Head Start breaks ground on new L.B. facility

Pine Street building closed since Hurricane Sandy

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Long Beach Head Start, a federal, comprehensive early childhood education program for children from low-income families, will have a new home after it received a grant to fully fund the construction of a new, state-of-the-art $7 million building to replace the one destroyed during Hurricane Sandy.

The Economic Opportunity Commission of Nassau County, which runs the Head Start programs across the county, held a demolition and groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 8 to celebrate the changes ahead for the program in Long Beach.

Head Start has operated in Long Beach for the past 34 years, and in that time has provided comprehensive services to over 2,300 children and families in the community. Prior to Sandy, there were 60 students, ages 3 to 5, enrolled in the program. The building, at 1 East Pine St., was not salvageable after the storm. However, the EOC was able to continue the program for the students, bussing 46 of the children to the head Start location in Wantagh, and providing in-home services for the remaining 12.

Rev. Anita Shiver-Kennedy, Head Start director for the EOC of Nassau County, said that new facility is projected to take a year and a half to complete. While the previous facility was one-story and had four small classrooms, with limited space for offices and meetings, the new building will be an elevated three-story building, to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency regulations and protect against future storms. It will also have four much-larger classrooms, Shiver-Kennedy said, along with a multipurpose room, staff and administrative offices, Smart Boards in every classroom and a fully-enclosed rooftop playground. The project is expected to cost $7 million and is fully funded by the Federal Office Administration for Children and Families Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief Funds. 

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