Working for a Head Start

Migrant preschoolers benefit from program

By Marshall Thompson
Standard-Examiner staff

HONEYVILLE -- Unlike many children of migrant workers, 4-year-old Ariana Chavez can already read her own storybooks, and unlike many American adults, she can read them in English and Spanish.

This bilingual wonder is obviously intelligent, but it also helps that she attends a Honeyville Migrant Head Start run by Centro de la Familia de Utah, based in Salt Lake City, that offers Montessori preschool classes for the children of seasonal laborers.

Ariana said she wants to be a dentist -- or a cheerleader -- when she grows up, and thanks to parents, teachers and volunteers, anything seems possible.

A little more than 100 children are bused from across Weber and Box Elder counties to the facility every day. They eat breakfast and lunch, brush their teeth at least twice a day, sing, play, grow gardens and paint.

"These are children from very low-income families who are moving from place to place, and they have the opportunities to have superb educational opportunities in the United States," said Nancy Guymon, a former university professor who works as an educational specialist at the school.

"I would like to see this happen in preschool centers everywhere."

The Montessori method uses tactile and sensorial tools to improve a child's learning ability, Guymon said, and it's normally only available to the children of higher-income families.

For instance, tuition at the Mills Montessori Preschool in Layton can cost almost $500 a month per child.

Thanks to grants secured by Centro de La Familia, it's free for the children of migrant workers in Utah.

The chief executive officer of the center, Gonzalo Palza, said the school is dedicated to bringing the best education possible to the Latinos it serves, but that's not the secret to the program's success.

"We would not be successful in everything we do if we did not have the parents involved in all our programs," he said.

Migrant parents vote on different initiatives and even pick out books in English and Spanish to be distributed to the children. When they aren't laboring in the fields, they're volunteering at the school.

So far this year, parents have donated more than 120,000 hours at the five Head Start programs run by the center, Palza said. In reports he makes to grant donors, he gives that time a monetary value of $10.25 an hour for a total of $1.23 million.

Centro de la Familia has three Migrant Head Starts -- in Honeyville, Paradise and Genola -- that serve more than 400 families, and two regular Head Starts -- in Mt. Pleasant and Gunnison -- that serve about 150 families.

While using the Montessori method is a new initiative, the Migrant Head Start program is 30 years old. With three decades of service, it's not hard to find inspiring stories.

Julieta Osuna, a family services specialist in Honeyville, was a migrant worker who traveled the country with her family, making just enough to eat -- and sometimes not even that.

In 1994, when her children started attending Migrant Head Start, she became involved, too. She learned English, got her high school diploma and, last year, earned an associate's degree.

Eva Haro remembers going to the fields with her parents. Her mother would make it as comfortable as possible by laying onion sacks out in the shade of the car, but it still wasn't ideal for children.

When her family came to Utah and heard about Migrant Head Start, Haro jumped at the chance. Now, at 28, she's a teacher at the Honeyville Migrant Head Start.

"I live in Layton, and I drive all the way up because I love it," she said. "As soon as I started here, I knew I wanted to do this for a career. I love these kids."

Benjamin Wynn, Honeyville center manager, said more than 55 full-time teachers, staff, bus drivers and volunteers make the center function. His operating budget is about $1.5 million a year. The program is supported mainly by grants, but, he said, there are other ways to help.

"We're open all day, if anyone wants to volunteer," he said. "We will never turn anyone away who wants to volunteer."