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Thursday, March 28, 2024

School board prepped to assume new responsibilities 

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The New Hanover County Board of Education was trained to fulfill its new role as Board of Directors for the county Head Start program during a July 17 work session.

The program, which provides preschool services for children ages 3 to 5 from low-income families, has switched hands twice since 2012, when the New Hanover County Community Action’s Head Start grant was canceled. The Community Development Institute took over in the interim.

Community Action closed a year later.

New Hanover County Schools received a $1.8 million federal grant in May, allowing the school system to assume management of the program.

Shannon Smiles, director of early childhood education for New Hanover County Schools, will oversee the program as director. She shared her progress in establishing the program and explained the board’s future role during the work session.

The board has full legal and financial responsibility for the program. New duties include approving program plans, funding applications, and hiring and termination of all Head Start staff. Smiles said many of these duties would be incorporated into regularly scheduled school board meetings.

The board will share governance with another entity, the Head Start Policy Council. The two entities will function independently, but a liaison from the board will serve on the policy council in addition to representatives from the program, the community and parents.

Smiles emphasized that the program prepares children as well as their parents for success in school, requiring more parent participation.

“Parents are very important in this program and making it successful … so we’re going to work with those parents,” Smiles said.

Parent committees will be responsible for selecting parent representatives to serve on the policy council, of which 51 percent must be parents of actively enrolled children.

The program is capped at 260 students in New Hanover County. Children must meet specific qualifications to be eligible to attend. Smiles anticipated many applicants would be put on a waiting list to attend the program.

The program will continue to take place at the Dorothy B. Johnson Pre-K Center.

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