At Left: Pre-K caregiver Georgia Gordon and Program Supervisor Patti Jo Church-Houle listen in as Harris Rosen reads to children Below Left: YMCA weight-room equipment was recently donated. Below: The Family Life Center was recently added to the Tangelo Park YMCA.
A Head Start “I’ve observed here in Tangelo Park over 13 years or so, that there is as much intellectual talent in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods as there is in the most affluent neighborhood,” said Mr. Rosen. “I’ve seen these kids and when you talk to these 2-, 3and 4-year-olds, they are way ahead. I don’t care where the other kids come from, if they haven’t had the 2-, 3-, 4-year-old experience, we’re ahead of them.” About 324 Pre-K children—who have since entered regular school—have participated in the Tangelo Park program since it began in 1994, states Patti Jo Church-Houle, Family Service Center Coordinator and Supervisor of the community’s 2-to-4-Year-Old Program. That total does not include about 54 children currently enrolled in the program who have yet to enter regular school. Children in the Pre-K program must be residents of Tangelo Park and their parents or guardians must supply information veri-
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fying residency. Once a student leaves the community, they are no longer eligible to continue in the program. The academic progress of former Pre-K students is tracked by Ms. Church-Houle as they go through regular school. The first students enrolled in the Pre-K program when it began will start the 8th grade this coming school year. “We’ve had the kindergarten teachers tell us that our children come much more prepared,” said Ms. Church-Houle, who began as a second-grade teacher at the elementary school 18 years ago. “And I expect that those kids—every one of them—will graduate from high school and traditionally in the United States, African American communities are graduating somewhere between 40 and 45 percent from high school,” Mr. Rosen added. The community’s Pre-K and high school scholarship programs have caused a lot of area residents to try to find housing in Tangelo Park. Parents want their children to receive the educational benefits being offered.
The Sphinx: www.APA1906.net