Ms. Mariann has provided New Bern with an extremely special place for our children to grow, ask questions and discover the world around them. The school provides a perfect balance of love and knowledge, science and art, music and language. Experiential learning is at the heart of Sweetwater. The children cook, plant, make instruments and take care of their school animals. Our oldest son has flourished here and always has a smile on his face when I go to pick him up...especially if he has just come off the play yard which includes a huge, beautiful water oak tree and lots of lawn for tag. Our youngest will start in the fall and as a parent feel excited, comforted and lucky to know a place like this is kick-starting our childrens education. Sweetwater and Director Mariann are so special to us!!

This was our daughters first year at Sweetwater and we could not be happier with the level of professionalism and care for the students. Our daughter loves going to school and working with all of the other children. We will definitely be returning.

Do not send your children here! The school was closed In September 2017 after a week of school. We paid up front for the year and the director of the school, Mariann, refused to provide a full refund. We paid up front to get a discount on tuition. After suspending/closing the school due to flood damage, she refunded us a portion of tuition. The school only met five days and we met all conditions for the discount but she kept a full month of tuition at the full rate in addition to the full deposit. This was not in accordance with the contract and is dishonest. We contacted her multiple times about it, but she became very defensive about it. The school was closed before any other public or private schools prior to hurricane Florence and she gave no update on the school status or closure for two weeks. When she did update everyone she said the school had flooded and she was “releasing us from our contract” because she couldn’t say when she was going to reopen. The damage was extensive and insurance was working with her to cover it, but it was understandable that she needed to close. We had no issues with that, and were expecting to pay a prorated amount for five days and forfeit our deposit. The dishonest accounting and unwillingness to provide a fair and complete refund is the problem. $500 for 5 days of school is a scam. We have spoken with several other families and they all had issues getting their refund and ran into the same dishonesty and combativeness from Mariann. She did seem to care about the children and education, but her business practices are poor and unfair. There are several other good school options in town, if this school reopens, I will not send my children here.

The BEST preschool in the area, I highly recommend it if you live in New Bern. Your child will come home every day with a happy face. My daughter learned so much there and she loved her teacher!