Thibodaux Head Start students enjoy additions to old school

Tri-Parish Times

It’s taken four years to upgrade the facility and lot to regulation, but the Martin Luther King Head Start site in Thibodaux is finally open for business.

City officials and residents officially celebrated the reopening of the site in early October.

According to Lafourche Parish Education Manager Helen Babin, Lafourche Parish Head Start education manager, the facility closed in 2002 because of federal and state licensing codes updates.

“The state and federal codes said everything that we use for the children needed to be fenced in,” said Martha Babin, Head Start director. “That included the walkways, playground and the school, when the students come into the school from the parking area they should walk through the fence.”

According to Babin, the City of Thibodaux owns the property on which the school resides and at that time, the city had not designated an official playground area for the students.

“After the school found out what had to be done, we were more concerned with the height of the fence because we have had previous problems with break-ins and vandalism,” she said.

The metal fence is approximately 6.5 feet high, tall enough where the average person can’t get over it. She also said that since the school has reopened there hasn’t been a problem with vandalism.

Babin noted that the Lafourche Parish Head Start did not have the money to get all of the equipment needed for the school code updates. It was not until the school applied for a grant in 2005 and was awarded a one-time $58,900 funding grant that the improvements were made to the Martin Luther King site.

“The city has worked with us and allowed us to fence in what we needed to in order to get the children back in school,” the director said. “The improvements included a new concrete walkway to the children’s playground, fencing around the area and additional playground equipment.”

According to Babin, there are no future plans to increase the number of students taught at the school. She said the site is going to stay a one-classroom school that teaches no more than 20 children.

“In addition to teaching the students, we also provide services to the families making sure that the children have all the things they need for school like medical and dental records,” she said.

The Head Start’s goal was to provide educational services to the families near the Martin Luther King site as well as the other areas in Thibodaux, Babin said. While the school was closed the students had to be bused to one of the three other Thibodaux Head Start sites.

The city turned Martin Luther King site into a center for the Thibodaux Parenting Services when the school closed in 2002, Babin said. And since the Head Start has been reopened, the parenting service offices and center have been moved to the Sycamore Head Start Center in Thibodaux.

Babin said, “the community has been very receptive of the site, they are pleased with the work that we do at the school.”

For more information on student enrollment contact Babin at (985) 537-7603.

Thibodaux Head Start students enjoy additions to old school