Cindy MacDougall
Northern News Services

Fort Smith (Jan 31/00) - A group of parents are struggling to form their own child-care centre after the local education authority announced its early childhood education program will end in March.

The Infant Development Centre, a seven-year-old development and care program for children under three, will lose its funding and licence March 31.

Rob Tordiff, chair of the Fort Smith District Education Authority, said the school board can no longer run the Infant Development Centre because of changes to the centre's program.

"We do have the ability to deliver early childhood education programs, but we don't have the mandate to run a child-care program, which is what this now is," Tordiff said.

The program was originally set up to help teenage parents stay in school and improve their parenting skills.

"Now, it's evolved from that point and there are no high school students accessing the program," he said.

The centre's $70,000 annual budget is paid through user fees and an early childhood education grant from the territorial government. It has three employees who will be out of a job when it closes.

Tordiff said parenting classes and other programs are no longer offered at the centre, prerequisites to the education authority's involvement and to funding.

The decision has left the parents of a dozen children scrambling for new child-care services, said Margaret Dumkee, whose 16-month-old child attends the centre.

"None of the parents are pleased IDC is shutting down," she said. "And to close in the middle of the year..."

Instead of lobbying the education authority to reverse its decision, the parents are working to keep it open under a different name.

About 13 parents have volunteered to help start a new centre at the same location and with the same staff, Dumkee said.

"We have to apply for a new licence. We need to secure the space. We need a projection of our cash flow, which isn't looking very good right now," she said. "And if we don't have it all in place by April 1, we'll be shut down."

The centre is the only day care in Fort Smith offering licensed care to children under three, she said.

Dumkee said the parents will apply for a licence and child-care funding from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment once they are sure they can keep the centre at its current location on Aurora College's campus.

The parents are unsure what they will do if they are unable to keep the centre operating.