Primrose School would love to meet your family.
Schedule A TourMy name is Julie, and I am honored to serve as School Director for such an excellent company. My passion for working with young children has always driven me to be a successful leader and educator. I have been in Early Childhood education and business for over 20 years. I achieved my certificate in Child Development and have worked my way, starting in the classrooms to being a successful owner of my private center. My passion is early education, and I was drawn to Primrose because of the excellent and genuine passion for their early education and care for the children and families.
I look forward to helping children, teachers, and parents achieve their goals and educational experiences here at Primrose School of Broken Arrow. I am so excited to be a part of this team and this opportunity to make a difference for others!
Aside from life in education, I am also a wife of 21 years to my amazing husband, Dustin. We have three wonderful children. One girl and two boys, my girl and one of the boys are grown, and my youngest boy will graduate in 2031. We love traveling, the outdoors, and all sporting events. We love anytime we can enjoy going to the lake and boating!
I am happy to be here and look forward to meeting you!
Alisha will be serving the children, families, and teachers at Primrose School of Broken Arrow as the Admission and Assistant Director. She adds experience in early childhood education as a classroom teacher, Master Teacher, and Assistant Director of an Early Head Start program. Alisha earned her CDA (Child Development Associate) from the University of Oklahoma and is currently earning an Associate's degree in Early Childhood Education Center Management and Administration. Alisha is originally from Grove, Oklahoma, and is excited to join the Primrose School of Broken Arrow family. Alisha aims to work with families, children, and staff to create a fun, exciting, and educational environment that will help build a dedicated team to deliver the best early childhood education experience for the Tulsa metro area. Alisha enjoys traveling to national parks, hiking, working out, and finding new adventures and experiences.
"If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, we must teach in a way the child can learn." -unknown
Michelle serves the Primrose of Broken Arrow community as our Assistant Director. She was born and raised in the Tulsa Metro and has had a passion for education since she was young.
Michelle has a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education, with an Art minor, from the University of Oklahoma. She is a state-certified teacher in both Elementary and Art Education. She has over 10 years of experience educating children ages birth through 8th grade. While Michelle has worked in public and private school settings, she believes our Balanced Learning approach is one of the most effective teaching methods to develop a successful, curious, and compassionate next generation.
Her favorite thing to do outside work is spending time with her husband and two young children. Michelle is excited to work alongside you to help your child be the best they can be!
Aloha Manahan is a Certified Kitchen Manager with many years of culinary experience. Within her career, she's had training under a few of the country's renowned chefs. She's worked for the Tulsa Drillers and the University of Phoenix Stadium. She believes that food is the start of a healthy and productive day. From tiny babies to full-grown adults, everyone should have three satisfying and nutritional meals a day. Healthy foods can be enjoyable and therapeutic. She loves creating new dishes and preparing for fun events. All food is seasoned with lots of love and care! She joined Primrose to focus on work-life balance and to spend more time with her sweet girl. Her favorite weekend activity is making crafts and cooking with her daughter.
Welcome to Primrose Schools!
We are Manish and Gia Patel, the proud owners of the Primrose School of Broken Arrow!
We are blessed to have two daughters and have called Broken Arrow home for over a decade. Prior to opening a Primrose School, I worked for several years as a Women’s Health Pharmaceutical Specialist but always had an entrepreneurial aspiration. Manish obtained his doctorate's degree in Pharmacy from Southwestern Oklahoma State University and serves as a Critical Care Clinical Pharmacist. Together, the four of us love to play basketball, hike, bike, swim, travel, and read!
Our Primrose story began when we found ourselves looking for high quality early education and child care for our eldest daughter, but felt thwarted by the lack of accessible options in our local community. Just like any other parent, we know how important it is to find both a safe and educational environment for our children. Having been amazed by Primrose Schools during our search, we even went so far as to enrolling our daughter to the waiting list of a Primrose School that recently opened in South Tulsa, even though it was not convenient to where we lived and worked. However, after considerable thought and deliberation, we realized that we were not alone in the challenges we were facing and decided to open a school locally to help support families across the Broken Arrow community and surrounding areas.
As we researched options for schools, it became clear that quality early childhood education is paramount for early development, as ninety percent of a child’s brain develops in the first five years of life. And it was the researched-informed, time-tested and exclusive Balanced Learning® curriculum that continued to attract us to Primrose Schools as we looked to open a school of our own. Primrose Schools curriculum was created from the best early education wisdom, balancing purposeful play with nurturing guidance from teachers to encourage curiosity, creativity, confidence and compassion. Our proprietary curriculum integrates sign language, Spanish, language and literacy; science, technology, engineering, creative arts and math (STEAM); social studies; music; gardening and mind-stretching exercises. Primrose Schools provides a strong foundation for children to empower their full potential.
Ultimately, we believe that “who children become is as important as what they know.” During our Primrose Promise giving events, we teach, model and practice ways to be compassionate and generous. While Primrose students have shown superior cognitive and academic readiness for Kindergarten, these children also exhibit steady growth in social, emotional, physical, character development and life skills. Primrose is more than just a curriculum; it’s a life-changing, early learning experience for children and their families for years to come! Our love for family and passion for the community is what encouraged us to open Primrose School of Broken Arrow.
We are excited to meet you and your family!