Childrens Circle Daycare 175 Hampton Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 2Z3 Telephone: 416-461-5151 Facsimile: 416-461-4977 Email: childcircle@bellnet.

ca

Friday, July 26th, 2013

LETTER TO PARENTS ABOUT FULL DAY LEARNING AND THE INFANT ROOM

Dear Parents, We are writing to provide all Childrens Circle families with an update on our plans to build an infant room and on some issues that have arisen related to before-and-after-school care for children who are in full-day kindergarten (FDK). We are seeking your input, and that of the community, about these plans and about the changes that the City is seeking to daycare in our community. As you likely know, FDK is coming to Withrow and Frankland schools in September of this year, and to Jackman in September of 2014. As a result, the daycare will not be caring for many junior and senior kindergarten children during the school day. In order to ensure the long-term future of the daycare, we have been planning to build an infant room (to care for 12- to 18month-old children) for the last couple of years. This would increase the number of infant spaces available in our community, and would allow for parents to have integrated care for all of their children. Last year, the daycare applied for funding from the City of Toronto to renovate the daycare and build a room to accommodate 10 infants. We were pleased when we were approved for a grant for $75,000.00 to build an infant room. The money we received came from a capital grants fund that the Province of Ontario established, and that is administered by the City of Toronto. We have worked hard over the past nine months to secure approvals from the building department, public health and the Province for our new infant room. Adding infants to the daycare would result in the current Cool Cat room being converted for the infants, while children in Grade 1 and up would use the Room Above and the upper gymnasium when they were at the daycare. We have also been planning other renovations for the daycare, including installing an air conditioner in the Room Above, which has been completed. We were set to begin construction on July 11th of this year. However, on June 17th, 2013, less than four weeks prior to our construction date, City staff told us for the first time that they would not give us the funding for our infant room unless we agreed to stop providing before-and-after school care to junior and senior kindergarten children attending Withrow and Frankland by September 1, 2013. The City staff believes that the intent of FDK is to limit regulated care for junior and senior kindergarten children to the schools.

Page 1 of 3

Childrens Circle Daycare 175 Hampton Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 2Z3 Telephone: 416-461-5151 Facsimile: 416-461-4977 Email: childcircle@bellnet.ca

The Daycare Board has NOT agreed to stop offering before-and-after care to Withrow and Frankland children. This care will continue as planned for the foreseeable future. We have had some parents that have elected to leave the daycare and take advantage of beforeand-after care in the schools. This is a choice that is available to them in our neighbourhood because of the high quality of the licensed (and regulated) daycares in our neighbourhood. However, as of June 30th, we have approximately 25 junior and senior kindergarten children from Withrow and Frankland whose families want us to continue to provide them with beforeand-after care. These families have had the opportunity to enrol in before and after care at Withrow and Frankland but decided (given their circumstances) to remain with Childrens Circle. The City still wants us to stop serving the junior and senior kindergarten children in these families. The Childrens Circle Board has had a number of discussions with City staff in an effort to understand the Citys position and to see if that position can be changed. We have raised a number of issues that we felt would be of concern to our families: Multiple daycare pick-ups and drop-offs for families who have kindergarten children as well as older or younger children Continuity of care: schools implementing FDK are expanding care for kindergarten children, but are not guaranteeing that before-and-after care will be available to those children once they enter Grade 1 Lack of lunch programs: schools implementing before and after care are not providing lunches for kindergarten students as part of their service A lack of flexibility for parents to meet their needs: instructing daycares to stop serving certain children, despite their parents wishes and needs, disregards parents circumstances and their roles as the primary decision-makers about their childs care Double standards vis--vis in-home care: families using in-home caregivers (i.e., nannies) as well as families using unregulated daycares have not been told that their children must use school-based before and after care.

On July 9th, 2013 the City told us it will only release the infant room funding if the Childrens Circle Board provides a written guarantee that Childrens Circle will stop providing before and after care to junior and senior kindergarten children at all three local schools Frankland, Withrow and Jackman -- by September 1, 2014. The Board is not comfortable with the Citys demands and is not prepared to accept them. The Board believes that working parents have enough challenges without adding more daycare

Page 2 of 3

Childrens Circle Daycare 175 Hampton Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 2Z3 Telephone: 416-461-5151 Facsimile: 416-461-4977 Email: childcircle@bellnet.ca

pickups and drop-offs, meal preparation and daycare coordination to their to-do lists. The Board also believes that parental choice is a value that should be part of any daycare system. As a result, the Board is seriously considering the possibility of building the infant room without the Citys funding. However, these issues are very significant ones, and the Board also believes that receiving the input of our parents and our community is vital before we make any final decisions. As a result, the Board has decided to postpone the construction of the infant room for three months in order to consult with our parents and with members of the community about the Citys position and about how Childrens Circle should respond. We understand that many of you will have questions about these issues. We are holding an information session in the Room Above on the morning of August 7th, 2013 (from 8:00 to 9:00), and an evening community meeting on September 13th, 2013. Our goal is to find a solution that best meets the needs of our parents. In the meantime, please feel free to send your comments and thoughts to our comments e-mail at ccdinfantroom@gmail.com, and/or contact any member of the Board with your questions or concerns. Our contact information is below: Will LeMay, President- williamlemay@rogers.com Adrienne Lee, Vice President adriennellee@hotmail.com Brian Mackie, Past President brian_mackie@sympatico.ca Mike Baril, FDL Chair miked.bari@gmail.com Josh Kester, Treasurer jfkester@hotmail.com Heather Mundell mundellfulsom@sympatico.ca Gary Davenport garydavenport@rogers.com Lynda Davenport lyndadavenport@gmail.com James King jamesking@hotmail.com Thomas Koonings tk@4thwalldesignbuild.com Jane Smith jpsmith318@yahoo.ca

From the Board of Directors of Childrens Circle Daycare

Page 3 of 3