Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 04/02) - A troubled downtown day care is open with a new board.

Yellowknife Day Care resumed operation Jan. 2, with seven children in attendance. More children are expected to attend next week.

The facility closed Dec. 19, because parents were reluctant to sit on the association's board after its president, Doug Krause, was unable to produce financial statements.

On Tuesday, five new members were elected to the board, Krause stepped down, and $7,400 was found owing from the territorial government, allowing the 20-year-old facility to re-open.

New board member Charlotte Walker said the association just wants to put the controversy behind them, and get back to the business of taking care of children.

"With a full board we hopefully can make things happen," said Walker. "There was no co-operation before. We're all on board, we're all positive, we're taking strong effective action to make sure the day care has a future."

Despite the renewed optimism, parents and former board members are still questioning what went wrong.

"I was looking for financial statements since September, and (Krause) couldn't produce them," said former board member Lois Hewitt of the former president. "In disgust, I washed my hands of the whole deal."

Krause said there was some "trouble" with the accounting firm O'Dell Associates, and that is why financial records were not yet available.

Chuck Jeffrey, a chartered accountant with the company, said his firm has not been asked to prepare any financial statements since completing the association's annual fiscal report to March 31, 2001.

Jeffrey also noted no one employed at the daycare had been looking after the books since June.

When Yellowknifer asked Krause about Jeffrey's version of events, he had no comment.

The lack of financial transparency was only one of several issues Hewitt and another former board member, Jeff Rounds, said convinced them to both resign Dec. 12.

Rounds said the final straw for him occurred after one of the day care's employees, Stacey Keyes, was fired. A second staff member was laid off.

"The reason why I resigned was because the president was carrying out actions prior to informing the board," said Rounds. "I feel terrible for the staff who lost their jobs."

The board had originally given Keyes a termination notice effective Dec. 21, but as stated in a press release sent on Wednesday, it decided to fire her at an earlier date because she was "actively recruiting children" for her own home-based day-care service.

Keyes said she had already given notice for the end of December, and it was common knowledge that she intended to open her own day home business.

According to Keyes, Krause fired her Dec. 11 while she was playing with children. Krause said he had pulled her aside from the children, and they were at least 12 feet away when he told her to leave the premises.

On Wednesday, Keyes said Krause visited her at home, and wanted her to sign a press release outlining the circumstances behind her dismissal. Keyes refused to sign, stating that it was inaccurate.

Krause said he merely wanted to clarify what transpired to the media.

Keyes currently has seven children attending her home-based day care.

Day care data

- Licensed for 64 children

- Before it closed it had nine staff

- Only three staff returned to work Jan. 2

- Needs 48 children to break even

- When it closed, Yellowknife Daycare had 44 children enrolled