We have been putting together a number of materials related to the program we want to offer at Echo Montessori and building the plan to accomplish it. One of the early steps is to begin the licensing process for ontario(Check out the first steps at the child care learning site. But note, the Ministry of Education is soon going to be responsible, so things may change).
The first step of the licensing process is attendence to an introductory course where some basic child care facility and program information is covered and a great deal of logistical information is covered. Not always a positive discussion as you hear about how operators have got tripped up, in one case on zoning, for three years. Yikes. And zoning or location is indeed one of the first licensing hurdles as all the licensing process is so tightly bound to location. Additionally the rules come in from the municipality, the day nursuries act, insurance companies and others. All of which you have to be pretty confident you can clear before entering a lease agreement. One of the best hiccups was between the licensing body who can not license before liability insurance is in place and insurance company who would not insure an unlicensed facilty resulting in a deadlock eventually resolved by a provisional license, followed by insurance, followed by a complete license.
However, our attendence did have an interesting diversion. In the course of the discussion with the program lead we discovered there was a passionate group of parents from a formerly operating Montessori school in Orangeville. The school had closed suddenly mid year for reasons unrelated to the parents interest and they were seeking an operator. Now, we at Echo are currently "pre location" so the prospect of a built in group of parents in a slightly different region was worth spending a bit of a hectic week to share our vision for a school and our plan to achieve it before September. Keep in mind this is a complete program from Toddler through to Middle School.
It certainly pulled us off the "organic growth" program that we had been considering and brought location and startup issues into even greater focus. It also had us driving to Orangeville to get a feel for the region. We were pleasantly surprised at the depth and breadth of services in what is a relatively small town as measured by population. While we did get greater appreciation for Orangeville and met a great group of parents and teachers the ultimate result is we are not going to be operating in that area.
So our whirlwind adaptation of our program and business proposals was fun and intense but ultimately has returned us, and not by the straightest path, to a small program with big asperations. And we have come back to the path a little wiser for having travelled that way.
