The Prince Rupert School District will look into the possibility of offering in-school day care in the future following much discussion amongst trustees at the October 9 board meeting.

Superintendent Eric Mercer brought the issue to the board after hearing about an offer given to one school principal. The issue was a bit divisive amongst trustees, with some noting that it could open the door to private enterprise in the school while creating an unfair competitive marketplace for day care.

“We, as a district, would really be giving one business person a real advantage over the rest of the similar businesses in town…If a day care opened in a school, what parent wouldn’t take advantage of that so they didn’t have to leave work to pick up their child at the end of the day,” asked board chair Tina Last, who abstained from the vote due to her own involvement in the child care business.

“I don’t think we have any business having a private enterprise day care in our schools, period…There is just a lot of complications if we open our doors to a private day care in our schools,” added trustee Russell Wiens.

However, noting that there is already a similar situation in place through a “gentleman’s agreement” with the Westview Child Care Centre that enables the business to use school facilities, other trustees noted that the idea of day care in schools isn’t something to quickly dismiss.

“I would absolutely not want us to shut the door on this. I think there are just so many advantages that I think we would be remiss to not at least open the door and take a look at if it can be done,” said trustee Janet Mirau.

“It is something I would like to seriously look at with more information and data in front of me,” added trustee Bart Kuntz.

All trustees voted to have staff further examine in-school day care and report back in the future.