BOW Approves Parks Dept., Head Start Partnership Agreement
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Warsaw Parks Department and Kosciusko County Head Start will be allowed to continue to share information with their clients and patrons about each other’s services. The federal government requires Head Start on a yearly basis to develop Community Partnership Agreements with outside agencies, Staci Young, recreation director, said during Wednesday’s Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety meeting. BOW approved an agreement for Warsaw Parks Department to refer clients who qualify for Kosciusko County Head Start. Head Start agrees to provide materials and brochures and applications from the parks department upon requests by families. In previous years, the parks department provided a free kids program for the Early Head Start group, however, this will not occur this year due to transportation funding cuts. The board reviewed a letter on the transportation funding cuts from Kathryn Fields, Head Start family services specialist. Due to sequestration that took effect March 1, the office of Head Start has stated this will result in a 5 percent cut for all Head Start and Early Head Start programs. This will result in changes within the Head Start program for the next school year. The Head Start full-day classes and the Early Head Start center-based class have been closed. All Early Head Start children will be serviced through a home-based program. In an effort to continue servicing as many children as possible with the highest quality of eduction, the Head Start classes now will be extended to include a six-hour preschool day. Times of classes have not yet been determined. Head Start classes will still be offered at Warsaw, Mentone and North Webster. The Head Start program will no longer offer bus transportation to its families due to funding cuts.
