that, you know, enrollment numbers are up and sales are good. I’m kind of curious, as you think about

those two different levers that you can pull, like sales coming up or expenses going down. Are there creative things that you have tried in the past that have been successful in moving either one of those levers?

Hanadi Rousan (54:50.723)
So definitely stuff retention that starts with the team. So that part. Creating systems in place that meet the need. Asking for parent testimonials. I’m really big on how serving, like doing a lot of survey. I survey our families all day long. What can we do to be better? Parent meetings. Talking to a lot of different people in the community. There’s, like I said,

I’m not a com – I don’t get comfortable easily, like there’s always something to do.

Hanadi Rousan (55:28.42)
Knowing that like being super transparent and consistent you can’t be a champion one day and not a champion the next day. You just can’t. So to me if you’re going to do something do it every day and then do it better. In our world what made a difference in my world was being vulnerable. I was very okay being vulnerable and putting seven sites

in a program where they can come out and say, we got issues here, you have issues there, and you need to improve that. And those systems and being vulnerable and being open to change and being open to having someone that is really good coming out and observing us and saying, you know, you are great here, but you got to do a little bit more here and understand that that place of vulnerability or like,

here. That’s only a reason to just push a little bit harder. Try a little bit harder. I don’t get mad at mistakes at all. I actually get excited when people get to do mistakes because it tells me they’re trying and they’re not afraid to do it. I get really sad when those mistakes keep happening and there’s something off here. We should learn.

And I think the last thing is to me as a leader, as a human being, you know, I look at me all day long at the end of the day and I try to be as honest as possible. And I try to be one to also match the energy. So for example, when we went through these quality rating programs, one of the areas was to assess the director’s qualifications.

for two, three years, my part was only at four points because I had the BA and the director permit and all these things. But if you get your master’s, you get a five points. So I thought, okay, well, this was something I wanted to do 10 years ago. You know what? Face your fears and just do it and match that energy that your sites are doing. And if you can get one point to every site,

Hanadi Rousan (57:50.148)
by getting your masters, then you’ve also, you’re like, I love when the team sees that I’m also, I’m running like you, I’m not just sitting here. I’m also cleaning the bathrooms. I’m also, like there is, I don’t believe in titles. I think that you need to humble yourself and do everything and anything to do what you need to do and to provide the service that you wanna provide. So I went back to school and I’m,

I went back and did it in a platform that I was terrified to do it in, which was online. But I did it and I was able to gain it. I did my whole research on preschools. It was a finding. The thing was an organizational leadership. That’s what the master’s is. But I wrote my thesis on leadership in ECE. What does that look like? And I had the best time.

creating this research because it was very personal to me and I learned a lot as a human being of like of my shortcoming as a leader and and and I set so many goals for myself and I continue to do that because like I said, there’s just always something to learn and always something to be better. So I think it’s it’s a bunch of different things that there’s not one or two things that can can make it or break it but

Definitely consistency is such a big thing and lots of transparency and honesty and and knowing between you and yourself when I when I go to bed at night, I literally go, OK. Let’s let’s look at you and let’s see what we’ve done today and who do you need to apologize for and who do you need to do? Like there’s a lot of open dialogue and it’s happening all day long and it’s as honest as honest gets so we can get to where we need to go.

I’m not afraid to be vulnerable at all. And sometimes people see that as a weakness. I truly see it as a very honest thing and

Anthony Codispoti (59:57.81)
powerful part of who you are.

Hanadi Rousan (59:59.972)
It’s just, it’s honest.

Anthony Codispoti (01:00:01.586)
Hanadi, what is something you wish you could teach a younger version of yourself?

Hanadi Rousan (01:00:08.324)
whole lot of things honestly but one thing if I could pick the value of feeling centered the value of calm calmness is such a beautiful thing I I have always looked at life as a circle I love circles I love to sit in a circle I love circles because circles are are cool that you could see what’s going on and I want to be in the middle and I’ve always taught my kids

about balance and when you’re balanced and when you’re centered, you’re able to see what’s around you and you’re able to pick priorities and where to be. And when you’re calm, you make better decisions and you help others and you help yourself. I’m a super patient person, but sometimes I’m not very calm inside. Like I want to…

do things, I want to get there, I am very ambitious. But calmness is a beautiful thing. And one other thing that I have really learned the hard way is when someone wants to leave, let them go. That is still a big lesson for me that I’m learning.

Anthony Codispoti (01:01:23.538)
Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:01:31.378)
It’s hard because you take it personally, right?

Hanadi Rousan (01:01:34.404)
I do and I’m such a people’s person and it takes a lot for me to like, I keep up a relationship, I’ll check on you. It takes a lot for me to, I can work with everything, anything as long as you’re able to work through it. But sometimes if a person wants to leave, let them, I’ve inexperienced, when you do let them go.

It’s not the end of the world. Good things still happen and better energies happen and it’s okay. So I am learning that the hard way and not and I’m meeting like a staff or a parent or a lady that used to clean my house like literally stuff like that. Like that’s I just hold on to things to people and how they make me feel and how I make them feel like a lot. I don’t do well with losses. So those are the things that I think I would

definitely talk to myself about.

Anthony Codispoti (01:02:33.042)
It’s tough to break those attachments, I get that. Are there any specific mentors or books or podcasts that have been particularly helpful for you, either in your personal development or your professional development?

Hanadi Rousan (01:02:49.188)
Yeah, a whole bunch. So definitely my dad. My dad is a huge, huge part of who I am. He’s so such a wonderful friend. He’s 88 today and he’s super vulnerable right now. But dad is one. My parents for sure. I lost my mom a while back. But my husband, as far as work goes. Okay, work for me. I have a mentor that I lost about two years ago.

Her name is Diana Decker and she was the most petite lady you’ll meet, but the most powerful human being I have ever known. She was my super man, super woman, whatever you want to call it. She was the most genuine, intentional teacher I have ever met. And I went out of my way for her to remember my name because you either remember my name or you don’t. And it’s not a very easy name to remember, but I would.

I would ask her a ton of questions. I would make sure I go to every single training she put out. I just respected her in ways that she was just so genuine and like she spoke to my heart directly into my soul. And she’s somebody that I kept up with and took her out to lunches when she retired. And until today, believe it or not, I think about her and I pray for her.

I love her so much. My kids, my babies are everything in my world. My daughter’s 29, she actually works for us. She’s the director of special education. Her name is Zaina. She’s the light of my life. My son is named Zamer and he works for Lakeshore and we also, he works indirectly with me. Beautiful heart. And my little one, Cookie Love, she’s…

a little bit farther from me in Long Beach, but those people have been a reason for me to be a very transparent. They have taught me so much about who I am until today. And one of them is going to make me a grandma’s pretty soon, which… The due date is October 11th. I am super excited. So…

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:03.437)
congratulations. What’s the due date?

Hanadi Rousan (01:05:13.572)
And my staff, I love my people. You know, Anthony, everybody you meet, I love people. I love talking to people. I love talking to strangers. And I’m open to learning something from everyone. And you do if you’re open to that. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (01:05:29.197)
I think it’s a good way to move through life. And, Adi, what’s a fun fact that most people wouldn’t know about you?

Hanadi Rousan (01:05:36.068)
How sensitive I am. I’m a very sensitive person. And sensitive, my feelings get hurt sometimes. And I’m in a position where, you know, it’s a leadership position and people, you know, and I’m very black and white where I need to be. But I have a big heart. I work with everyone and sometimes my feelings get hurt and…

That’s something most people don’t know about me.

Anthony Codispoti (01:06:09.26)
I think that’s an important thing to touch upon, not just for you, but in general. I think a lot of people, they look at folks like you, they view you sort of as the person at the top. You’re leading this operation of quite a few employees, several centers, and they think, well, she’s just built for that. She’s got a strong constitution. Nothing gets to her. She was born this way. She’s got the fortitude for it. And I appreciate you being transparent and vulnerable here.

you know, being willing to share that. It’s like, I’m a person. I’ve got a heart, I’ve got feelings, I hurt.

Hanadi Rousan (01:06:45.796)
many feelings and my family call me a little drama queen sometimes because I do have feelings like children and I think that part is so beautiful because again you know it’s just what makes you a human being and getting older and have a lot of feelings about that too but you know it’s just you’re right you’re viewed in a certain way and you see yourself in a certain way yeah

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:15.34)
Well, Nady, I just have one more question for you, but before I do it, I want to ask, I want to do two things. I want to ask our listeners today, if you enjoy today’s content, please hit the subscribe, like, or share button on your favorite podcast app so you’ll hear more episodes like this. I also want to let people know how to get in touch with you. They’re listening to this, they’re interested in your center, they want to talk to you directly. What’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Hanadi Rousan (01:07:38.34)
You can literally give me a call. I mean, my number, you already just give it out. I don’t, it’s 559 -978 -3532. That’s literally my cell phone number. And you can look me up. You’ll find me on BDA’s information too.

Anthony Codispoti (01:07:43.435)
Go ahead, if you’re comfortable.

Anthony Codispoti (01:08:00.779)
VDAinc .net. Okay, last question for you, Hanadi. I’m curious, in the next five years, what are the big changes that are coming in your industry or your business? Where do you see things going?

Hanadi Rousan (01:08:02.948)
Ciao.

Hanadi Rousan (01:08:13.988)
A lot of changes are already happening with like with a lot of the school districts adopting a whole new grade level. So the whole transitional kindergarten TK thing that’s happening. Personally, for me, what I would love to see is having making preschool a little bit more easier to navigate and get into. This should not be up.

Education in general is not a privilege. Everybody needs to have access to it and it needs to be universal and easy and quality. There are so many different rules and expectations on parents and a lot of different, every program has their own little thing of how do you get in, how do you qualify.

make that a little bit more easier. Let’s make this a universal thing like we do with our other systems. And let’s highlight the work of an early education teacher and let’s teach the world how important that is and how we should shift our energies to make sure that the whole world understands that preschool is the start.

for a lot of years to come. And when we do a fine job with introducing a parent and a child to a healthy environment where the child feels safe, loved, appreciated, they’re gonna learn and they’re gonna do it in a very happy way and they’re gonna love kindergarten. They’re gonna excel in third grade and mom is gonna know how to ask for help and mom is gonna say things like,

Well, I know my rights and I know that this is not okay and this and that. So these are the things that I pray for. I pray to see the world really recognizing our platforms in a way where they should be recognized and appreciated.

Anthony Codispoti (01:10:22.634)
That’s terrific. Hanadi, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it.

Hanadi Rousan (01:10:29.86)
I appreciate you. Thank you so much for finding me and for giving me an opportunity. I’ve never had to do this, but this was fun. I liked it.

Anthony Codispoti (01:10:39.723)
Terrific, I’m so happy to hear that. Folks, that’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories podcast. Thanks for learning with us today.