Daycare to remain open
Finds way to cope with financial challenges
Jewels and Gems Day Care copes with financial challenges.
The doors of the Jewels and Gems Day Care will remain open.
A month after announcing they would be closing and selling the building in order to deal with a mounting deficit, officials with the daycare have found a way to cope with their financial challenges and will continue to provide care to Glace Bay area children.
Cass Roach, director of the daycare, said Tuesday that the non-profit daycare’s board of directors sat down again in recent weeks in a last-ditch effort to resolve outstanding issues and save the daycare.
Those efforts were successful.
“We have a plan in place,” said Roach, noting she is unable to release details of the plan to deal with the deficit at this point.
She did note the board will be working to establish a new policy when it comes to payment plans for parents.
Roach said they were excited to be able to tell parents that they would be remaining open. “They’re ecstatic,” she said. Licensed to care for 60 children between the ages of 18 months and five years, there’s currently 35 children attending the daycare. Roach said increasing their numbers will be crucial over the coming months
“We need to be paid for 60 kids a day in order to run. We can’t run on 35, so getting full is another big issue,” she said, noting she’s confident the numbers will increase with the fall season and given the renewed awareness that spots are available at the daycare.
“We have parents who are returning and on Monday we had five new parents (approach us),” she said, noting she was continuing to get calls Tuesday.
Roach said there’s currently six staff employed at the daycare, but when operating at peak capacity the centre employs up to 12 people.
Roach said the staff and board of the daycare were really appreciative of the support they received over the last month from parents and com- munity members.
“People had so many kind words,” she said. “The public is who pulls together, the community pulls together.”
Wayne Mauger, whose granddaughter goes to the daycare, organized a rally earlier this month to draw attention to the plight of the daycare. He’s thrilled that it will continue to operate.
“I’m happy, very happy,” he said. “There’s a lot of young families and a lot of young kids that need daycare.”
Mauger said he felt it was important to show support for
LAURA JEAN GRANT/CAPE BRETON POST the daycare.
“Glace Bay, like any small town around Nova Scotia, is losing jobs and opportunities for our young people and we need daycare to keep our young people working,” he said. “( Jewels and Gems Day Care) is a good daycare and there’s a good staff. They’ve been running it for many years and they have an excellent record.”
The Jewels and Gems Day Care, located on Marian Street in Glace Bay, has been in operation for 36 years.