Estherville’s current Head Start situation has classrooms scattered throughout the city, Upper Des Moines Opportunity director Jamey Whitney said.
Whitney addressed the Board of Supervisors at Tuesday’s meeting about the Head Start, Early Head Start, and 0 to 5 programs.
“Right now for the Head Start, we currently have two spaces in the school [of the three Head Start classrooms] we need, but we will eventually locate two of our zero to five classrooms at Demoney. In addition, children ages zero to three and their families may participate in the Early Head Start Program in Buena Vista, Clay, and Emmet Counties.
UDMO’s Head Start Program is recognized for its collaboration with local school districts and Area Education Agencies. The other reason is that we need the grant to start construction; we can’t pay the mortgage until we are charging rent to the Head Start program, which we cannot do until it is built and they move in,”?Whitney said.
Estherville Lincoln Central School District had originally planned to build three Head Start classrooms into the new Demoney Elementary addition, Whitney said.
“We had just received an expansion grant from the federal government to add a third classroom, because we have kids in our county who need the service.”
Ultimately, the new Demoney addition only includes two classrooms, Whitney said.
“We’re working with the City to purchase the property,”?Whitney said. If we don’t do it this year, I think the opportunity might be lost.”
The starting number for UDMO?is approximately $140,000, Whitney said.
The property was originally listed for $4 million “but we reduced that by quite a bit,”?Whitney said.
“I?strictly want it to be those classrooms,”?Whitney said.
This would not go over $2 million, Whitney said.
The City of Estherville would purchase a portion of the property. City administrator Penny Clayton was present at the meeting, along with Economic Development director Lyle Hevern.
Clayton said the City does have a plan for the use of a portion of the property, but she could not say anything about that plan at this time.
The board tabled formal discussion of a possible grant or loan to UDMO for purchase of the Head Start building for the Oct.
