Cuts send parents scrambling

By Amanda Stephenson, Medicine Hat News

astephenson@medicinehatnews.com

One day after both of Medicine Hat’s school boards voted to eliminate full-time kindergarten programming, parents and child care operators are scrambling to adjust to the new reality that will take effect in September.

Some parents are outraged, while others simply want firm answers. District No. 76 still has not decided whether its program will be offered every second day, or in the mornings or afternoons only.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do because nobody will tell me yet when she will be attending school,” says Trina Silver, the parent of a daughter set to go into kindergarten in the fall. “It’s about four and a half months ‘till September comes. My family has a budget too, and we still don’t know what we’re going to be doing for child care.”

Silver says she is disappointed with the board’s decision because she believes in the value of full-time kindergarten.

“I was willing to pay for it, because I believe that our kids need full-time kindergarten,” she says. “Other provinces have full-time kindergarten or are going to it, and Alberta’s leaving our kids behind by not even looking at it.”

Parent Stacey Wallis agrees. “It’s so disappointing,” she says. “It’s just so archaic — it’s like a giant step backwards.”

Wallis also questions why the boards left their decision until late in the school year, forcing parents to rush to come up with alternative child care arrangements.

“I just think this was thrown at people very quickly,” she says. “It’s shocking as a family economically to find out this is really going to happen.”

Kelli Schmaltz, whose daughter Karlie is set to start kindergarten at Vincent Massey School in September, says she is more concerned about the logistics of the decision than the educational ramifications.

“The half-day program doesn’t really hurt my feelings all that much,” she says. “Yeah, she doesn’t get to go to school all day every day, but they’ll probably just step up the curriculum somewhere along the way so she can catch up. It’s the transportation that really worries me.”

Schmaltz says the half-day everyday program is an option that won’t work for her, as she operates a day-home and can’t leave the other children over the noon hour in order to pick up her own child from school.“I keep thinking about single moms who are out waitressing,” Schmaltz says. “What boss is going to let them leave during the busiest part of the day so they can go pick up their kid from school?”

Shauna Meek says she hopes the division implements the full-day, every other day option.

“If it turns out that the only option we have is half days every day, then he (her son) is just not going to go to kindergarten. Because that just does not work,” Meek says.

The possibility that some parents will choose to pull their children from public school kindergarten entirely is on the minds of Medicine Hat’s preschool providers. Christine Weimer, of Montessori Preschool, says she has 25 students currently who are eligible to go to kindergarten next year, and 10 of those families have already informed her they plan to keep their children at Montessori for an extra year and forego kindergarten entirely.

“There’s not going to be enough spaces for child care this year, which is unfortunate, because some parents need child care,” Weimer says. “It’s not just for social reasons or to get their kids ready for kindergarten, it’s that they have to work.”

However, not all parents disapprove of the board’s decision to cut kindergarten to save money. Tammy Toews says the role of a school board is to provide the best possible education for children — not to subsidize child care for parents.

“I prefer the half day because I don’t think the research supports any reasons to offer the full-day program,” Toews says. “Academically, I don’t think there’s a need for it, the government doesn’t fund it, kindergarten is not even mandatory in Alberta. So for us to say we’re going to offer a program we have no money to offer, to me is irresponsible. It didn’t make any financial sense to me.”

This article was published in the Medicine Hat News on April 15, 2010. Read the full article on the MedicineHatNews.com website.