Maple Ridge daycare’s contract extension leaves parent feeling ‘over the moon’

A Maple Ridge mother says she’s overjoyed after learning her child’s daycare won’t be ceasing operations as was planned.

The Curious Minds Learning Centre was slated to be replaced this September, after the school district opted to go with a new provider. However, parents were not on-board, launching a petition to have the long-time provider continue to provide care.

Their calls were heard loud and clear, with the district telling CityNews on Thursday that Curious Minds will continue to operate its current spaces for another two years, while the new provider will take over spaces run by the YMCA.

Mom Savanna Swan was elated when CityNews shared the update with her.

“I’m over the moon right now,” Swan said in an interview Thursday evening, a day after she reached out to us with her concerns.

“I feel such a relief, truly. I feel like getting the parents together and their voices to be heard, it matters. We can’t do anything within six weeks. Having a two-year contract at the very least gives us peace, relief.”

Swan admits she wasn’t expecting any drastic changes when she first spoke to the media about the closure. However, she feels the news shows parents have “louder voices than we realize.”

“So much of the time, we just go with the flow to not cause any disruption. But this was a disruption that was brought to my front door that I wasn’t about to just let slide. I am so proud of us,” she explained.

“It’s just maintaining the consistency and everything that we already have built. That was the utmost importance to me and keeping our kids with the same groups of folks, let alone their peers, the staff as well. So maintaining the integrity of our community and our support system at large. I am overjoyed right now — a much different tone than I had yesterday.”

School district ‘began to share concerns‘

Irena Pochop, senior manager of communications with Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District 42, says the goal is to always provide affordable and high-quality child care for the community.

“One of the ways that we do this is through a transparent and competitive procurement process. The purpose of the process is to ensure fairness and accountability and the best possible outcomes for our families. The contract with two of our providers was set to expire at the end of August so we began the procurement process in April,” she explained.

“We do know that families are concerned — they’re concerned about what this transition would look like, they’re concerned because I think they’re feeling that they don’t have sufficient information. And we have listened to the families, we have heard their concerns, and we do take those concerns seriously.”

Pochop says the district even “began to share those concerns,” particularly around transition timelines at two sites.

“Initially, we had been in conversation with Fraser Health about a streamlined licencing process just to ensure continuity for our families, but this week it just became evident that the transition would be more complex than we initially thought,” she told CityNews.

“So Curious Minds, which is the child-care provider currently operating at four of the sites … has verbally agreed to a two-year contract extension at their four different locations.”

The new provider, meanwhile, will also be operating.

Pochop says after the two year contract is up, the district will reassess the situation.

Swan says she’ll be keeping her eyes open and on top of what happens next. But for now, celebrations are underway.

“Right after this phone call, I am going to notify the parents that I have been in communication with, I am going to have a really good dinner with my family, and we’re just going to have a sigh of relief and have a really good sleep tonight,” she said.

-With files from Cole Schisler