High School’s Head Start Program May Be 1st of Its Kind in the State

A preschool for children from low-income families that may be the first of its kind in the state opens today at Hueneme High School in Oxnard.

Ventura County’s Head Start program, which runs 13 other low-income day-care programs in the county, will utilize high school students taking child-care classes to work with the preschoolers to gain experience and class credit.

The new preschool, Viking Head Start, will operate from a large portable building set up on the grounds of the Oxnard school.

“We think it’s at least the first in California,” said Alicia Lewis, Head Start program manager. It may be the first of its kind in the nation, she said.

The new preschool, at 500 W. Bard Road, opens its doors today for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:45 a.m. and tours of the facility.

Head Start is a federally funded preschool program for 3- and 4-year-old children from low-income families. Begun 26 years ago, it’s designed to give needy children the socializing experience of preschool as well as medical, dental and nutritional attention.

The children attend free and are provided with hot meals. They spend 3 1/2 hours a day, five days a week, at the site, doing everything from painting to listening to stories.

At the Viking center, which took a $286,000 federal grant to set up, a bike path meanders around the site, and a play structure stands ready for the children who will begin attending in seven to 10 days.

Lewis said 40 children are lined up for the morning session and another 40 for the afternoon. They are split between two classrooms, managed by a teacher and an assistant in each.

Hueneme juniors and seniors taking the school’s child development class may earn five extra credits by assisting the Head Start teacher 90 minutes a day, said Daisy Tatum, assistant principal.

The class examines what children do at different stages, and it draws students interested in the child-care profession, as well as those seeking good parenting skills, she said. About 75 to 100 students take the class, but Tatum said she does not know how many will decide to work with the preschool.

The offer also is open to pregnant students and new parents, said Tatum, who was instrumental in setting up the partnership.

“It will be worthwhile to watch the school and the community work hand-in-hand,” she said.

The county’s Head Start program is thriving. The Viking center is one of three new sites Lewis expects to open this year. The second is located on the grounds of San Miguel Elementary School in Oxnard and will open in about two weeks. The third, at Piru Elementary School, will be ready in about a month, bringing the total of Head Start centers to 16.

Families must meet federal poverty guidelines for their children to be eligible to attend the preschools. Filling them up has not been a problem.

“With the recession, we’re seeing a lot more families that are eligible,” Lewis said. In fact, about 5,000 children in the county now meet the guidelines.

With the new sites, the $3.8-million-a-year program will serve 856 children, she said. The federal cost per child is high--about $3,800--because the staff works intensely with parents as well as the children, she said.

Lewis believes that the program is viewed as successful because it is growing despite a sluggish economy that has forced other publicly funded social programs to cut back.

“We’ve received a lot more funding when federal dollars are drying up,” she said.