Nursery school finds a home

After months of uncertainty, the Fort Frances Nursery School has finally found a home.
“It was perfect timing,” said Sandra Weir of the nursery school, adding that they were required to leave their old location at the end of last month as the school year ended.
“Our stuff has already been moved over there,” she added.
Until now, the nursery school had been housed in the basement of Alexander MacKenzie School, but with the temporary closure of J.W. Walker for expansion, classroom space for the school board became a premium and the nursery school was told they’d have to find a new location.
And Alexander MacKenzie was slated for closure after next year, leaving the nursery school without a permanent home.
“We’re excited about partnership,” said Weir of their new temporary home at Knox United Church her in town.
“At this point, it’s for the year,” she said. “We’ll probably look at our options at the end of the year. We’re still looking for a permanent home.”
She explained that they are still hoping to eventually be connected with the plans for a new public library building and aren’t ruling out a move back to a Rainy River District School Board facility in the future, but for now they are happy with the move.
“The nursery school had been affiliated with the church before,” Weir explained, adding she was unsure of the length of time of that affiliation.
“We’re very happy with the space,” she beamed. “It’s a nice sized room and it meets what we have to have to be licensed. We will have access to their gymnasium, too, so we’ll be able to do large motor skill activities like riding bikes.”
The arrangement with the church shouldn’t put any financial strain on the school either. “It’s pretty much the same deal we had with the school,” she explained. “It’s just a monthly fee to cover the costs . . . so it doesn’t cost them, basically.”
She explained that the nursery school will still have its regular costs for insurance and other licensing costs.
“Actually, they contacted us,” she said of how the deal was done. “When we started getting more proactive with the media, we started getting calls.
“We were happy with the support we were getting [from the community],” Weir continued. “It was just difficult finding the space we required.”
She explained there were several other locations that offered spaces and that they appreciated everything everyone did to accommodate them.