New parents may be relieved to hear that Whistler is getting some new daycare spaces. The Whistler Waldorf School will open a new daycare in Spring Creek, which will operate out of the Sea to Sky Community Services Society (SSCSS) building.
"It feels great," said Rubeena Sandhu, head of school at The Whistler Waldorf School. "It was quite a process, last year, to get a space and make sure that it met requirements and that we had staffing."
The 16 new licensed group childcare spaces are intended for children aged 30 months to school age.
The expansion was made possible in part thanks to funds from the Childcare BC New Spaces Fund, with the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation, Community Foundation of Whistler and fundraising efforts also providing financial support.
Staffing continues to be an issue for daycares around the province—and Sea to Sky daycares are no exception.
Squamish recently lost 30 daycare spots after Bee Haven Childcare closed in June due to a lack of qualified staff, and a recent needs assessment report into Pemberton's daycare situation identified the hiring of licensed early-education teachers as an obstacle to expanding the community's daycare offerings.
(Daycare advocates point to relatively low pay for early-education teachers and have called on the province to increase wage subsidies to daycare providers.)
Sandhu said that the Whistler Waldorf School has enough staff to open the new daycare, and that the school pays its staff well, something that helps with retention and hiring.
"The Early Childhood Educators of BC have a wage they feel early educators should be paid, and we meet that," she said of the organization that represents early childhood care and education professionals.
To staff the new daycare, the Whistler Waldorf School relied on a combination of hiring new instructors, asking trained instructors to relocate, and training up staff that might not have early-education certification.
"Because we are a school and have a good portion of faculty [working with young children], we can draw upon the human resources that we have in our school," said Sandhu. "We paid for some training over the summer and were very proactive that way."
Whistler Councillor Jen Ford said that the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) is actively advancing the daycare issue and is currently working on a daycare needs assessment in coordination with the Whistler Centre for Sustainability.
It will look at barriers to growth for current daycare providers, demographic trends, and ways the municipality can help create new spaces, she explained.
"We will understand a lot more clearly what the need is," said Ford, noting that the last census indicated that demand is in line with that of the Lower Mainland.
The RMOW is effectively supporting the new Whistler Waldorf spaces as well.
The SSCSS building is owned by the municipality and leased to the organization for free, said Ford. As well, the Whistler Waldorf School is subject to important tax exemptions.
Ford added that with the needs assessment report in hand, there may be opportunities for the RMOW to look at ways it can support the creation of even more spaces, noting that last spring the District of Squamish received $851,500 in provincial funds to build a new childcare facility at Valleycliffe Elementary School in south Squamish that will be operated by the SSCS.
"There are opportunities like that. But a needs assessment is the first step in creating those spaces," said Ford. "And in fact, if you are going to apply for the Space Creation fund, you have to have done the needs assessment."
That will likely come as good news to parents, though the extent of Whistler's childcare needs are currently unclear.
In an email to Pique, Cristiana Spooner, manager of communications at the Waldorf school, said that the school's current daycare, which provides daycare for up to 14, has been at maximum enrolment for the past two years and has a small wait pool of applicants for the 2020-21 school year.
"We are hopeful that with the addition of Spring Creek, we will be able to match demand with availability," she said.
"We have just begun accepting applications for the new centre and have availability there starting November of this year. We encourage interested families to reach out to begin the admissions process in advance of the centre's projected November opening."
Families wanting to learn more are encouraged to visit whistlerwaldorf.com/earlyyearscentre or contact [email protected] to submit an application package through Whistler Waldorf's admissions process.
