SD73 adds child care spaces

Child care programs operated by the Kamloops-Thompson school district and various providers are continuing to expand, with hundreds of new spaces expected to be added by the beginning of next year.

In a report to the board of education last week, Tanya Rogers, district principal of early learning and child care, said SD73’s new before and after school care program opened its first rooms at Marion Schilling and AE Perry elementary on Sept. 9.

“Each room is full with 12 students registered. The second room at each of these schools is scheduled to open once staffing has been hired. There are currently 12 students on the wait list for each of these second rooms,” Rogers said.

The program will also be opening a second room at Arthur Hatton elementary once staffing has been hired to accommodate the additional 12 students on the waiting list.

Parkcrest will also be seeing a before and after school care room by the end of October, with a second room slated to open by January depending on when staffing has been found.

“We have over 42 families who have expressed interest in that program alone so far, in each room will support 12 students to start,” Rogers said.

In total, the before and after school care program is anticipated to add 84 seats across the district by January.

Just B4 continues to grow

After the board of education approved the expansion of its Just B4 program from Arthur Hatton elementary to include Beattie, Barriere, Raft River and Marion Schilling elementary schools last December, the program has since expanded to include Haldane elementary.

There are a total of 90 Just B4 seats across the six schools.

The district’s Seamless Day Kindergarten pilot program at Arthur Hatton will be continuing as usual.

“That is because that is supported by the Ministry of Child Care. It's really quite an expensive program to run, and without their support we wouldn't be able to run it the way it is currently formatted,” said Grant Reilly, assistant superintendent of early and elementary education.

Across the three district-run programs, SD73 says it is expecting to go from 32 in Jan. 2023 to 186 seats this January.

Providers expand spaces

Among community care providers, an after school care program operated by Boys and Girls Club at Kay Bingham will add another 24 spaces after licensing and staffing processes.

“We did have a long standing Westsyde child care provider close its doors, unfortunately, but happily, district principal Rogers worked really hard with Bumble and Beans to develop two additional sites within David Thompson to provide some child care spaces that was much needed in the Westsyde area,” Reilly said.

“Inquiring Little Minds, just an update, they are continuing to increase the amount of spaces that they are providing in both Ralph Bell and Happyvale.”

The newly opened Parkcrest elementary will also be getting a 28-seat child care program. An RFP for a provider has now closed and potential organizations will be interviewed by the end of October, with the goal of opening the spaces by Sept. 2025.

Once all child care spaces are up and running, Reilly said the district would have added 171 new spaces since Sept. 2023.

He said new child care programs are also in the works in Chase, which would add 74 spaces.

“We are in the process of awaiting information from the ministry around our most recent new spaces application, which is to have some infant, toddler and three to five year old care and [before and after school] care at Chase primary,” Reilly said.

The school district is also looking to apply for $10 per day child care programming.

“It is something new that school districts are trying to weigh into, and we also want to be one of those — we want to have one of those programs,” Reilly said.