School District 43 has neither the money nor the space to add more daycares to schools and is passing the ball to other agencies to find a way to get more spaces.
And the board of education says it's not the right time to talk about it.
Tuesday, the board of education defeated a motion to hold a roundtable discussion on the topic involving municipal, provincial and federal governments and other stakeholders, choosing instead to forward a school daycare capacity report to the Tri-Cities ECD (Early Childhood Development) Committee for potential action.
“We agree this type of meeting is warranted, we don’t have the ability at this time,” said board chair Kerry Palmer Isaak.
The decision comes as the province announces $1 billion in budgeted spending over three years for increased daycare subsidies for low-income families and 22,000 new spaces.
“We look like bad guys, but I have to say that we’re not,” — Coquitlam Trustee Barb Hobson
One of the reasons the board passed on Port Moody Trustee Keith Watkins' motion to discuss ways to get affordable daycares on to school and municipal sites was lack of information on the the NDP government’s daycare plan.
But some trustees also expressed concern that the school district would be taking on a task outside its mandate if it hosted a meeting with the aim of finding ways to get more daycares into schools.
“I think it’s a community problem. I don’t think the school is the only answer,” said Coquitlam Trustee Chuck Denison, noting that daycares exist in a number of locations in the Tri-Cities besides schools.
But Watkins argued trustees should try to press for measures to get daycares into new schools and he disagreed with a suggestion from Palmer Isaak to postpone the motion while the district waits for more information from the province.
“In my belief, it’s about taking some action," he said. "I think we can do things, make a call."
According to SD43’s daycare report, there are 23 daycares, 32 before- and after-school programs, 21 pre-schools and 11 city-run after-school programs in 46 elementary schools.
That’s a small proportion of the 311 licensed care facilities in the Tri-Cities, according to Fraser Health’s latest numbers, which show that care for the youngest children —those up to three years of age — is in the shortest supply.
Meanwhile, Burnaby School District is working with its city council to erect modular buildings to accommodate daycares for 100 children at school sites with $6 million in city density bonus money.
In the Tri-Cities, the daycare issue continues to be a challenge for parents.
Many parents were upset last year when told their children's daycares that were located in SD43 schools would have to move to make way for more classroom space to meet class size and composition requirements. This year, another such child care operation at Lord Baden Powell elementary has to move before September.
“We’re in a perfect storm situation,” Ivano Cecchini, the district's assistant secretary treasurer for facilities planning services, told trustees.
He said growth in Burquitlam coupled with class size and composition requirements from a Supreme Court of Canada ruling mean there is no room for a daycare at Baden Powell or other nearby schools, even though they are currently below capacity, because the district has to plan for the long term.
“Our entire district is changing, Cecchini said.
A suggestion to open a daycare at the shuttered College Park elementary in Port Moody was also quashed because of the high costs of renovating the closed school, while the cost of portables, challenges in siting them and finding contractors are also contributing to the problem, he added.
Trustees said it’s important for parents to understand the district’s position and the report will be posted along with the Feb. 20 agenda on the district’s website (www.sd43.bc.ca).
“We look like bad guys, but I have to say that we’re not,” said Coquitlam Trustee Barb Hobson.
