Local preschool hopes province will raise cohort limit as families wait for child care

“For me, it’s not that I don’t have the business or the staff returning. I have the business, but it’s the cohort that’s stopping me,” Cook told Chat News.

Five of her staff including Cook, who has decided not to take a wage, are still unemployed.

Despite her large space, the cohort rules do not allow for more children.

Cook says in the regulations, her preschool is considered an “open room” concept, even though she has different spaces that could allow more children.

Before COVID, Cook says Montessori Preschool would have been full, with 43 children for September.

She says parents are frustrated, and she has 20 families on a waitlist hoping the cohort limit will be raised.

“We share the same bathrooms and because we’re at a limited cohort, it was required that I have a six-foot hallway to get my toddlers from the toddler room to the washroom. And keep in mind four of my toddlers have siblings out in the main room. And if I’d taken that six-foot space I would have had been more confined on the other side of the room and the kids would have been closer together and to me, that wasn’t social distancing so it didn’t seem right.”

As for government funding that was announced last month, Cook says it will help in the short term, but not the long term.

The funds were unexpected, with Cook saying she is grateful for the money. And adds that she will use the funds to pay the bills while working at a loss to help parents.

“Even with the funding I’m getting, basically I’m missing 19 children. The funding that I get per month will pay for 13 children so I’m still missing six children which comes to a loss of over $5,000 a month and I have chosen to use this funding so I don’t have to raise my fees for my parents because I don’t feel that they are the ones that need to be penalized.”

Cook chose not to defer payments, but she took out a business loan that was available which she has to pay back.

And she has reached out to the province about raising the cohort limit, adding that a controlled cohort like a preschool or daycare can be better traced for cases.

Child care centres were shut down on March 15 and Montessori reopened on July 2 with way fewer kids than the 24 she has right now.

Cook adds child care workers are also considered essential.

“How can we kick start the economy if parents don’t have somewhere to put their children?”

by Chantal Wagner

Local preschool hopes province will raise cohort limit as families wait for child care

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