My email to preschool boss:
Hi *********
Thats such a shame about the classes here - it makes me so sad to know there will be no preschool here. Was there a reason why the classes out here are so much more expensive than the ones in town? In my opinion they are very over priced and I don't think many of the families would be able to afford that - especially when last years classes were really nothing more than a playgroup. What is the formula for determining the cost of classes?
If it means the class will run, I will do the lead position after Christmas. Its important to me that this area has a preschool. I had a meeting with the local schools kindergarten teacher a couple of months ago asking what her needs are for preschool in this area and it is so very much needed! She was able to give me detailed guidelines of the areas that children need help with to prepare them for kindergarten - from drawing diagonal lines to counting backwards from 10.......there are several issues that children in this area are still struggling with by the time they enter kindergarten.
Is there a chance the cost of the classes could be lowered so that they are more in line with the classes in Sherwood Park? Will the two classes be combined back into one morning class like they were last year? I personally don't feel that a combined class is detrimental to the childrens learning if it is run well. I homeschooled five children all of different ages and never found it difficult to have the different ages/ stages all together - I think it benefits the younger children to be around the older ones....role modelling etc - it just takes a little more planning to make sure there are activities for all the ages and abilities.
Anyway, I really do hope there is a class after Christmas. If I can help in any way please let me know. I could probably find someone to be my Assist in the class too. I'd like to make this happen!
Best wishes
Jane
And the response (which won't read very well for the simple reason the email format was a little bizarre and all mixed in with mine - it was a really odd response - Val can agree with that I'm sure as she read the real thing.....so its a little disjointed here....
Hi Jane:
I am sorry for my delay in responding to this, we have been very busy
getting our Fall programs under way. I was also very upset that we were
unable to run classes out at South Cooking Lake this Fall. We had very
low registrations, but probably would have run the programs, if we had
instructors. We worked very hard to set up programming out there, and
would really like to continue it. I expect that our registrations
should be higher in the Winter, as they were last year.
The reason that the costs are so much higher out there is due to set up
and take down costs. In all of our other buildings we have building
staff to do the set up and take down of equipment as well as the
cleaning. Because we don't have that at SCL, we have to pay the
instructors extra to set up, take down and clean. We have talked to the
Community League and they were unable to provide people either. Also,
just so you know, we operate on a cost recovery basis for our programs.
We are here to provide a service for our residents, and not to make
money from our programs.
The only way that we
could lower the price is if we could somehow get someone else to to the
building duties for a lower price or get parent volunteers to help.
I would be absolutely thrilled to have you as our lead instructor in
the Winter, I was very disappointed when you weren't able to do it this
session.
I would really like to run two separate classes, as our focus for the
older children was to be more of a Kindergarten Readiness class, similar
to the ones that we currently run.
We can
discuss this further, but the only problem is that the information for
our Winter Guide is due to the printer's early next week. If you would
be willing to try it for the Winter session, and then make changes for
the Spring, that might work out a little better.
One of the challenges that we face is not living in the community, to
be able to interact with people there. I would love to discuss with you
how we may better market things as well, to best promote our programs.
Also, if you have an assistant in mind, this would be very helpful as
well.
Please get back to me when you can Jane, and if you would like, I can
even come out there and meet with you if needed.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
from
**********
5 days ago
