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Second Head Start Program Added in Cedar Falls

Posted on: Saturday, 17 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Emily Christensen, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Jun. 17--CEDAR FALLS -- Another Cedar Falls school will be serving preschool-aged children this fall through the Tri-County Head Start program.

Fifteen students are already registered for the class at Lincoln Elementary. The class is open to 16 students. The half-day program already serves 16 students at North Cedar Elementary.

"This is just another feather in the cap for Cedar Falls," said Clark Goltz, director of secondary education. "We planned Lincoln with a preschool class in mind and when we open, it will be there."

The class is open to 4-year-olds in the Cedar Falls school district. Goltz said 12 of the students currently enrolled live in the Lincoln district, two come from Hansen and one from Southdale.

Lincoln co-principal Kim Cross is excited to know the preschool room will be put to use when the school opens this fall.

"We thought we would have to find funding for that, and then Head Start came to us and said they would provide the funding for it," Cross said. "You can't say no to that."

Students will receive instruction 3.5 hours a day, five days a week for the duration of the school year. The district will receive about $2,225 per semester for each child enrolled in the program. Tri-County Head Start also will provide one part-time assistant teacher at North Cedar and a full-time family worker who will serve both sites.

Cross said the district hopes to have the preschool teacher hired this month.

The Lincoln preschool room has a separate entrance along the bus driveway so parents can easily park once the school day has started and walk their child to the classroom. Goltz said having the youngsters in the building a full year before they start kindergarten has proved very beneficial at North Cedar.

Many of the children already know their way around the school and have bonded with other teachers and students. That confidence and the education they receive in their Head Start classroom often propels them to the top of their kindergarten class, Goltz said.

"The program at North Cedar has been so successful, we know this one will have the same success," he said.

Contact Emily Christensen at (319) 291-1520 or emily.christensen@wcfcourier.com.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier, Iowa

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Waterloo Courier

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