EASTHAMPTON — Families can now enroll their preschool-aged children in a new Community Action Pioneer Valley Head Start classroom at Mountain View School, marking the program’s return to the city after five years.
Marianne Bouthilette, interim director of CAPV’s Head Start and Early Learning Programs, told the Gazette that the classroom is much more than just a learning opportunity. CAPV’s Head Start and Early Learning Programs offer a variety of support services for the children enrolled, including health and nutrition programming, an advocate that works with the family to establish goals, mental health services and more.
“What is really different about the Head Start programs is that we also have what’s called comprehensive services to help support the child and the family,” Bouthilette said.
CAPV is an independent nonprofit that will oversee the Head Start classroom inside Mountain View School. The classroom will enroll 15 students between the ages of 2½ and 5 years old, and is scheduled to open on Sept. 8, just after the start of the upcoming school year.
Applications are now open and families don’t have to live in Easthampton to be accepted. Families that receive cash or food assistance, Supplemental Security Income, have children in foster care or are experiencing homelessness, are prioritized. The classroom will be able to use the school’s elementary playground, cafeteria and gymnasium.
“All families — including families outside of Easthampton — are welcome to apply,” Kara Peters, enrollment manager for head start and early learning programs, said in a statement. “We prioritize families based on their circumstances and needs.”
CAPV Executive Director Lev BenEzra said partnering with families to meet their needs is at the forefront of Head Start classroom’s mission.
“Our goal with every family is to support the success of the child, family and the whole community,” BenEzra said in a statement. “Enrollment in our Head Start and Early Learning Programs is the front door.”
Easthampton was previously home to a Head Start classroom for many years inside the former White Brook Middle School, until it was demolished in 2021 to make way for Mountain View. Since then, CAPV offered Head Start programming to Easthampton families in Northampton at the Vernon Street School location. That location will stay open.
Superintendent Michelle Balch said bringing the classroom back to Easthampton is an exciting opportunity, and will allow for students in the program to transition much more smoothly into kindergarten at Mountain View after graduating.
“Anytime we can add additional high-quality Pre-K programming to our schools, that’s something that we’re very much looking forward to,” said Balch, who was tasked by the School Committee to bring a Head Start classroom back to Easthampton when she started last summer.
BenEzra says the success of Head Start classrooms is evident. Head Start graduates have higher rates of graduation from high school and college, and greater lifetime earnings, according to her, with a model that emphasizes early intervention.
“This model looks at really high-intensity intervention with young children, building their school readiness so that they go to school ready to learn, healthy and well,” BenEzra said in an interview. “Simultaneously, it really supports the parents. Head Start was really a pioneering model of a multi-generational approach.”
Head Start classrooms are located across the country, created in the 1960s as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, and are federally funded through grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Humans Services. CAPV uses its grant to leverage other funds for programming, BenEzra said.
After new Head Start programs open in Easthampton and Westfield this fall, CAPV will operate a total of nine programs in Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden counties.
“We built the building to allow capacity for us, as our grant allows, to be able to expand and serve more children,” BenEzra said. “Westfield is one of the communities with the longest waitlists that we have for any of our sites, so there’s a very significant need there.”
For more information about applying, visit www.communityaction.us or call 413-387-1250.
