The community of Kleefeld is getting more daycare spaces than what was originally promised.

Back in February, the upper levels of government announced a 74-space daycare for Kleefeld in phase two of a provincial/ federal initiative. But, Becky Guderian, Board Chair of Happy Hive Childcare Centre says since then, the province has asked if they would have the capacity to take on an additional 30 spots. Guderian says they talked it over with all of the stakeholders, including the Rural Municipality of Hanover and the Kleefeld Recreation Board and came to the decision that this would be a great thing for their community. 

"We are excited about it," she says. "Our waiting list could already fill 104 spots today, so we are happy to be able to get those spots."

Guderian notes there has been a slight change to the timeline for this project. Initially, the ready-to-move building was expected to be in place and open as a daycare before the end of this year. Guderian says the phase two floor plans are being finalized this month and the hope is that the building can be enclosed on site by the time the snow flies. She adds the province is now saying it expects the daycare will open in spring of next year, covering an area of approximately 9,000 square feet. 

Even with 104 spaces, Guderian says it is quite likely that there will still be a waiting list as soon as the daycare opens. She explains that their waiting list currently contains more than 104 names. However, she says that list was started about a year ago, and therefore she is not certain how many of those children might have moved away since then, found childcare spots at a different location or are no longer in need. Guderian notes they are also still working with the province to figure out exactly how many of these spots will be designated to each age group.

According to Guderian, their daycare could employ as many as 20 people. This includes a director to oversee the centre, supervisor positions for the larger daycare and then staff on the floor. 

She notes a lot of places are struggling to find qualified early education childcare providers and before agreeing to the larger daycare, Guderian says they needed to decide whether or not they felt they could hire enough people. 

"We're hoping that we can," she says. "We would probably do a phased-in approach, especially with a new centre, you'd probably start with two to three classrooms open."

The way this program works is that the Rural Municipality of Hanover will own the building, provide maintenance and not charge rent for at least 15 years. Guderian says with the building comes a lot of built-in furniture. There will also be a fence constructed surrounding the green space. She notes her board is responsible for buying additional furniture as well as toys and books, furnishing the staff room and director's office and building the play structure.

According to Guderian, there will be eight classrooms in the daycare, and it could cost them approximately $10,000 per room to furnish. And then when you factor in the cost of the play structure, she notes their group has a fair bit of money to try and fundraise. However, they will be receiving a startup grant from the province, worth $450 per child. They also have business sponsors and will be collecting fees for each child attending. The fee is just $10 per day for infants and preschool kids, though Guderian explains that the provincial and federal governments then top up to get to the same amount that daycares used to collect before the $10 per day program was introduced. All of this money will help with operations, wages and program costs. 

 

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