WACOG preschool links up with elementary curriculum

In a step toward a true community facility, the Western Arizona Council of Governments (WACOG) opened its Head Start Center at the Carver School with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday.

The grand opening of the preschool will provide vital services for 60 low-income students and their families, said Brenda Poels, WACOG area manager.  

Indigent children will now have immunizations, physical and dental exams, information about Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (state health insurance) and KidsCare, a low-cost insurance for those under 18, she noted.

"The whole idea is to get kids up to speed so they're ready for kindergarten from day one," said Brian Babiars,  WACOG executive director.

The preschool, for 3- to 5-year-old children, was formerly housed in modular buildings at Rancho Viejo School. The classrooms moved to Carver and they will conduct full-day operations, Babiars said. And contrary to the frequent monogram attached to early childhood development programs, this will not be a baby-sitting service, he stressed.

"We provide education services, teaching children their pre-reading skills: letters, numbers, colors and other basics. And the key to our program is it's bilingual, because a lot of the children are monolingual Spanish so we have a curriculum to teach them English."

In addition, all children receive dental and health screenings to make certain  that any latent health problems can be corrected before they begin school.

WACOG is a nonprofit founded in 1971 designed to serve local communities of low-income residents and vulnerable populations living in Yuma, La Paz and Mohave counties. It works to make improvements on a broad range of issues some of which includes Head Start (serving 23,000 children in 500 state locations), low-income home energy assistance, nutrition and transit, among other programs.

And to be the full-service community school they aspire to be, Carver is negotiating with Campesinos Sin Fronteras, a nonprofit group, to provide adult education instructors as well, said Debra Drysdale, Carver principal.

"It's wonderful from our perspective to have a preschool at Carver, so 3- to 4-year-olds can attend the same site as our 5- to 12-year-olds."

Even though Helping Hands, another preschool, was in the neighborhood, it seemed far away, Drysdale said. But with WACOG's Head Start Center at Carver, "they've joined our academic circle by being on the same piece of real estate," she said.

Rosie Ceniseros, director of the preschool, has already made steps to link it and Carver through shared activities, training and parental involvement.

"It's a privilege working with Principal Drysdale, coordinating activities, because we get invited to many special events and in that way the preschool children get better acquainted to the curriculum they will move on to once in school."

Ceniseros said the Head Start Center will be staffed by half of the personnel currently at Helping Hands. So they will begin with an already experienced crew and expand instruction from four to six hours. Also, with new facilities at Head Start, they can accommodate special needs children with physical and developmental disabilities.

Head Start's collaboration with Carver renews the relationship they already initiated last year when Carver's food services cooked and delivered their meals, Drysdale said.

"By having the preschool here, I hope it encourages parents make the natural transition to Carver when children are promoted to kindergarten and keep them in the neighborhood."