The Daily Inter Lake

It's been a tough four years for Northwest Montana Head Start, but on Tuesday Director Kathryn McLeod is inviting the public to help celebrate some smooth sailing.

Head Start will hold an open house on Oct. 24 to showcase its bright new 14,000-square-foot facility that finally brings children, teachers and administrators under one roof.

A 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick off the day of tours and visits with the staff.

From then until 1 p.m., everyone is welcome to stop in, share refreshments and get a close-up look at the facility at 79 Seventh Ave. E.N. in Kalispell. It sits on three acres just south of Bitney's Furniture, overlooking Woodland Park.

Representatives of the rural development program in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the state Community Development Block Grant program and the city of Kalispell are expected for the ribbon-cutting.

It's a significant celebration for a program that finally has a place of its own.

"A lot of it is just having a place that employees and parents can feel good about coming to," McLeod said.

Four years ago, she and her crew moved classes out of their original quarters in a church near downtown Kalispell, where the Kalispell and Evergreen programs had been housed since 1969.

Since then, they have set up classes in the old Salvation Army thrift store, the Evergreen Alliance Church and, when mold problems forced yet another move, the free-standing gym behind the church. There, they dealt with a lack of windows, crumbling ceiling and chilly class space.

For the two or three months before opening the new school this fall, they were homeless and able to provide only home-based services to families.

Now, through a communitywide effort that brought in state and federal funding, 123 children and about 30 staffers finally are settled for good in a home of their own.

That home, painted a cheerful lemon-yellow, sports four classrooms, plenty of space for activities and lessons, and plenty of windows.

There is a multipurpose room; a treatment room for speech, physical and occupational therapy sessions; a parent room; and spaces for family advocates and education, nutrition, health and transportation managers.

Staff in the school's commercial kitchen prepare breakfasts, lunches and afternoon snacks for children to eat in their classrooms. A portico to the north provides a sheltered space for children to get off and back on their school buses.

An administrative wing allowed McLeod and her staff to trade their former offices in Sunset Plaza for offices in the new school.

"It helps me remember why I'm here," she said with a big smile.

And there are windows, lots and lots of windows.

In one of the final touches this summer, 15 volunteers working as a faith-based group from across the nation visited Kalispell to install a new playground at the rear of the school and do miscellaneous work not covered in the contract.

About $33,000 in playground donations from McDonald's, First Interstate Bank, Flathead Electric's Roundup for Safety program and Mountain West Bank purchased swings, climbing toys and slides, and will install a lawn and tricycle path. Safety fencing surrounds it all.

The $2.5 million to buy the land and build the school came from a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant (federal money that gets funneled through the Montana Department of Commerce) and a $1.75 million rural development loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Both the grant and loan were approved in late 2004.

The block grant program even ranked Head Start's request as its top priority in the state.

"Part of the reason we got the funding was the community did support it," McLeod said of organizations and businesses which threw their support behind the proposal. Block grants go to municipalities, so the city was the applicant and Head Start the recipient.

Community partnerships are crucial to success, McLeod said.

The staff, numbering 65 programwide, works with social service agencies and educational organizations to support families and children. Mountain West Bank employees read to the children and sponsor teacher luncheons and school picnics. United Way funds help supply mental health services and support parent involvement.

Northwest Montana Head Start serves 234 children in five centers - at Kalispell, Columbia Falls, Martin City, Whitefish and at Rexford, where families from the entire Tobacco Valley area are served.

Children who are 3 and 4 years old on Sept. 10 each year, and whose families fall within federal poverty guidelines of $20,000 for four members, enroll in the half-day program for free. Full-day, full-year day care is offered at $16 per child per day.

A comprehensive, developmentally appropriate curriculum emphasizes kindergarten readiness. Children still learn social and life skills, but McLeod said the shift in emphasis has drawn praise from kindergarten teachers who are seeing new students much better prepared to begin their education careers.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com