They have made it official, after speculation and rumours in Arcola, the Arcola Daycare will be moving locations and is excited to have a new, larger facility to operate out of starting Nov. 3.
Since April the new board has been working diligently towards this venture as they were given an ultimatum of either installing a fire suppression system or not being approved.
"The new board came through in April, there's only two of us from the old board and the rest of the board is new," explained Lisa Pittman, Arcola Daycare Board Chair. "It's been a huge change and we had found out at the end of April that we were only operating on a provisional licence that would expire Oct. 31, so with the provisional licence we had to install a fire suppression system."
"We did some estimates and quotes on those [and] we decided we weren't willing to sink $75,000 into a building that is not the greatest for a daycare, we'd like more space. So we decided to look elsewhere."
As they considered the future a thought crossed their minds, what of Coteau Place? The building is approximately a block and a half away; it has the fire suppression system and alarmed doors. The only outside renovations will include a fence and there will be minor changes inside.
"Right now we won't be expanding too much, we'll accept four more kids and once the government does their budget in April we will have at least 51 spaces," Pittman said.
They are extremely excited about this because of a total of 30 families on a waiting list which includes 43 children in total seeking daycare.
"Daycare has reached its limit where it is so we would like to expand to offer more services because with the area booming childcare demands are pretty high right now," Pittman explained. "We decided it was a good time to make a big move."
"We're hoping to eliminate our waiting list. There's a lot of people who need childcare who aren't on our waiting list as well."
With more children expected to be welcomed into the daycare next spring added staff will need to be hired as well.
"We will be looking for more staff, those who are willing to take their ECE or their Early Childhood Education, and we're advertising for a part-time cook to prepare lunch, snack, and the next day's breakfast," Whitney Rutten, Arcola Daycare Director, said.
The building has 11 rooms and seven washrooms providing room for the Arcola Daycare to grow as well, which is very exciting to the daycare teachers, Rutten says.
"Each staff will have their own 'classroom,' they call it, so there'll be two toddler groups, two preschool groups, [infants], and the school age kids will have their own room. So everybody will have their own space. Then we'll have a little library and a quiet area, as well as their own bathrooms."
This will be one of the biggest changes to the daycare as currently the one room house is divided to create these separate spaces.
"it's not going to be one open room like we're in now, we'll be moving into a little bit more organization and a little bit less chaos. It will be a lot easier to teach the kids and [the] staff are very excited to have their own space to teach the kids in and we'll be running our playschool out of there as well."
The playschool is currently hosted in Jubilee Hall, but with the added space coming the Arcola Daycare will be able to bring this service with them and operate it out of their new location. This, Rutten explains provides ease to families with children as everything will be found under one roof.
They have taken possession of their new location and for the month of October will be preparing it for their opening in November.
"It's going to be busy but exciting," Rutten says of the work.
"We'll be building a fence, that's the only major thing we'll have to do [and] get a few other things done inside, then open up on Nov. 3 in our new centre," Pittman said smiling.
With moving into a larger space comes the need for added toys, blankets, pillows, and everyday things to help get the facility running smoothly and the daycare is open to donations of these items as well as financial donations.
The Arcola Daycare is a non-profit organization, which receives a certain amount of funding from the government, but is in need of fundraising and donations to offer the best to the youth in their care.
One of their new fundraising ideas includes a trip of the month draw. With only 500 tickets available at $120 each the daycare will make two monthly draws: one for a trip and one for $120. The winning tickets each month are then put back into the draw giving 24 chances to win.
"This is one of our biggest fundraisers we've taken on and it's the most exciting fundraising that we've done," Rutten said.
Pittman added: "We're hoping it will become an annual thing and we'll sell tickets from Sept. to Dec. with the first draw in January."
Funding is very important to make the daycare available, while Rutten and Pittman both stress the importance of the staff they employ as well.
"We'll be sending out letters to businesses seeking financial support, it is a big move, but we're excited about it," Pittman said. "We're a non-profit organization. Our kids are lucky to have really good staff and a good director."
"We have an amazing staff. They put in countless hours at the daycare as well as countless hours they're not paid for like prepping for crafts, helping with fundraisers, they come to my daughter's dance recitals whenever they're in town, so it's more of a big family and that is what we definitely want more kids to be able to experience."
With support from the Town of Arcola, its citizens, and the surrounding community, the Arcola Daycare is excited for their chance to make a difference in even more children's lives by being able accept more than 19 youth through the highly-anticipated move to their new location this fall.
