Welcome everyone to our 30th anniversary of Clinton Co-operative Childcare Centre. Unfortunately this is not how we envisioned our 30th anniversary would look, however we hope to be able to hold a proper celebration in the near future. The Centre has seen many changes throughout its 30 years, including operating at 3 locations, opening an infant program, and employing 40 staff! This is much different from the small Nursery School that started 30 years ago.
In the 30 years, I have been here for 21, with Shari being here the longest at 24 years-congratulations Shari!
Our Educators continue to document your children’s joys, milestones, and experience daily, and work hard to share these moments with you. The children’s portfolios not only document your child’s achievements and interests, but it also allows the Educators to reflect on what is happening in their programs, and what to introduce next. Educators also regularly attend online workshops and trainings to continue growing in the field of Early Childhood Education.
Our licensed capacity at the main site is 167, we have 112 spaces in Goderich, and 82 spaces at St. Josephs. We also have a wait list consisting of 88 infants, 30 toddlers, and 16 preschoolers.
We are run by a dedicated Board of Directors, who put in countless hours to ensure the best interests of the children, families, and Centre are being met. They meet monthly, with correspondence going between them and myself regularly to ensure all involved are up to date and things are running smoothly.
I would like to acknowledge not only our Board of Directors, but also our families and Educators for their commitment, hard work, and dedication each and every day. The COVID-19 pandemic has held many challenges throughout the past 19 months, and we continue to preserver. A huge challenged we faced was providing Emergency Childcare for approved families during the 2 school closures. In total we were able to help out more than 100 children of different ages, from different schools and from different school boards.
I appreciate our families for being so patient, understanding and flexible with the ever changing protocols. The Board of Directors deserve a huge thank you, for all of their support throughout the pandemic. Back in March 2020 when we were ordered to cease operations, the Board immediately decided to continue paying the staff their full wages. This was done before we knew of the wage subsidy, which we did take advantage of once it was made available. And thank you to the most amazing staff ever!! Our group of Educators work tirelessly to plan, prepare and deliver a high quality program for your children, while documenting your children and their days and emailing updates regarding your children regularly. Our Educators also continue taking extra measures daily to ensure your child’s safety and well-being with enhanced cleaning and disinfecting, closely monitoring the children’s health, and wearing PPE as required, and they continue to adapt to the ever changing COVID-19 policies, Congratulations on 30 years, to an amazing team of Educators!
Thank you
Clinton Co-operative Childcare Centre Inc. 