Editorials
Head Start Story Concerns Fair Board
Feb 14, 2008, 14:03
The Boundary County Fair Board has some comments on the January 2008 article entitled "New Head Start Center Breaks Ground." The board strongly supports the Head Start program and has done all we can legally do to accommodate the needs of the school.
By state charter, the Fair Board can only used funds to support a fair. Therefore, we can maintain the facility but cannot make modifications specifically for the benefit of non-fair activities (that is the law). We are concerned how the fair facilities and the board were characterized in the subject article.
The article states that the school is housed in a "makeshift room at the Fairgrounds that served as a food service and restroom facility." In fact, the school occupies or uses nine rooms constructed for Fairground use. The food service facility is just a door open away from the classrooms. The Head Start program requested and the Fair Board gladly granted the program the use of the food service room (kitchen).
The fair area the school uses, which includes the restrooms, is locked so that Head Start has exclusive use. In your January article, the facility is described as "woefully inadequate with sinks and toilets at adult heights and the restroom is far from the classroom."
Built with donations and county money for Boundary County Fair use, the sinks and toilets are at adult height.
The board encourages the school to use steps and platforms to allow access, which they do. We must assume that most, if not all, young children have adult-sized facilities at home and that their parents or guardians provide assistance of some kind for safety's sake.
The restrooms are not in the classrooms, but are actually almost six feet away across an enclosed hallway (is that "far away?"). Sorry we could not install a sink or toilet actually in the classroom, as it would not be considered as being in support of the fair.
The board is further painted as abusive by making the school "pack up and place in storage" the classroom supplies and equipment during fair time. This is true, but is it cost-effective to the county to use an entire facility for storage during summer school break?
The school throughout its rental has been allowed to maintain their office and storage rooms so they actually move and store toys, tables and small chairs and some support items.
Those are some of the issues we have with the article. We urge you to come over to the Fairgrounds, visit the facilities and check out the "distant" classrooms.