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.... Now, rather than a focus on the learning needs of students from kindergarten to Grade 12, school trustees and administrators will oversee programming for students, birth to death.

To kick this off, the province is spending $5 million to create 80 Strong Start centres in B.C. Every school district has been offered the chance to participate in the new initiative and in School District 20, Fruitvale Elementary was the school chosen to run the new "free" early learning program.

Strong Start Centres are places where caregivers can bring their young children and stay with them. The program will be open five days a week and the goal is to help kids and their families learn to feel comfortable in a school setting before entering public school.

After a call for proposals, Brian Stefani, principal of Fruitvale Elementary, has chosen the Child Care Resource and Referral centre to run the Strong Start Centre. This is a good choice. The staff are extremely knowledgeable about the early years and can meet the ministry's guidelines to "lead learning activities, including stories, music and art to help children grow linguistically, physically and socially."

The CCRR centre was running a parent drop-in program at the school before the Strong Start funding was announced and now they can continue providing a well-rounded program but with a decent budget to work with.

When the Strong Start Centre in Fruitvale was first announced, I heard rumblings that people feared it would be competition for the Beaver Valley Nursery School. Why would parents pay for their children to go to the nursery school when the Strong Start Centre is free?

Now, I hear people saying how delighted they are that there will be options for young families in the Beaver Valley. Some parents will want to enrol in the nursery school because they can drop off their kids and have some free time for themselves; others will want to socialize with other parents while their children enjoy a school-based early learning program. Some parents will want, and can, have both. How exciting to have choices.....