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The Learning Place and Footsteps preschools to bid farewell to RancheHouse next June

“Our understanding is that the Town needed more office space and so this space where we have been for 17 years has been earmarked for office space for Town employees,” Blough said.

The Learning Place and Footsteps preschools located in the Cochrane RancheHouse will need to find a new location by the end of next June.

Diane Hutchinson and Abby Blough have operated the local preschools for 18 and 20 years, respectively. After a meeting with the director of community services at the Ranchehouse in April regarding the preschools’ leases, they were informed they would not be able to renew their rental agreements at the end of June 2023.

“Our understanding is that the Town needed more office space and so this space where we have been for 17 years has been earmarked for office space for Town employees,” Blough said.

The preschool has primarily served families in the Sunset Ridge neighbourhood, but has accepted children from all over Cochrane. With about 40 families enrolling their kids into each of the two preschools, parents have been upset about the outcome.

“They’re upset that we are losing this space in this community and this space in this Ranche,” Blough said. “We’ve built programs that come to rely on having this outdoor space, where children can have an outdoor education as part of their preschool experience.

“And I think that is very important to parents. We serve a large community in Sunset Ridge and there’s nowhere else for us to relocate to serve the same communities.”

Both Hutchinson and Blough have requested a delegation to appear before Cochrane Town council to find a solution for the problem.

Blough said there’s a space at the clubhouse in the historical ranch that would allow them to access the same communities, and she’s hoping that is an option that can be considered.

“We can service the same families, and it gives us access to the ranch,” she said. “So, what we would like to do is take that conversation further.

“We have kind of run into a dead-end, and we would like to continue that conversation to see if that would be an opportunity that we can have things in place for our next school year.”

While the two preschools are leaving their spaces next summer, Hutchinson and Blough stressed that they are not being evicted by the Town. Both remarked that they have had a very a really nice working relationship with the municipality.

“We’re sad to see our spaces go,” Blough said. “That’s really what this is about. It’s about wanting to continue doing what we are doing in this space.”

“We’ve been outside and [Town] staff here will join in if we’re doing hoops and balls, they’ll come and have a turn,” Hutchinson added. “We’ve been a part of all of them.”

Hutchinson and Blough will continue to look for a space where they can continue to operate and provide their services to the families in Cochrane.

“The clubhouse in the ranch is what we are hoping for, and the conversation we would like to have with Town council,” they said.

Business decision

Cochrane Mayor Jeff Genung is also sad to see the departure of both preschools in the RancheHouse, but outlined it was a business decision.

“My kids both went to Footsteps preschool, so I have a bit of a personal attachment to the school,” Genung said. “It has been an excellent addition with the energy to our facility here.”

The mayor noted that council in the early 2000s, when the original agreement to house the preschools in the Ranchehouse was descided, the agreement was that vacant space un-used by Town administration would be available to be leased. This meant the arrangement with the preschools was always temporary.

“This outcome we are seeing, while it is sad, abrupt and a change, it was inevitable,” Genung said.

He went to say since preschools are private businesses, the Town cannot give them any special treatment or access to facilities if any other childcare providers are interested in their facilities.

“While it is a business decision that affects a beloved service in our community, it’s, at the end of the day, a business decision,” Genung said.


Daniel Gonzalez

About the Author: Daniel Gonzalez

Daniel Gonzalez joined the Cochrane Eagle in 2022. He is a graduate of the Mount Royal University Journalism program. He has worked for the Kids Cancer Care Foundation of Alberta and as a reporter in rural Alberta for the ECA Review.
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