More than 800 four-year-olds from Nova Scotia are starting school this week as part of the provincial government’s pre-primary program.
Education Minister Zach Churchill says launching 52 classrooms within only three months was an ambitious agenda, but for government, it’s a fulfillment of a campaign promise.
“We wanted to make sure that as many children as possible in this school cohort year were able to access this critical programming,” Churchill says.
For hundreds of parents, it's financial relief.
“I would have had to struggle to come up with money for other daycares, where here she's able to go for free,” says mother Tasha Pitcher.
But at Joseph Howe School, opening two pre-primary classrooms is bittersweet. It marks the end of an era for the Halifax Association for Community Living.
“We're still looking at that right now, what this is all going to mean, because this has all happened very quickly. It's been a matter of 10 days,” says executive director Andrea Urquhart.
The non-profit works with children and adults with special needs. It's been forced to downsize with a pre-primary classroom moving in. It's meant moving offices into a classroom, moving toddlers in with three-year-olds and looking to relocate adult and family programs.
“We've been very proud of the continuum of support and services that we have from 18 months right up to adulthood,” says Urquhart.
The Halifax Association for Community Living has started a GoFundMe page to cover the cost of a new space. They worry that with increasing enrolment and expanding pre-primary, they'll soon be asked to leave Joe Howe school altogether.
The school board says they will discuss a memorandum of understanding soon. It's not clear if the board will need to take back more space in coming years.
“We have seen an increase in enrollment, probably of about 40 to 50 students over the last few years, primarily newcomers to Nova Scotia,” says Doug Hadley, spokesperson for the Halifax Regional School Board.
PC MLA Tim Halman says government should be focusing on establishing a long-term plan rather than rushing the program.
“If they had thought about this months in advance, some of these things could have been avoided,” says Halman. “They’re rushing, they want to get this done for political purposes, and they need to focus on good programming."
The program is supposed to be available to all four-year-olds within the next four years. The pre-primary expansion will start with an estimated 70 more sites next year.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie.
