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Pre-school programs in limbo until CEC decision

The future of the Creston Education Centre is uncertain.

BY LORNE ECKERSLEY

Advance Staff

The May deadline for expressions of interest in the Creston Education Centre property has now passed, but all that is known at this point is that there was no proposal from the agency with the most to lose if the facility closes.

“We simply don’t have the $10,000 deposit required,” Justine Keirn said last week. Keirn, executive director of Valley Community Services, oversees a variety of pre-school programs in the former South Creston Elementary School. Sharing the facility with School District No. 8’s Homelinks and Wildflower programs has proved to be a happy marriage. With travelling professionals—occupational and physical therapists, speech pathologists, etc.—also on site, the benefits of the umbrella facility have been many.

“It is clear that the school district doesn’t have a Plan B,” Keirn said, referring to a meeting last month in which school district personnel were unable to describe exactly where all the students and personnel will wind up if CEC closes in January, 2018, as scheduled.

Keirn has been part of a team of Creston Valley and East Shore residents who have been trying to find a way to keep CEC open and maintain all existing programs there, including Homelinks and Wildflower. But SD 8’s requirement of a $10,000 deposit wasn’t the only barrier to making a proposal. The district also set a minimum purchase price of $500,000, or a partnership situation that would release it from building maintenance costs and save it $70,000 annually.

“Without knowing if the school district is going to be a partner that pays rent (for keeping its services in place) we can’t be sure if there is a viable partnership,” she said.

“I have just been reviewing statistics for our programs last year and our numbers are through the roof,” she said. “And the census shows the addition of new little kids will mean these services will be more needed than ever.”

Valley Community Services is in a bind, needing to find options for space if it loses the CEC facilities, but also because if Strong Start (a program designed to help pre-schoolers be ready for entry into the elementary school system) is taken away, other programs could be lost.

“The cool thing about CEC is that parents who use the services are often the least likely to follow up in getting all the help their kids need,” Keirn said. “All the services are there right now. Often it’s just a case of one of our staff walking the parents over to another room or office and introducing them. Kids are getting more and better services because they are under one roof. It makes co-ordination so easy for everyone involved.”

SD8 put out its call for expressions of interest on the BC Bid provincial web site because it did not want to exclude other potential users. But now that the deadline has passed, if no responses were received (there was no confirmation at press time if that was the case), the district can either negotiate with the local committee or plan to mothball the facility.

Other community organizations have expressed interest in a community partnership, but none are likely to have the resources, at least in the short term, to take on the 22,000 square foot building and grounds.

“As a non-profit agency we have access to grants and funding sources that the school district does not,” Keirn said. “We would like to work directly with the school district to find a solution, but we need more time than the January closing date allows, and we need to know that they want to be a partner in keeping CEC viable. We are all in limbo right now.”