Program to offer a jump on life

Head Start, which will give children preschooling and allow parents to work, is coming to Largo's High Point neighborhood.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 13, 2000

LARGO -- There's something wrong with this picture, Henry Muhammad thought.

It was the middle of the day and Muhammad, who runs the High Point YMCA, saw a 3 1/2-year-old boy wandering the grounds by himself.

"Why are you here?" he asked. "You can't be here without your mother."

"My mother can't take me to school," the boy replied. "She doesn't have a car."

Many other children in this neighborhood are in similar situations, Muhammad said. Some parents cannot afford preschool, choosing instead to stay at home with their children. By the time the children reach kindergarten, they may already be behind their fellow students.

But there is some help on the way.

Pinellas County Head Start has begun construction on a 3,300-square-foot building that will consist of three classrooms for about 60 3- and 4-year-olds in the neighborhood. The facility also will provide referrals to job training for their parents.

"I think the Head Start is going to be instrumental in allowing these young people to flourish," Muhammad said.

The center, which will be at 15495 58th St. N, is scheduled to be open by August. Construction of the cream-colored building is being done at another location and the structure will be moved to the site. The county's Zoning Board approved the plans in March.

"We're excited," said Michele Petys, treasurer for High Point Neighbors, a community group that will share space with Head Start. The group worked with the agency to get the plans approved.

Petys said residents had asked about having a Head Start in the neighborhood for about two years. The closest Head Start is at Jasmine Courts apartments in Clearwater, about 4 miles from High Point.

Many High Point residents live below the poverty level. Enrollment is free. Head Start requires that 90 percent of the children in the program must live in households that are below the poverty level.

"It's going to be a good opportunity for children and families," Petys said. "It helps the whole family out."

Resident Valerie Wilson said she drives her 4-year-old daughter Alexus to a home day care in Safety Harbor en route to her job as a nursing assistant in Oldsmar. Wilson said Head Start will be a welcome addition to the neighborhood, especially for friends with limited means who do not have vehicles to drive their children to a day care and cannot find a sitter in their neighborhood.

"It's a lot of people who can't go to work because they don't have anyone to take care of their kids," she said.

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