Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

DAYCARE

Daycare spaces coming to Kamloops elementary schools

Jul 7, 2023 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — The wait for childcare spaces within elementary schools in Kamloops will soon be over.

“This really has been a long time coming,” School District 73 Chair Heather Grieve told CFJC Today. “We’d already put in a request for funding because we knew there was childcare space funding that was going to be coming out.”

School District 73 says two daycare portables are scheduled to open this fall next to Ralph Bell Elementary School. The portables will provide 24 spaces for children under three years old and 48 for children ages three to six.

“What this really is coming to fruition is the first steps in our ability to provide childcare spaces for students within — or pre-students, I guess — within SD73.” Grieve said.

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Ralph Bell Elementary won’t be the only school that will have daycare spaces next door. Two more daycare portables will be placed outside Twin Rivers Education Centre later this year. Additionally, the district has agreed to operate both spaces for no less than 15 years.

“We do hope that’s stabilizing to the community and caregivers in Kamloops,” Grant Reilly from Early Learning Childcare told CFJC Today. “We want to grow childcare in SD73, so not only is this a beginning to stabilizing the support to child care, but we actually want to increase that and further stabilize it as we move forward.”

SD73 does not have an exact date as to when the spaces will open. However, it does say the demand was high for daycare spaces at Ralph Bell Elementary.

“Being able to bring daycare back to a site that was home to such vibrant daycare opportunities for students before they arrived at the kindergarten age,” said Grieve. “I think it’s really important to recognize that this is a needed part of what was available in the community before and going to that model.”