Local parents are nervous about a proposal to potentially shut or sell a chain of highly-valued early childhood centres.
Auckland Council has publicly released staff advice issued to mayor Wayne Brown relating to the council’s 2023-2024 draft annual budget.
Brown wants to significantly cut council spending and has talked publicly of selling assets if necessary.
A section of the advice document refers to the Kauri Kids chain of early childhood education centres (ECE), one of which is located in Howick.
It says the centres are at 10 sites in five local board areas across the city.
“For the financial year 2021/2022 the service operated at a loss of $200,000 before contribution to overhead and assumed rent costs, or an estimated total loss of around $1 million.
“It is proposed the council discontinues being a direct provider of this service and earns a commercial return from the premises.”
Options outlined in the document include the potential of selling the operations to another provider to take over on a commercial basis through to closure of a centre.
It says a decision regarding the centres will be made after appropriate engagement with the relevant local boards and affected customers, and consultation with council staff as to how and when to “discontinue direct provision of the service”.
“The primary opportunity is for council to reduce operating losses from this activity and earn a commercial return on the lease of the premises.”
The Times spoke to some of the many local parents who have children at Kauri Kids Howick.
Among them is Alric Wright, whose two-year-old son Bodhi attends the centre.
“It’s obviously a big impact on the family having to move their kids if it does shut down,” he says.
“We’ve only recently moved here six weeks ago. Bodhi’s just settled in and to move again would be really hard.
“Most daycares in the area are short-staffed and they also have long wait times.
“With some of them it is six to nine months before you can get your child in, so if this shuts within a month or two we [the families] may not have anywhere to send the kids.”
Wright says he doesn’t know what he’d do if Kauri Kids Howick was to close.
“It’s pretty disappointing seeing no one’s been consulted beforehand and it’s come out of the blue.
“On top of that it’s a hugely stressful time for families coming into Christmas and they’re [the council] voting on it a week before Christmas.
“Going into the Christmas period with uncertainty like that isn’t great. We really want them to stay open.
“Cost is another factor. With all the other daycares in the area you’re looking at $350 to put one kid in, so if you’ve got multiple kids there’s no discount.
“The price certainly adds up and this is definitely an affordable option.”
Fellow parent Gen Walden has two children aged four and two years old at the centre.
She says it was “massive news pre-Christmas” to hear the centres may be sold or shut.
“It really threw us off. The teachers who we’ve been with for years, it’s really unfair for them as well as us.
“What do we do? It’s happened so fast without any consultation or anything like that.
“It feels like we really don’t have a say. I think the savings don’t outweigh the impact on us as individuals as well as the whole of the whanau here.”
A 2020 review by the Education Review Office (ERO) says Kauri Kids Howick, which operates from the council-owned Howick Leisure Centre in Pakuranga Road, is “well placed to promote positive learning outcomes for children”.
The review found there was trusting, respectful, and nurturing relationships between the centre’s teachers, children and families that were highly valued.
“They [the centre’s children] are well cared for and happily play alongside one another.
“Older children enthusiastically collaborate and take many opportunities to enhance their investigative skills within the large indoor and outdoor areas.
“They lead their own learning, uninterrupted, which encourages children’s sustained play and interests. “Children’s individual learning portfolios provide meaningful evidence of children’s play.”
The council’s governing body is set to vote on the draft budget on Thursday.
