After a hard-fought battle to keep its doors open, the Thames Coast Community Kindergarten committee has made the “difficult decision” to close.
Despite a growing roll and strong efforts from families and staff, mounting financial pressures, a shortage of hands on deck, and the long-standing underfunding of early childhood education centres have proven too great to overcome.
Last week the committee announced it would close the Te Puru kindy from Friday, June 27 for the foreseeable future.
“Everything has happened really quickly,” kindergarten committee chairperson Kate McGee told The Profile, “and it’s not necessarily a financial issue anymore. We just don’t have the community support to be operated by parent volunteers.”
Kate said the kindergarten was started more than 30 years ago by local families, and had been “a total labour of love” for everyone involved.
It was community-owned and governed by a committee of parent volunteers with small children.
“The families have been amazing,” Kate said. “They have kept this place going for so long. But we have just found it more and more difficult to attract new members to the committee, and because of the current financial climate and the regulatory environment that we’re operating in, the challenges of running a small early childhood centre like ours are a lot bigger than they used to be, and they need a lot more time and attention than we are able to give it.”
Kate said a small group of parents had shouldered “a heavy load” as of late, and despite fighting hard to save the kindy – including extending opening hours and making the service more accessible to local families, thus growing the roll – recent events had “overtaken” them.
“[The decision ] was really, really difficult for me because my son is three, and his big sister went to that kindy, and I just really wanted him to have that two years of kindy before he started school, where he’d have all those special memories that my daughter has,” Kate said.
“We’ve fought really hard, but those of us who are left, there’s a small group who really love it and really want to carry on, but some of us are just burnt out.
“It’s been very hard to come to terms with the fact that, you know, this is potentially it, that we may not be able to reopen.”
Families who have been involved with the kindy are invited to a meeting on July 9 to help decide on its future and potential uses – such as a playgroup if the kindergarten is not able to reopen.
There are also hopes that a celebration day will be held for the community to be able to commemorate memories made at the site.
“I’m still hoping on a miracle,” Kate said, “but if there was any hope for the kindergarten to continue, I think it would need a committee of professionals or members of the community who are better able to give it the attention it needs, because parents of babies and under 5s just don’t have a lot of spare time, and they’re not able to commit the time and energy that you need to effectively act as governance and employer for an early childhood centre.”
DETAILS: If anyone from the wider community is interested in attending the July 9 meeting or offering assistance, please email tcckindy@gmail.com
BY KELLEY TANTAU
