By Kellah Lavoie

New child care spaces to open next month

May 17, 2011 | 6:34 AM

Prince Albert is one of 13 communities to get new childcare spaces.

St. Anne School will be opening their 31-child facility, run by Children’s Choice Child Development Co-operative, June 1.

“When the original (school was) designed a child care facility was planned right from the beginning,” said Gail Szautner, executive director of Children’s Choice.

The co-operative has a working relationship with the Prince Albert Roman Catholic Separate School Davison – they operate the daycare in St. Michael School.

It just made sense to take the opportunity to operate the facility as St. Anne, she said.

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The school has been on a waiting list to have a child care licence since the plans were drawn up for the new school.

Szautner also jumped on the waiting list as soon as she could.

“When we knew that we were going to be doing the development in 2009, then we put the application in so we’ve been on the waiting list for a couple of years,” she said.

When it opens next month, the daycare will take eight toddlers and 23 pre-school-aged children, although Szautner said she has been working with principal Kathy Gaudet to find a way to bring in school-age children later on.

“That’s what we are going to start investigating in the fall, what are the needs of parents and their children and in what way can we accommodate them, where in the school how can we do it,” she said, explaining it doesn’t take long for kids to become school age and out of their current are scope of children accepted.

“We know that young children, school aged children need care, they can’t be going home by themselves and it just makes good sense to have them in the same environment where they go to school, she said.

The day care is already full with a waiting list, which she said it is not unusual for Prince Albert or any community.

“It’s national, it’s pretty much everywhere, it’s a struggle to find licensed care for children,” she said.

The facility does not have criteria for who can use the day care, but Szautner said they like to take children from the area.

The day care does not have to rent the space for the school, they merely have to pay $1 for the term of their lease, something Szautner said is more of a formality and just part of their agreement with the school board.

The provincial government allocated 500 spaces across the province. In the 2011-12 budget they set aside $2.1 million to develop them.

klavoie@panow.com