Delta Health Alliance has short term and long term goals for Sunflower County’s Head Start program.
It was announced a couple of weeks ago that DHA had been awarded the grant to take over the county’s Head Start schools, and the organization is wasting no time in getting started.
First, DHA plans to hire over 100 people.
Over the next five years, DHA Vice President of Educational Programs Carolyn Willis said she hopes to build a team that will have both Montessori and National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) accreditation.
“Those are all national standards,” Willis told The E-T this week.
DHA will host a job fair at the Capps Center in Indianola on Saturday between 8:30 and 11:30 a.m.
There, DHA will begin assembling a team that will include center directors, teachers, assistant teachers, substitute teachers, project support positions, bus drivers, maintenance technicians and custodians.
Willis said that each position is integral to the success of the program.
“We of course are looking for people who really have an interest in early childhood education and it’s going to take a team to build this sort of model that we envision,” Willis said. “We are going to look to hire people who are invested in our children and our family, and in doing so, investing in themselves as well.”
Willis said that DHA will not only offer the job opportunities, but they hope to help each employee excel through professional development.
“We want to identify top-notch people who are willing to take this journey with us,” she said.
DHA is no stranger to Sunflower County’s education system.
The organization has been a longtime partner with the Sunflower County Consolidated School District, where they have focused on improving literacy in lower elementary grades, helping the district meet a host of new third grade reading standards.
“This is an opportunity for us to expand on the work we have been doing over the course of the last several years,” Willis said.
DHA has also worked with early childcare centers in the county and has spearheaded projects like Imagination Library.
“This work is very important to us,” Willis said. “We have served children in Sunflower County with other partners and I think we have established really good relationships with these partners, but I think this really gives us that footprint where we had such a small one in the past to being able to serve even more children.”
Prior to receiving the Head Start grant, DHA served around 200 students in the county. That number will rise to around 756 students.
DHA takes over the Head Start program from Save the Children, which has operated it for several years. Save the Children opted not to renew its application for the grant and is working with DHA on the transition.
