SUNDRE — The Sundre Daycare Centre has plans to expand its program delivery beyond its walls at the Sundre Community Centre, said the non-profit organization’s president Janelle Mikal.
Starting in the fall, the centre will have some space available at River Valley School (RVS) to offer a kinder-care program, said Mikal.
“We’re excited to have the room in the Sundre school,” she said. “We will have access to that all year starting this fall. So, we will be able to offer a kinder-care programming.”
To date, she said Sundre has only been able to provide kindergarten services two days a week and every other Friday.
“And now, we will be able to have a room in the school where those kindergartners can come for kinder care provided by the Sundre Daycare for the remainder of the week,” she said, adding the kids will get to stay in the school setting.
“Previously, we just had the out-of-school care room in RVS for after school use and non school days,” she said.
“But we just made a deal to have the room all week during school time. So when kindergarten kids don't have kindergarten class at RVS, their parents can still drop them off at the school for full-day care with us.”
Mikal told the Albertan on Thursday, April 7 during an interview that the organization had heard feedback from parents informing the daycare that “kindergartners didn’t like returning to the ‘baby room’ — the preschool room. So now, they’ll get to stay in the school and be big kids.”
Additionally, having access to the room at River Valley for the kinder-care program this fall will by extension create new spaces for even more children through the daycare centre’s programming, she said.
“This kinder-care’s gonna be huge,” she said. “Those kids now, were coming into our pre-school room, which is only licensed for so many children. So then that’s taking away seating for pre-school kids.”
Furthermore, she said the non-profit organization is working to develop a programming partnership with the school.
“We’re hoping too to set up that partnership with River Valley and the kindergarten teachers as well in our kinder-care program to teach those kids skills that are going to help them in kindergarten,” she said. “That partnership is under development.”
The arrangement enabling the daycare to provide service to kindergarten students on non-attendance school days is essentially a continuation of ongoing collaboration between the school and the centre's Valley Kids program, which has been in place for more than 10 years, said Leslie Cooper-Shand, principal.
“Previously, the space was used for before- and after-school care, and occasionally by staff and students for science projects or to access the pottery kiln,” Cooper-Shand wrote by email in response to follow-up questions.
“At this time, we have enough classroom space to accommodate our current needs, and are happy to work with this community partner to support families in Sundre with childcare needs,” she said.
“These are already RVS kids, and it's great to have them in the building more often, getting comfortable with the educational surroundings they will hopefully be in for the next eight years of their school career.”
Other plans the daycare is working on involve investigating the possibility of providing a hot lunch and snack program at the daycare, said Mikal.
“That’s pending licence approval, because we’ll have to increase our cost to cover (the additional expense),” she said, adding the costs must first be deemed reasonable prior to approval.
Board grows by one director
The organization held its annual general meeting on Friday, March 25, with those attending getting a chance to hear some of the highlights of the past year as well as a sneak peak at upcoming summer programs.
“It was nice to have that opportunity to get together and invite members of our community and parents to hear about our year in review,” said Mikal, adding that 2021 all around “was a good year.”
The organization managed to stick to its budget amid a financially difficult time and even experienced an enrolment increase, continuing an upward trend that’s endured for a number of years. Several field trips, which included taking out as many as 36 children to the TELUS Science Spark Centre in Calgary, were also successfully carried out, she said.
“We will have upcoming field trips as well this summer,” she said. “So, I’m excited about that for our kids.”
Asked about attendance at the meeting, she said, “We’re always hoping to have more turnout from our community as well as from our members.”
That being said, she added three potentially interested parents did come out alongside members of the staff and the board of directors, which remains largely unchanged with the exception of a new director a large.
“Everybody’s staying another year in their positions,” she said.
Mikal was voted president for her third term. Stan McNutt maintains his position as secretary for a second term, while Kyla Story was re-elected vice-president for her second term. Lesley McGill also remains for a second term serving as treasurer.
“We were able to nominate one new member for our membership-at-large,” said Mikal, adding Shona White was nominated as a director.
“So, we were able to grow our board by one member.”
She said the organization also has a new interim executive director, Soleil Rothenburg, who has been with the centre for years and is stepping in following the departure of Leah Penner.
