School Board discusses running Head Start

The St. Landry Parish School Board may be running the Head Start program in the parish by next year if it receives a $7.5 million grant.
Superintendent Edward Brown said the application process was expected to begin in October, but has not begun.
“We probably will be vying for it against other bodies or schools,” he said at a meeting Thursday where five Head Start professionals from Acadia, Calcasieu, Sabine and Iberville parishes talked about their programs to the School Board.
“The ladies brought a wealth of information we need in our quest in trying to gain this program,” Brown said after the meeting.
Head Start is a federally-funded program for 3- and 4-year-olds from low-income families.
Scott Champagne, Title I director for the St. Landry Parish school system, estimated there about 750 Head Start students at 10 sites in the parish.
The school system is already involved in early childhood education through 38 sites with pre-kindergarten programs, he said.
The current provider of Head Start services is a private for-profit company, Champagne said.
Brown said he has no concerns about the system’s capability to take on the Head Start program and sees advantages to the move.
“The earlier we get them, the better off they are going to be and the better off the system is going to be,” he said.
Where possible, Brown said the Head Start students would be moved to the school system’s campuses.
A parish study was conducted that found children that came through the system’s pre-kindergarten “were heads and shoulders above Head Start.”
Should the parish school system acquire the Head Start program all federally-funded property at the existing centers would be transferred to the parish program, Champagne said.
Board member Donnie Perron said the “ultimate question” is whether children improved in the school-run Head Starts.
Each of the panel members said students improved. The panel members were Sondra Myers, of Acadia Parish; Sherly Piper and Nypheteria Clophus, of Calcasieu Parish; Lydia Canova, of Iberville Parish; and Melyssa Snelling, of Sabine Parish.
Myers, who retired a year ago as Head Start director in Acadia Parish, said the program had a difficult beginning in her parish, “but once people saw that this was a program that helped not just 4-year-olds, but took in the 3-year-olds and began to prepare them, then it was a positive thing.”
The most important issue to have someone positive at helm who is willing to learn about Head Start, she said.
“It is an excellent program,” Myers said. “Head Start is the premium lab for early childhood education in the United States.”
The panel varied on Head Start staffing. Acadia Parish requires teachers to have an associate degree in child development and a bachelor’s degree, but other parishes require a certified teacher.
Perron said, “I think people realize the importance of early childhood education. I think this board is going to be 100 percent behind it. I know the administration and the school people realize the importance of it”