Head Start off campus

After operating on school property for 19 years, Head Start no longer has a lease with the Pea Ridge School District. Leases signed in 2008 were declared null and void by Pea Ridge School Board members. The leases provided for Head Start to use a school building downtown and for the school to use the Head Start building on school property as the dressing room for visiting football teams. Head Start officials plan to remove their building from the school property.

School superintendent Rick Neal told School Board members the school district has purchased a tent for $2,000 to provide a dressing room. He said buying it was as inexpensive as renting it for 10 weeks of football season.

With no building to house classrooms on campus, Head Start is looking for a new facility, according to executive director Jerry Adair, who said he hopes to reopen soon.

“We are looking for a building that will house Head Start. It is absolutely essential for Pea Ridge,” Adair said Tuesday. “I think Head Start is essential for any community.”

Carla Clark, director of the

Pea Ridge Head Start, has been promoted to work in the central office in Rogers, Adair said, adding that the central office needed Clark because of her expertise with parents and families.

Head Start, a federallyfunded pre-school program, placed a modular home on Pea Ridge school district property on Aug. 12, 1993, across from Blackhawk Stadium on Black Street. It opened its doors to students Nov. 1, 1993, according to an article in The Times, Nov. 4, 1993, serving 17 children, ages 3 to 4.

Four years ago, school superintendent Mike Van Dyke and Head Start swapped buildings, with the school leasing the federal building for a football dressing room and Head Start leasing a building on the downtown campus for its classrooms.

This year when new school superintendent Neal considered demolishing the building Head Start was using, he learned that the building at the football field is owned by Head Start. He planned to offer other classroom space to Head Start. None of the School Board members who approved the lease in 2008 were aware that the building was federal property, they said.

School Board president Josh Ramsey and Neal both appealed to Head Start to leave the building until November so it could be used for football season. The appeal was denied. Now, Neal said, the school is renting a tent to house the visiting team during football games.

Both leases were declared null and void at the July School Board meeting. The lease is not being renewed for the downtown classroom space.

Keith Martin, principal at Pea Ridge Primary School, presented several options to School Board members for pre-school instruction including the Arkansas Better Chance program. Martin explained that ABC is very different from Head Start and does not have financial eligibility requirements.

School Board members expressed interest and encouraged school officials to continue to explore options concerning preschool education.