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Head Start a welcome new neighbor

The Clearwater center has 60 children learning words and numbers. There's room for 40 more students.

By MARSHA STRICKHOUSER
Published April 10, 2006

CLEARWATER - When Pinellas County Head Start arrived in North Greenwood, the staff made sure the neighborhoods knew it.

Nearly 50 staffers, including the director and education manager, took to the streets in early March to announce their arrival. Led by the Head Start van, they distributed fliers and let the community know the Isay Gulley Head Start Center was open.

"We wanted to have that contact with the community," said M. Juanita Heinzen, executive director of Pinellas County Head Start, who is quick with a smile and ready to give both newcomers and old friends what she calls "a Head Start hug."

"One lady right over there (pointing behind the center) didn't realize it was a school; she thought it was a park," said Arlene Roig-Garcia, education manager for the program.

Now that Isay Gulley Head Start's doors are open, 60 children are enrolled. But there is room for 40 more, Heinzen said.

The preschool early-learning services are provided free to low-income families, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Pinellas is serving 1,617 children countywide in 23 centers. The Greenwood location is the newest.

"We're (also) here to help folks who have some type of challenge, a disabled head of household, single parents - either mothers or fathers - along with children with disabilities," Heinzen said.

Head Start also serves foster-care children and those with no supervision because family members must work. The Isay Gulley center has eight teachers and expects to hire more as enrollment increases. Many of their students are bilingual, so they are looking for teachers who speak both English and Spanish.

Children learn music, reading, science and numbers. Perhaps even more important, they learn problem-solving skills, including how to interact with other children and adults, following directions and experiencing success, Heinzen said.

Inside, blue and red plastic bins are lined up on shelves with the names of the children. Bright blue geometric rugs show shapes of triangles, circles and stars. Red finger paintings hang on the walls. Wooden kitchen equipment is lined up waiting for little hands to twist and turn and open and shut and bang some pots and pans around.

Outside, the playground is walled, gated and secured. The grounds are dotted with bright and colorful play equipment. A sheltered area with tables will be the new outdoor classroom and a place for science experiments for the 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled there.

Children attend the school twice a week from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. In addition to other services available, each family has a home visit per week.

"It helps establish a rapport with the family and lets them know we're there to help," said Roig-Garcia.

The visits help get feedback, build relationships and empower the parents.

"We let them know that they are the first and most powerful educator of their child," Heinzen said. "It's your (the parents') role model that's the most powerful."

Certainly the role model for this center has been Isay Gulley, president and chief executive officer of Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services, who turned the site of a once-notorious bar into a new business development center.

In addition to Head Start, office space has been leased to a tax preparation company, and there is room for two more businesses. One, they hope, will be an ice cream parlor.

Gulley's mark is felt throughout the revitalized neighborhood, which sits just north of the North Greenwood Recreation Complex and Ross Norton Recreation and Aquatic Complex. The brick streets, a roundabout, landscaped medians and wrought iron lanterns now grace the area.

"It's a promise that was fulfilled to the community," Gulley said. "Too often urban communities are promised things that never materialize. This is not the case. Head Start was committed to coming to the area and they did just that. It's just the beginning of us doing things together to further the community. And education is where it begins."

Marie Marry, 40, agrees. Marry, who lives a couple blocks away from the center, signed up her four grandchildren for the program. She has 4-year-old twin grandsons, who just started the program and two 3-year-olds who will begin next fall.

Marry was so excited to hear about the center, she's been giving out fliers to friends and neighbors and moms she meets at the park.

"A lot of kids stay home. They don't get a chance to go to school," Marry said. "I think they did a wonderful job moving the Head Start there. They're giving the neighborhood something, and for the families that can't afford it. I think they need to open up more centers like that."

Thomas Hinson, manager of Smith Grocery across the street, has lived and worked in the neighborhood since the 1970s. His mother owns the convenience store, which is punctuated with visits from locals looking for Swisher Sweets cigars and soft drinks, snacks and cigarettes.

Hinson is glad to see the new center and children in the neighborhood.

"It's a welcome part of the community. It brings a new feeling within the community," he said. "In the '40s and '50s, this was a thriving black community. But things stood at a standstill and time just passed it by.

"Now, there are changes in this city that are happening. People as a whole make a difference, especially when they see that there's an investment in it."

[Last modified April 10, 2006, 01:54:16]