Glebe Daycare amalgamation brings hope and confusion to the community.
By Sadeen Mohsen
The Glebe Parents’ Day Care (GPDC) will be entering an amalgamation with Andrew Fleck Children’s Services in the upcoming months, a move that’s facing some backlash in the community. The daycare originally began as a grassroots initiative in the 1970s with deep communities and is described as “a non-profit, charitable organization that functions as a parent-staff cooperative.”GPDC now has four daycares, on Fifth at the Canal, on First Avenue, at Mutchmorand at Hopewell. The board’s decision to mergewithAndrewFleck, a long-running registered charity that operates more than a dozen daycares and nursery schools in the Ottawa area, comes after months of deliberation and “heavy discussion.” The daycare has faced several challenges including governance, financial difficulty and programming problems.It has been classed as a tier-three licence since August 2022, the lowest level for a daycare facility, and has been at risk of license suspension by the Ministry of Education. Patrick Saunders-Hastings, chair of the theGPDCboard, remains optimistic that the amalgamation, which has been considered several times over the past decade, will bring positive changes to the daycare.“(Andrew Fleck)has a really strong track record of success and we’re really quite excited to preserve and maintain the Glebe daycare sites for community members,” he said. Saunders-Hastings spoke highly of the support of new funding that Andrew Fleck would bring to the GPDCto bring “new life” to its programming while keeping the community connection.“We are quite keen on the administrative support that an organization like AndrewFleckwill be able to provide, to enable us to bring an improved program quality, stability and viability while preserving that sense of community for parents, staff and children.” Saunders-Hastings says that parents can expect things to “stay the same,” including fees, classrooms and teachers. He says they are also expecting increased city funding which would go to improving the daycare. Staff members can expect “stability and support,” professional development and administrative support from Andrew Fleck. According to Saunders-Hastings, staff are being offered positions at their current times. He insists many parents have expressed positive support but concedes others have indicated concern and hesitation about the move.“Emotions run high when we’re talking about employment or childcare, and we’re talking about both,” Saunders-Hastings said. “I think we’re in a period of a bit of uncertainty where we’re doing our best to communicate as much as possible.”
Despite his optimism, members of the community, including daycare staff, are showing some resistance. A petition to “save the community-based childcare center” had garnered more than 1,340 signatures at this writing. “We believe that this decision is too large to be made by 8 people when there are hundreds of stakeholders that will be affected by this change,” the petition reads. The petition also contains two anonymous letters from long-term staff members, expressing their disappointment with the board for failing to include them in the decision to merge. “You trust us with your children every day, in turn, we trusted you to operate in good faith, openness and transparency,” one letter reads. “To say I feel blindsided is an understatement.”Another letter from a staff member who has been with GPDC for over 30 years “undervalued and dismissed” due to a lack of transparency between the board and the staff.“The idea that a long-standing, community-based childcare centre that was built on the backs of committed parents, community members and staff would so easily be amalgamated, withoutcommunity consultation, is unbelievable,” the letter reads. Many GPDC parents didn’t know much about the upcoming amalgamation.ForFlorenceChiwocha, itcame asa big surprise.“It was kind of sudden,” Chiwocha said. “I came in one morning and everybody’s dressed in black.” She was told this was to convey staff discontent with the board’s decision. Chiwocha’s daughter has been attending the daycare for more than two years. The board’s decision to amalgamate has left her worried about her daughter’s experience at the daycare, and she’s uncertain whether to keep her there.“When I bring my daughter here, I want it to be a place where she’s happy,” she said. “If staff members aren’t happy, that’s going to affect her. At the end of the day, it’s going to affect the quality of care my daughter receives. I think the [staff members] deserve better. Looking after toddlers is not easy.”
Sadeen Mohsen is ajournalism student at Carleton University.
