By Kellah Lavoie

Daycares ready for excess children

May 5, 2011 | 6:34 AM

Daycares in Prince Albert have been getting ready for today’s teachers’ strike.

While some are taking school-aged children for the full day, others are planning activities.

“I’ll just have the kids that I have enrolled here anyway coming unless they are staying at home,” said Sharon Stead, Prince Albert Child Care Co-operative director.

The child care centre is expected to be busier, but they will not have extra staff. Stead said they will just have the staff, who work with school aged children stay all day.

It is a similar situation at Tiny Tot Child Care Centre. They will be taking in their usual school-aged children during the day.

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The Children’s Choice Development Co-operative has been busy coming up with solutions for the past two days.

“We’ve been doing a combination of different things, we have been asking if parents can find alternate care,” said Gail Szautner, executive director of Children’s Choice.

“We take school age children on a schedule basis and we work around days that are scheduled for an in service and stuff, because usually not all the systems are out at the same time and we have notice, so we know when those things are going to happen so we can plan for them.”

She said this came up quickly and she has been doing a lot of juggling to make it all work.

“Some parents are finding alternate care, others don’t have any other options of course, and so we are providing for them,” she said.

With the abundance of children, they are planning some special activities. The children will be going to other Children’s Choice locations to play and they will be going bowling in the afternoon.

The day care was not caught completely off guard, Szautner said.

“I had heard, of course, we know these negotiations have been going on for a long time and we heard about some job action, no extra-curricular, or cutting back on extra-curricular,” she said, explaining what she had been anticipating.

Their main goal is to help out parents.

While some daycares in other cities are taking drop-offs, she said they just can’t handle more children.

“We don’t have the space we’re full. We don’t have the physical square footage and we don’t have physical space to take any more,” she said.

The teachers announced their one-day strike Tuesday morning. The two local school divisions responded by cancelling all classes, extra-curricular activities and transportation for the day.

Schools are expected to run as normal on Friday.

See related: Harpauer disappointed with teachers' strike

klavoie@panow.com