A new early education center has opened its doors in St. Albans City, bolstering the child care options available for low-income families in northwest Vermont.
Champlain Valley Head Start’s center on Barlow Street, which opened Sept. 13, includes two new classrooms for children ages 1 to 3 and an existing preschool program for those ages 3 to 5.
Head Start programs are federally funded. The new St. Albans programs are supported by about $615,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
That grant also allows Champlain Valley Head Start to expand its home-visiting program in the region, which serves families with infants, toddlers and preschoolers.
In all, the new center provides about 30 Early Head Start education slots. It currently has nine teachers and one family support specialist.
Families are eligible for Head Start programs under certain income requirements. For instance, the maximum income for a family of four is $26,500.
Children in foster care or experiencing homelessness, as well as those from families receiving public assistance, are also eligible for Head Start regardless of income.
The center-based programs in St. Albans operate Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Students get a daily breakfast, lunch and snack.
In the home-visiting program, families receive early education curriculum and weekly 90-minute visits from a Head Start educator. The parents and educators work on building skills and sometimes do activities such as cooking or taking a field trip.
Champlain Valley Head Start staff members said the new programs will serve children across Franklin and Grand Isle counties.
“It was a need for this community to have more quality programming,” said Bonnie Massey-Preston, the center’s supervisor.
Previously, the Barlow Street building housed a community center. The building dates back to 1897, Massey-Preston said, and needed improvements such as refinishing the floors and painting. A kitchen renovation is also planned.
Champlain Valley Head Start received about $307,000 in “start-up funds” for the renovations, as well as new classroom furniture and playground equipment
“The classrooms are all set up,” she said, “and the kids are enjoying themselves.”
Champlain Valley Head Start serves about 300 low-income families in total, including at locations in Addison and Chittenden counties.
On the Islands
VTDigger reported in June that, when an early childhood education center in Grand Isle closed, it left a gap in child care access that stretched across the Champlain Islands.
The center, called Learning Adventure, had operated in a building on Route 314 for more than two decades. Now, though, a child care provider called ABC Academy is eyeing an expansion into Learning Adventure’s old space.
ABC Academy has locations in Milton and St. Albans City, the latter of which also opened its doors in September with about 30 additional child care slots.
Owner Lisa LaBelle said many local families were out of child care when the Greater Burlington YMCA’s program in St. Albans City closed in the spring. The program served 38 children, the St. Albans Messenger reported at the time.
LaBelle said she’s met with the Grand Isle Selectboard and wants to get a good handle on the local need for new child care services before proceeding.
“We’re in the very beginning stages of the process,” she said.
