Brigitte Haas was a member of the board of the Unterhaching integration and forest kindergarten association for four years – from 2013 to 2017, when her child attended the facility on Isartalstraße near the Perlacher Forest. At that time she experienced how complex this voluntary task in the parents’ initiative is. “If you were lucky, it was two hours of work a week,” says Haas, who now works as managing director of the Taufkirchner association Integra. “But if you were unlucky, it was sometimes twenty hours.”
Since that time, the workload for the board members has not decreased – on the contrary. Brigitte Haas says that the constant search for specialists and official requirements are making more and more demands on the parents’ initiative in terms of administration. Therefore, the association from Unterhaching, which runs the integrative kindergarten “Piratenmäuse” on Walter-Paetzmann-Straße in addition to the “Waldmäuse” forest kindergarten, looked for a partner – and found one in Taufkirchen. The parents’ initiative will merge with the Integra association. After its general meeting has already decided this, one is currently waiting for the entry in the register of associations, says Brigitte Haas. After that, the merger will take effect retrospectively at the beginning of the year.
Nothing changes for parents and children of both institutions
The format of the merger has the advantage that all contracts – especially with the teachers in the kindergartens – would be continued seamlessly and unchanged, says Haas. Nothing will change for the children and parents in the Unterhaching facilities – except, of course, for the previous board members. One of them is Stephanie Lorenz, who is now a member of the Integra board. Looking back on the work in Unterhaching, she says that parent initiatives are “a phase-out model” in view of the changing framework conditions. With a facility size of almost 50 children and 15 employees, one full-time employee is needed for the administration, emphasizes Lorenz. “But that’s not financially feasible.”
From now on, the Integra association will take care of the administration of the two groups of pirate mice and the one-group forest kindergarten. They are currently struggling with staff shortages there; among other things, a new manager for the facility is being sought. Meanwhile, the merger will also bring advantages for Integra, says Brigitte Haas. After all, the association has been running a forest kindergarten in Taufkirchen since last year, which can now cooperate closely with its counterpart in Unterhaching. In addition, Integra is already represented in the neighboring town – as the provider of an integrative crèche in Grünwalder Weg. Brigitte Haas says that their children, who are going to kindergarten due to their age, can now also be offered an integrative facility in the same community in the Piratenmäuse. She emphasizes: “Integra is now also an integrative engine in Unterhaching.”