Kinder saved

Eleven enthusiastic kindergarten students were happy to be walking into Erica Kindergarten last week after a battle to keep the centre open.

Lobbying by residents and a recruitment drive allowed the kindergarten to open with eight three-year-old students and three fouryear-olds.

For Gail McDonald of Walhalla, it was a huge relief to be taking her son Alfie to kinder locally.

Programs at Erica were in recession last year and YMCA Ballarat announced in September it would close.

With a lack of enrolments for 2021 and limited forecast growth, YMCA said it had little choice and while closing a kindergarten was a serious step, the business viability had to be considered.

But the community was determined to keep it open.

Ms McDonald said Alfie may have missed out on kinder because there weren’t any other viable options.

“There wasn’t really any other option to us other than getting an exemption for him to go to school for two years in prep,” she said.

Ms McDonald said Alfie may have been able to do a modified program at Rawson Primary School, but it was not ideal.

As soon as she heard the kinder would close Ms McDonald contacted Cr Michael Leaney to launch a campaign.

“It wasn’t just for our benefit but the whole community.

“It would’ve affected the school and without kids coming through we might have lost the school as well and then you have trouble attracting families to live here.

“The bigger picture was we need it for the community,” she said.

YMCA eastern region early years manager Carly Middleton said the kinder re-opened with a new teacher and returning educator Laurelee Stray.

She said the children were attending 15 hours per week.

“We will be operating the 3YO program purely from the $1600 per child free kindergarten funding from the Victorian Government.

“There is no fee payable by either the threeyear-old or four-year-old families. YMCA Ballarat will be financially supporting this program to operate,” she said.

Ms Middleton said they also hoped to reintroduce the Bush Kinder program as the staff settle and become familiar with the children and community.

Looking forward to beginning the kindergarten year at Erica last week are (from left) Alfie and Gail McDonald from Walhalla and Dominic, Alex, Rachel and Jackson Wright from Newborough.