City Council Approves Head Start program In Historic Gym

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

The historic Mesquite High School gymnasium, located at 51 East First North Street, will soon become home to a new childcare center and Early Head Start education program.

At a meeting held on Tuesday, April 11, the Mesquite City Council approved a special use permit for the Sunrise Children’s Foundation Early Head Start program to do some renovations on the building and implement a program that would include approximately 21 children from 6 months to 3.5 years of age. The program would provide care, education and a full complement of wrap-around services for the children while parents are at work or school.

In a brief introduction to the item, City Planner Richard Secrist noted that the old gymnasium on East First North Street between Yucca and Willow Streets, is the only building in town on the national Register of Historic Places.

“The city has received several grants from the State Historic Preservation Office to stabilize the building, preserve it and put it back to productive uses,” Secrist said.

With that in mind, the building is subject to certain building conditions requiring that any renovations be reviewed by the state architectural historian, Secrist said.

Secrist added that the proposed interior renovations were mainly cosmetic including new paint, drywall, carpeting etc. “It won’t change significantly the historic significance of the building,” he said.

On the exterior to the west of the building, a new fenced playground facility is also proposed, Secrist said.

David Sandberg, Executive Director of the Sunrise Children’s Foundation was present at the meeting to answer questions. He explained that his organization is going into its 30th year as a nonprofit in the region.

“This Headstart program is funded through the Office of Health and Human Services,” Sandberg explained. “It’s standards meet the highest criteria as both daycare and developmental centers.”
Sandberg stressed the importance of early education programs and the body of research that shows that a child’s brain is 93 percent developed by the age of three.

“It is absolutely imperative that these kids get early childhood education,” Sandberg said. “When these kids start off behind, they continue to be behind and a lot of them drop out in fourth, fifth and sixth grades.”

Sandberg said his nonprofit is a $12 million foundation with about $8 million of that in early childhood education. The foundation has 328 classroom students and another 128 home-based students.

“All of our families are either at poverty level and below, have children with special needs and disabilities, face homelessness or belong to foster care,” Sandberg said.

The program offers full wraparound services including mental health and wellness screenings, trauma-based coaches, free dental care, immunizations and more.

Sanberg also assured the council that the renovations on the historic gymnasium would be top-notch. “We will furnish that building from stem to stern with quality fixtures,” he said.
With very little comment from the council or from the public, Councilwoman Karen Fielding made a motion to approve the use permit for a childcare center in the building. The motion was passed with a unanimous vote.