Okeechobee County School Superintendent Visits East Coast Migrant Head Start Project

On February 27, East Coast Migrant Head Start Project had the pleasure of welcoming Okeechobee County School Superintendent, Ken Kenworthy, and Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, Pat McCoy, to our Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Center in Okeechobee, Florida.  Mr. Kenworthy and Ms. McCoy were hosted at the center by Center Director, Rosalind Brown, and Early Childhood Education Coordinator, Briceida Perez.  Also, in attendance was Director of Program Operations, Angel Casiano, and Head Start Administrator, Loretta Jones.

Rosalind and Briceida began by providing our distinguished guests with a tour of our center.  Both Mr. Kenworthy and Ms. McCoy were impressed with how our teachers implement our curriculum and how knowledgeable Rosalind and Briceida were in implementing best practices in early childhood education.

Following the tour, we met to discuss ways we can better collaborate to make certain the children of farmworkers transition from East Coast Migrant Head Start Project ready for elementary school with the necessary skills to succeed.  On this important topic, we discussed the School District’s STAR assessment tool and how it measures what the children will need to know within the first 30 days of kindergarten.

We also discussed our annual transition to kindergarten field trip.  We explained the challenge of transporting children to this activity.  Mr. Kenworthy and Ms. McCoy agreed to research how the School District can assist us with providing transportation for the transition field trip to the local feeder schools for both of our Okeechobee Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Centers.  Additionally, we discussed the possibility of the Okeechobee County School District training ECMHSP employees to become school bus drivers and how the School District and ECMHSP can collaborate for substitute drivers.  All in all, it was a very successful meeting!

A follow-up meeting is scheduled for March 27, 2019.  At this follow-up meeting, we will provide list of individual credential staff with a Bachelor’s degree or higher and Ms. McCoy will bring the Florida state VPK requirements so we may explore how we can become a VPK site.  This will enable those teachers to work during the summer months in the VPK program.

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