Demand always high for campus child care

July 17, 2009

By Mark Ferguson

The Campus Day Care is celebrating 40 years of providing the community with a safe place for the children of U of S staff, students and faculty.

Lori O’Leary has been director of the daycare since 1995 and while a few things have changed, the demand remains constant.

“There are more people waiting to get in than we have spaces for,” said O’Leary. “I’ve seen parents break down and cry in my office because they didn’t have a space for their children… All I can say to them is that other children will leave eventually and spaces will open up, but in the mean time there’s not much I can do.”

O’Leary looks deeply concerned about the lack of space for children. With a capacity of 44 kids and a waiting list exceeding 60, she says many of the children are on the list as young as one. Some kids have to wait for over two years before space becomes available. In the last year, only two children left the daycare.

Currently, the Campus Day Care and the USSU Child Care Centre are the only places on campus for kids to go, so O’Leary thinks there is enough demand to look at opening another facility.

“We’ve yet to talk about the issue… space is a huge issue,” she said, but eludes to the provincial government’s promise of creating 1000 new child care spaces.  “So, I think if we asked the right way, there would be an opportunity for more capacity on campus.”

The high retention rate means O’Leary and her staff of nine employees must be doing a few things right, and judging by the demeanor of the children, there is nowhere else they’d rather be.

The centre’s doors open bright and early at 7:45 a.m. and remain open until about 5:30 p.m. For $625 per month, the young patrons enjoy lunch, snacks, play time, a nap, and the occasional scraped knee in the outdoor playground. The daycare also incorporates some teaching into the program, offering music Mondays (provided through the College of Education), swimming lessons, campus outings, and even skating during the winter at the Rutherford Arena.

The independent operation is managed by a parent–run board although its space in the Education Building is provided by the university for a nominal rent of $100 per month that includes janitorial services. O’Leary says the relationship with the university is great, but she believes that providing more child care services will not only fill the demand, but could be an excellent recruitment tool for faculty and graduate students with families.

“More day care space would help tremendously.”