Vegas Head Start program to expand

A program that was under federal scrutiny just a year ago has bounced back and now plans to expand after the West Las Vegas school board unanimously approved the extended day double session at last week’s board meeting.

Head Start Director Joseph Griego said the program addresses children who don’t have coverage or parents who need more assistance. He said initially the program would serve at least 17 families and after that, it would add a class a year.

Griego said the goal is to have 10 standard Head Start classrooms and 10 extended day classrooms.

Griego said it’s really an after-school program. “Our community assessment has been stating that there’s a need for something other than the standard school day, so this will give services to kids from 7:45 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” he said.

Griego said generally the workday is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., so the quandary for parents was what to do with their kids from 2:45 p.m. when school let out until they got off work at 5 p.m.

Griego said Head Start is back on its feet and better than ever.

“We have some national initiatives — for example, grants from Pfizer, UCLA and Johnson and Johnson for a health care institute that we are giving on Oct. 24. Now that we are in compliance and meeting federal regulations. We are qualifying to head up some of these initiatives, and we are qualifying for funding. So this is good for the community,” he said.