Preschool Program

Today Linthicum Heights United Methodist Church assumes operation of the YWCA Preschool Program that has been at the church since 1973.The church's administrative board decided recently to include the preschool in its ministry to children and young families."

Four-year-old Hylah Haynes had an hourlong car ride each day this past school year to get to her Head Start program in Ellicott City. Franora Gray said the ride was worth it. "The program has so much," Gray said, noting that her daughter has received instruction in Spanish before even starting school. Gray spoke before County Executive Ken Ulman, Councilwoman Courtney Watson of Ellicott City and members of the county's General Assembly delegation at an event last month held by the faith-based group People Acting Together in Howard, or PATH, urging them to allocate money to move two Head Start classrooms from Ellicott City to Columbia's Long Reach village.

Poor children who attend intensive preschools are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to be arrested than poor children who have not participated in such programs, according to a study of the benefits of inner-city preschools that followed children for 15 years. Although there have been studies of the benefits of preschool education, none appears to have been as comprehensive and long-running as this one. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, whose findings appeared yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked 1,500 children from inner-city Chicago from the time they were of preschool age in 1985 until they reached age 20 last year.

— Like others at the candlelight vigil this week, Patty O'Brien had been outraged by what she called the "stupid and thoughtless" remarks of two county officials who voted to cut off funding to the Head Start preschool program, declaring it was better if women stayed home with their kids. But now, O'Brien, a working mother, was shocked at something much closer to home. Her 9-year-old daughter, who accompanied her to the Thursday night vigil, had a declaration of her own. "I wish she didn't work," Loretta Donaghue said, "so I didn't have to go to day care.

About 75 children in the county's Head Start program moved to a new location last week and are now among the first tenants of the $6 million Carroll County Nonprofit Center in Westminster. Color-coded classrooms, meeting areas, staff offices, a kitchen and play areas line the wide hallway of the center's ground level. All boast new child-sized furniture, thick carpeting and soundproof walls. "I'm yellow," said teacher Kathi Jeffra of her new room. "The color may be a bit too stimulating.

Mitchell Holt's arms ached, weighed down by a leaning tower of gifts for his two children. He struggled to keep hold of the skates, action figures, a "Clifford the Big Red Dog" fun set and a toy truck that could be made to shout, "Eat dust!" But there was one burden that Holt, 38, and his wife, Tammy, were spared yesterday. The Baltimore couple didn't owe a dime for the loot. At the checkout, the couple simply redeemed the 205 points that they earned for being involved with their 3-year-old son Tijuan at St. Jerome's Head Start, a preschool program for low-income children based in Southwest Baltimore.

Federal officials yesterday awarded a $629,013 grant to Human Services Programs Inc. of Carroll County to operate the local Head Start program, previously run by the public schools.Human Services Programs (HSP) was the only county agency applying to administer the preschool program for low-income and disabled children."We were in the county, and that may have worked in our favor," said Lynda Gainor, deputy director of the nonprofit. HSP competed with Western Maryland Child Care Resource Center in Washington County, Telamon Corp.

Exciting, creative and energetic are the words Nancy Diefenbach uses to describe the future of the new Emory Child Care Center in Upperco.The licensed center, owned and operated by Emory United Methodist Church, opened in the church's new Education Building in mid-November.Mrs. Diefenbach, who directs the full-time child care and preschool program, has high hopes for the new center and has been working diligently to make them a reality.The Sykesville resident said one of her main goals for programs at the center will be to incorporate parent and child participation, especially in the preschool program.

Four-year-old Hylah Haynes had an hourlong car ride each day this past school year to get to her Head Start program in Ellicott City. Franora Gray said the ride was worth it. "The program has so much," Gray said, noting that her daughter has received instruction in Spanish before even starting school. Gray spoke before County Executive Ken Ulman, Councilwoman Courtney Watson of Ellicott City and members of the county's General Assembly delegation at an event last month held by the faith-based group People Acting Together in Howard, or PATH, urging them to allocate money to move two Head Start classrooms from Ellicott City to Columbia's Long Reach village.

WASHINGTON -- With the effectiveness of Head Start under attack, a widely followed long-term study suggests that the federal program and others like it for poor children can make a difference beyond the children's school years.The survey, by the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation of Ypsilanti, Mich., has tracked 62 people since the late 1960s, when the participants were 3- and 4-year-olds and enrolled in the Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti. Sixty-one students in a control group not enrolled in a preschool program also were tracked, during the same time, between the ages of 3 to 11 and again when both groups were 14, 15 and 19.The participants who attended Perry, now 27, have greater earning power, more stable marriages and fewer children out of wedlock than those in the control group, according to the latest installment of the study, which was released Sunday in Boston at a meeting of the Education Writers of America.

About 75 children in the county's Head Start program moved to a new location last week and are now among the first tenants of the $6 million Carroll County Nonprofit Center in Westminster. Color-coded classrooms, meeting areas, staff offices, a kitchen and play areas line the wide hallway of the center's ground level. All boast new child-sized furniture, thick carpeting and soundproof walls. "I'm yellow," said teacher Kathi Jeffra of her new room. "The color may be a bit too stimulating.

Mitchell Holt's arms ached, weighed down by a leaning tower of gifts for his two children. He struggled to keep hold of the skates, action figures, a "Clifford the Big Red Dog" fun set and a toy truck that could be made to shout, "Eat dust!" But there was one burden that Holt, 38, and his wife, Tammy, were spared yesterday. The Baltimore couple didn't owe a dime for the loot. At the checkout, the couple simply redeemed the 205 points that they earned for being involved with their 3-year-old son Tijuan at St. Jerome's Head Start, a preschool program for low-income children based in Southwest Baltimore.

As state educators are looking to require that beginning kindergartners be older to ensure they're prepared for the rigors of the classroom, Howard County officials are hoping to catch children younger and younger - for the same reason. Running Brook Elementary School in Columbia has initiated a new Parents as Teachers program, bringing teachers into homes to teach parents how to teach their infants and toddlers. The county will break ground on its third Head Start facility in a matter of weeks.

As state educators are looking to require that beginning kindergartners be older to ensure they're prepared for the rigors of the classroom, Howard County officials are hoping to catch children younger and younger - for the same reason. Running Brook Elementary School in Columbia has initiated a new Parents as Teachers program, bringing teachers into homes to teach parents how to teach their infants and toddlers. The county will break ground on its third Head Start facility in a matter of weeks.

Poor children who attend intensive preschools are more likely to graduate from high school and less likely to be arrested than poor children who have not participated in such programs, according to a study of the benefits of inner-city preschools that followed children for 15 years. Although there have been studies of the benefits of preschool education, none appears to have been as comprehensive and long-running as this one. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, whose findings appeared yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, tracked 1,500 children from inner-city Chicago from the time they were of preschool age in 1985 until they reached age 20 last year.

EVER SO slowly, Gov. Parris N. Glendening is becoming a supporter of early childhood education -- a real supporter, not someone who talks a good game and then reneges on his commitments at the last minute. This evolution has a way to go, but the governor's $30 million commitment to pieces of the early learning puzzle marks a major advance. Legislative backing for this initiative is strong. The governor may have to enlarge his early education package to satisfy demands of senators and delegates.

Even without a school, Renee Foote is determined to give children from Brooklyn Park a head start on their education.Anne Arundel's Head Start project director intends to tutor preschool children at home next fall until civic leaders rehabilitate the dilapidated Lloyd Keaser Community Center in Pumphrey.The Pumphrey civic association wants to refurbish the old school on Belle Grove Road to house two Head Start classes and an adult day-care program. But renovation plans have been tabled until contractorsdetermine whether the ceilings and walls contain asbestos or lead.

For the first time, Elmer Wolfe Elementary School in Union Bridge will have a fifth grade in September.The county Board of Education voted last night to overturn recommendations to the contrary by its top administrator.The 4-1 decision by the Carroll school board forces the administration to find a place for the preschool program at Elmer Wolfe, to make room for the fifth grade, and to notify parents of affected 4-year-olds.Board members said they are committed to elementary schools that go up to fifth grade and an "ancillary" program such as preschool should not displace students in kindergarten through grade five.

Catholic Charities has taken over Carroll County's beleaguered Head Start classrooms, a move officials hope will provide a permanent local provider for the federal early-childhood program for low-income children. The Baltimore-based charitable organization, which operates several Head Start programs in the city and one in Harford County, took over Carroll's program last month. Sister Nancy Stiles came on board last week as the county director, with responsibilities for 104 children and a staff of 30. Catholic Charities is the third operator of the local program since 1997, when the Carroll public school system relinquished control of Head Start after more than 20 years, saying operating costs were too high.

MOST POOR children in Baltimore, and throughout America, arrive at elementary school dramatically behind children from more affluent homes. Generally speaking, poor children possess a fraction of the vocabulary acquired by their more affluent peers. They have traveled less and conversed less with adults, have been read to less frequently and have had fewer life experiences. Consequently, they enter kindergarten lacking the necessary skills for learning to read. Baltimore has two large public preschool programs charged with making headway against these deficits: Head Start and the Baltimore City Public School System prekindergarten program for 4-year-olds.