The Osage Nation head start facilities in Barnsdall and McCord will be closing for good.
Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear said the Nation can come back to Barnsdall and McCord once more Osage students enroll there. Last year, Standing Bear said Barnsdall had four Osage children and McCord didn’t have any.
“We’ve been serving McCord and our teachers with no Osage children in McCord. We’ll come back once we have some Osages there,” Standing Bear said. “We’re putting more money in Woodland, Pawhuska and Hominy and we’re putting a lot more money in Skiatook – and we’re redesigning the system to where more money goes directly to the teachers and not the bureaucracy. These are major changes.”
According to a letter that went out to parents from Director of Child Care, Claire Wood, the Nation’s former daycare centers and Head Starts in Skiatook, Hominy, Pawhuska and Fairfax will be replaced with one streamlined academy, the Wah-Zha-Zhi Early Learning Academy (WELA).
Which means there will be no more Osage Nation daycare facilities to take care of children over the age of five.
“Our year round academy will service full-time enrolled children ages six weeks to five years old (or until they are attending public school). At this time, Hominy will only offer classes for three to four year olds,” Wood said in the letter.
By
Osage News
Original Publish Date: 2015-08-17 00:00:00
