FLEMINGSBURG — An assessment report and improvement plan for the Licking Valley Head Start program was recently approved by members of the Licking Valley Community Action Program Board of Directors.
The LVCAP Board met Tuesday afternoon, where it reviewed the results of its Head Start program’s self assessment analysis. Interim Executive Director Florence Tandy said the assessment is a yearly occurrence, required by the office of Head Start and the assessment itself spans several weeks.
“Basically what they do is they observe classroom functioning, they look at documented evidence of the program, they interview staff, and managers, they do side visits to all of the side centers, collect data of the centers and conduct parent surveys to assess their performance over the previous part of the program year,” she said.
The assessment highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses within the program along with steps to take in order to rectify areas of concern. Among some of the strengths listed within the assessment were Head Start’s strong relationship with the local health department when requesting information, having environments that are modified to meet children’s needs and having an open door policy to ensure a welcoming and friendly atmosphere.
Alternatively, some of the weaknesses needing to be addressed currently are a high obesity rate among students, retention of teachers and quality of teaching. All of the listed concerns have their own corresponding corrective action, which involves either more training for staff, or by collaborating with other sources to provide appropriate care to students and their parents.
Tandy, speaking on behalf of absent Head Start Director Shawnda Smith, said this assessment is a good way to lay out what the program is doing right and wrong, and what it can do to improve moving forward.
“This is a pretty good, in depth view of the program and what they need to do to make it the very highest quality that they possibly can,” she said.
In other business, the board approved adding Shawnda Smith, Transportation Director Kerri Moran and newly hired Executive Director Kenneth Walters as check signers for bank accounts.
