More children than places: the situation in Peitinger daycare centers was tense again this year

Created: 04/12/2022, 16:03

By: Christopher Peters

The completion of the new kindergarten on Jägerstraße has been delayed.

That doesn't make the tense care situation in the Peitinger day-care centers any easier.

© Hans-Helmut Herold

According to the current status, there are again no childcare places in Peiting for the new kindergarten year.

The market town is optimistic that it will be able to accommodate all the children.

However, one big unknown remains in the bill.

Peiting

– Registering your own child for a day-care center is easy in Peiting.

With just a few clicks of the mouse, parents can select the facility they want online and send off the application.

Parents can also find out electronically whether it was successful.

Of course, not every wish will come true this year, because once again the demand for places is greater than the supply.

The community faced the same problem last year.

At that time, every effort was made to accommodate all the children.

An additional emergency group for kindergarten children was set up in one of the exercise rooms in the Therese-Peter house for children.

Because the crèche also had significantly more registrations than places, two classrooms in the Alfons Peter elementary school were converted into group rooms.

Because the new kindergarten building is being delayed, emergency places are still required

Nothing will change in these interim solutions in the new kindergarten year, which begins in autumn.

Because the municipality is still urgently dependent on the emergency places after the new building of the seven-group kindergarten on Jägerstraße will drag on until Easter 2023, as reported.

The new facility was originally supposed to open in autumn, but delays on the construction site mean that the date cannot be met.

Mayor Peter Ostenrieder assures us that we are now well on schedule.

At least at the beginning of the new kindergarten year, things will get tight again in the Peitingen daycare centers.

According to Wolfgang Schweiger, 15 registrations more than places were received.

It is now necessary to accommodate these children in the already overcrowded facilities.

"It's catastrophic that the new kindergarten isn't finished on time," regrets the administrative employee responsible.

"Then things would be very relaxed."

Schweiger announces that the next step will be to hold talks with the individual daycare managers about what is feasible.

It is also possible that in the end you do not need a childcare place for all 15 children.

So it could well be that one or the other will back down if the desired facility is not possible, says Schweiger, looking at the experiences of the past few years.

You still have to wait for the school enrollments.

Caring for Ukrainian refugee children could exacerbate the problem

Both Schweiger and Ostenrieder are confident that there will be a solution at the end of the day.

An unknown that could throw all calculations overboard, but remains.

It has to do with those who are fleeing the war from Ukraine to Germany.

Families have also found accommodation in Peiting.

Some Ukrainian children are already attending local schools.

Schweiger fears that caring for additional refugee children could become a problem for the Peitingen daycare centers that are already full.

Not only because of the lack of space, but also because the staff is not sufficient.

So those responsible have no choice but to practice expedient optimism.

Somehow we will manage that too.