Big money lets Head Start make big plans

3/17/2010

By Jim Poole

A $750,000 grant, 78 more kids and 25 new jobs add up to a huge expansion for Schoharie County Head Start.
Based at the former Aker School on Lark Street in Cobleskill, Head Start will be adding Early Head Start for children from birth to age three.
The new program will be at the Cobleskill and Schoharie centers.
“This is a big venture, something we’ve been wanting to do for years,” said Executive Director Judy McLaughlin.
Head Start has 164 three- five-year-olds in its current program, which will continue at the Cobleskill and Schoharie centers and the home-based centers in North Blenheim and Sharon Springs.
As toddlers complete Early Head Start, they’ll move into the main program.
The grant from the federal Health and Human Services will pay for two new buses, the addition of two classrooms at the Schoharie center and the new jobs.
The jobs include management positions, teachers, caregivers, bus drivers, food-service workers and others.
Head Start has 75 employees now, so its workforce will expand to 100.
“It’s nice to expand our services, but we’re really excited about the jobs,” Ms. McLaughlin said.
“Some require a degree, some a high school diploma or equivalent, and that’s good.”
Though Head Start follows the public school year, Early Head Start will be year-round. And as Head Start is four to five hours per day, Early Head Start will be six.
Day care, which Head Start offers now, will be “wrap-around”––before and after the programs.
Early Head Start will not only include infants and toddlers, but pregnant mothers as well.
“We’ll be offering pre-natal care with a nurse,” Ms. McLaughlin said.
“From birth to age five, we’ll have a program that serves families.”
Early Head Start programs for infants and toddlers will include nutrition and health, and there’s a curriculum of activities to help awareness, name recognition and creativity.
Pre-literacy is also part of the program, Ms. McLaughlin said.
“This is for families,” she added. “If you can help families earlier, they’ll be better off.
“We focus on self-sufficiency and help families achieve that.”
Head Start partnered with Community Maternity Services and the Schoharie County Council of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and those programs will offer services to Head Start families.
Early Head Start is slated to start June 1, and Ms. McLaughlin is optimistic about the new service.
“By having day care for infants and toddlers already, we have experience with them,” she said. “It’s not like we’re going into this cold.
‘I’m sure we’ll have challenges, but we’re really looking forward to this.”