Wendy Ramirez and her daughter, Lake Ridge New Tech Head Start student Allison Calbo, enjoy the last parent event of the 2022-23 school year.
Parents of students who attend Lake Ridge New Tech’s Head Start program came together for some fun, games, and delicious tacos with all the trimmings. The festive event was the last get-together for the 2022-23 school year.
According to Head Start Director Artiya Nash, each of the four classes in the Head Start program is responsible for a Parent Promoter Event. The goal is to bring parents together in small-group settings to meet and discuss their child’s education.
“This year, instead of large program-wide family activities, we decided to work on smaller classroom parent communities as a strategy to decrease social and mental health trauma caused by two years of isolation due to COVID,” Nash said.
The final Parent Promoter Event was organized by teacher Porche’ Brown and her assistant, Neycha Cortes. Brown said they wanted a culminating event that would celebrate the end of the school year.
“We had a really good year,” Brown said. “We saw student growth and had good parent participation. We wanted to celebrate that, so it was good to see parents get together and participate with their children and socialize.”
Cortes echoed the sentiment.
“I feel so happy with the interaction here today, different families and cultures all here enjoying themselves. It’s nice,” Cortes said.
Parent volunteer Wendy Ramirez helped to make the day special by giving some students mini-manicures. Ramirez, whose daughter Allison is a student in Brown’s class, volunteers at the Head Start program every day.
“I like to help the teacher and work with the students,” Ramirez said. “My daughter has Down syndrome, so I do what I can to help out and work with her.”
Kevin Maloney, whose son Everett will be attending kindergarten next year, said the Head Start program helped prepare his son for social interaction with his peers following the isolation of the pandemic.
“This has been a very good experience for him,” Maloney said. “He’s definitely ready for kindergarten. He’s been able to come to a structured program. It helped with his reading and spelling, and just being around kids his age.”
Joseph Brock said Head Start was a way for his son Thomas to adapt to a post-COVID life.
“It was definitely helpful,” he said. “With COVID, [Thomas] did not meet a lot of kids, but coming here gave him that opportunity. He likes it here. His teachers did a good job of bringing the kids together.”
For more information about the Lake Ridge New Tech Head Start Program, call 219-989-7823.
Kevin Maloney and his son Everett check out the parent event.
(L to R) Five-year-old Brynlee paints while parents Megen and Michael Daniels sample the tacos and take in the moment.
(L to R) Assistant Head Start Teacher Neycha Cortes and Head Start Teacher Porche’ Brown celebrate a successful Parent Event.