The staff at Head Start of Eastern Orange County on Gidney Avenue in Newburgh are preparing for September 13, when some 225 three and four-year-old children will step inside for their first day of school.
Before the children arrive, however, the staff at Head Start held an orientation for parents who would be sending their little ones off to school, some of them riding school buses for the first time.
About fifty people showed up on Tuesday morning for a tour of the building, which is the former St. Mary’s parish school. They visited classrooms and heard about the programs offered for parents at the school.
Margaret Bodison welcomed the parents to Head Start of Eastern Orange County.
Margaret Bodison is the parent involvement manager at Head Start of Eastern Orange County and she welcomed the parents, encouraging them to stay awhile in the mornings when they drop their children off and to take part in special programs, including one designed just for fathers.
Parent partnerships are a fundamental principle of the national Head Start program, which was started in 1965 to serve low-income families. Bodison’s been with the program since 1972, when only 18 children participated, and has come to know thousands of children through Head Start.
Nurturing families is part of the job of Head Start.
She explained later that the she works with a staff of parent advocates to support parents’ efforts to nurture their children and to design their own goals in the community, whether it is to seek more education for themselves or better housing.
The local Head Start office has more than a dozen programs designed to bring supportive social and educational services to the families of students. Edna Citron, a representative of one of those agencies, called Inspire, said her agency provides early intervention services for children starting at age 2-1/2 who may have developmental disabilities that can be resolved with special classes and services. Citron, who is Inspire’s vice president of education, said they prefer to work with children in the classroom so they can learn the motor skills or cognitive skills side-by-side with their peers.
Bodison also described some of the other services available from speech pathologists to aides who can help children learn social skills, like waiting their turn before speaking out. “Head Start is a good resource for these issues,” she told the parents who stood listening very attentively. “Don’t get worried though, it will all be good.”
Loading...
