Head Start program will move to Wheeler;

District and Head Start collaboration increases

                 The Head Start program will be located at H.O. Wheeler Elementary School for the 2006-07 school year.

                The discussions begun earlier this year have resulted in a higher level of collaboration between the District and Head Start.

Among the changes this agreement represents are: The District will help Head Start access state funding; Head Start will use that state funding to pay for its space within the District. Head Start will participate in District trainings provided to other early education programs.

"The end result is what's most important: continued Head Start services in the Old North End and more support for Head Start educators," said Superintendent Jeanne Collins.

                Head Start's Old North End program had been located at the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington for the past eight years. The Club notified Head Start that it needed to find new space for the 2005-06 school year.

The Burlington School District agreed to provide space for a year beginning in August 2005 rent free. The one-year contract was specific, including a six-month notification date in case the classroom was required for District needs. When the District decided to lease or sell the Taft School, programs housed there needed to move into existing District space. The District appropriately notified Head Start of the need to reclaim space first by a phone call and then by the formal letter required in the contract.

Other key elements of the agreement between the Burlington School District and Head Start are:

   First priority for the Head Start preschool slots will be given to children from the H.O. Wheeler or Barnes, especially for English Language Learner (ELL) children. Head Start will continue to collaborate with the Essential Early Education to serve up to three children on Individual Education Plans.

   Head Start will meet with the reading coach and/or kindergarten teacher at H.O. Wheeler in the fall of each year and review the kindergarten assessment results for former Head Start students and identify ways the Head Start program can, through its curriculum, address any areas that indicate a need for improvement.  Head Start will work to align its curriculum with the District kindergarten curriculum.

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