DECATUR, AL—
There are plans for a school campus in the River City that's been vacant for the last five months. The new tenants of the old Decatur Heritage campus also have education in mind.Decatur Heritage moved its campus to a new facility in October. Now, there are plans for the school to be home to the Head Start program.
The first phase of renovations will be to turn a small classroom into an Early Head Start room. Head Start is a school readiness program for low income children and their families.
The class will serve pregnant moms and children up to three years of age.
"Most of the kids that we will have will not be potty trained. So we'll have diapering issues. Those require a lot of hands and a lot of room," said Michael Tubbs, C.E.O. of Community Action Partnership of North Alabama.
Head Start is part of Community Action Partnership of North Alabama. The group purchased the former Decatur Heritage campus in December.
"We'd like to think that owning our own property rather than leasing property is a good thing for us," said Tubbs. "Normally, that's hard to pull off, but Decatur Heritage worked a contract that was good for us and good for them."
Tubbs says the location provides the perfect place for Head Start to help people in need of their vital services.
"We think by pulling them closer to us we can serve them in a better way," said Tubbs.
Renovations on the first phase is set to be complete in May. However, the work doesn't stop with just one room. There are also plans to renovate the rest of the campus.
Once the entire project is completed, it will house 188 Head Start students.
Community Action Partnership of North Alabama is recruiting for the new Head Start classrooms. If you'd like to get on the list, please call (256) 355-7843.
