‘Absolutely heartbroken’: Preschools shut their doors

Two long-standing early childhood centres in Tāhunanui have joined around 70 centres around the country who have been forced to shut their doors due to struggling to pay new pay parity rates for their teachers.

Paula’s Preschool and Paula’s Tiny Tots on Parkers Rd closed on Friday 12 May following an email being sent to parents and teachers on Sunday 7 May.

Pay parity is a scheme to help close the pay gap between teachers in early learning and care centres and their colleagues in kindergartens.

Although centres receive more government funding for signing up to pay parity, the money is not enough to cover the full cost of bringing their teachers’ salaries to the same level as similarly qualified kindergarten and schoolteachers.

Directors of Paula’s Preschool and Tiny Tots Tāhunanui, Michael and Heidi Holder, say they are “absolutely heartbroken” with having to make the decision to close their centres.

“We tried every avenue to keep these special centres open, by unfortunately we failed. The longer we stayed open, the deeper in debt we got. We had no other option. We are shattered about the position we have put families and staff in at such short notice”.

Simon Laube, chief executive of the Early Childhood Council, told Nelson Weekly that around 70 centres around the country have closed their doors since March last year because of the pay parity issue and warns there will be more closures to come.

“We expect even more centres to close soon. And, with no new centres opening, it will lead to longer waiting lists and higher fees for parents.”

Anthony Holder, who owns a separate Paula’s Preschool located in Richmond, says they are “devastated” by the closures.

“We fully support pay parity for teachers but when the funding is considerably different and government policy is to say, ‘you need to get the extra funds from parents’, but the parents are dealing with the cost of living crisis and looking at their budgets, mixed with a declining roll - it’s like a perfect storm.”

Paula’s has been operating as a family-owned operation in the Nelson area since 1994 and was started by Anthony’s parents, Paula and Kevin Holder.

Paula’s Preschool Tāhunanui opened in 2006 and Paula’s Tiny Tots opened in 2010. Michael and Heidi have been the owners since June 2016.

“We have been in the community for such a long time, and we’ve delivered such positive outcomes for so many children. If you look at our history, thousands of children have come through the centres,” says Anthony.

Anthony says there has been “massive” pressure on centres to opt into the pay parity scheme.

“Otherwise, staff will take jobs either at kindergartens to get the pay parity, or they go to other centres that are offering that, so last year, small centres such as Paula’s signed up. Otherwise, you’re going to lose staff, and without qualified staff, you just can’t operate.”

He says many parents are hurting with their budgets.

“The increasing cost of living is a big factor, and when it comes to early childhood as a private entity, we are struggling to fill enrolments. We are funded differently from kindergartens, they can provide free childcare for 30 hours and that is derived from government policy. We are really struggling when the funding isn’t the same and it isn’t there.”

Anthony says they are doing their best to relocate some families and staff to Paula’s Preschool in Richmond, which has been open for almost 20 years.

“We are all doing what we can, where we can. Staff have been proactive, and a lot of centres have provided employment opportunities. The ECE community has gone out of its way to support these teachers.”