A ribbon cutting Thursday morning celebrated the new Geminus Head Start building in Portage Township while little ones were already being cared for on their first day inside the 15,000-square-foot facility.
Filled with natural light and qualified staff, the building ensures that the children it serves, who must meet poverty and age requirements, have the resources they need to be ready for kindergarten.
“We decided to go big or go home,” Karen Carradine, vice president of early childhood services for Geminus Head Start, told the crowd as she described a process that began in 2018 with a modest plan for a four-room schoolhouse.
The building got bigger and bigger as plans were made to best provide early childhood and prenatal care and education. She said leaders at Head Start Region 5 were very patient with her ever-expanding vision.
“I said, ‘Wait! Wait! We need a little bit more room,’” for the staff “to have the space and environment where they can do their best work. They approved every ask of our project’s needs.”
And it’s not just the physical environment Carradine champions for Porter County children. In an industry where early childhood educators are traditionally undervalued, the aids’ hourly wages were recently raised from $13 to $18 per hour.
She’s still working to improve teacher salaries which she says are at $50,000 compared to the state average of $58,000 for a kindergarten teacher. “We’re moving toward that better place,” she said. “We have hired so many parents and turned them into early childhood educators.”
Lead teachers – there’s one in each classroom – are required to hold a master’s degree, while associate teachers – also one per classroom – must have an associate’s degree. Aids must have child development accreditation.
Every childcare room and classroom has viewing windows so parents can see in, though they are also encouraged to volunteer in the classrooms, said Education & Disabilities Director Deborah Sura. There’s an Infant Room for babies 6 weeks and up. Once they begin walking, toddlers under 2 are graduated to the Toddler Room.
There’s a room for 2-year-olds, three Early Head Start Rooms, and four Head Start Rooms for 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds. There’s also a laundry, food prep room, breakroom for staff, and an outdoor learning area with space divided for toddlers and Head Start students. The space offers tandem tricycles, two rock gardens that include a water feature, drums, pots and pans to bang on, and two large planters for the kids to garden.
Other details feature in the space such as special door guards that keep little fingers from getting pinched and sturdy wooden playthings such as kitchen sets that spare the kids the visual busyness and toxins of cheap plastic furniture.
The care doesn’t stop with the children. “Head Start also wraps around for the family,” said Eric Evans, vice president for business development with Regional Care Group, explaining that Geminus Head Start offers a range of services “that are intended to help and support the family.”
The Early Head Start and Head Start programs both use the Creative Curriculum, a play-based, research-based curriculum. The program is also accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. “We kept the same curriculum so that as children are progressing through the program,” they have consistency, Sura said.
The curriculum focuses on school-readiness standards that include: social/emotional development, language, literacy, approaches to learning, cognition and math, and physical development.
“We need more social/emotional strength,” Sura said of the typical incoming kindergartner.
Portage Township Trustee Brendan Clancy, one of many speakers at the celebratory event, values that focus. He spoke of not only the academic preparedness students will receive there before kindergarten but also the social preparedness to be in society. He spoke of the children learning diversity and learning to live together as one of the most important aspects of their education.
Porter County Early Learning Academy Deputy Director Brandy Jania then spoke of a young mother who was recently referred to Head Start through a business neighbor.
“She couldn’t get a job without childcare,” Jania said. “Guess where her little’s going and guess who got a job?” she asked to cheers from the crowd of 100.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
