NECC to take over as Astor Head Start goes

MILLERTON — Taking its progressively declining program enrollment into consideration, Astor Services for Children & Families has shifted its Head Start program in Millerton into a home-based program. It’s working with the North East Community Center (NECC) to repurpose the former Millerton daycare site to keep serving the community.

According to www.astorservices.org, the Head Start program is a federally funded preschool program that helps develop social and emotional growth in young children, provide comprehensive family engagement services and collaborate with community resources to support families. 

Head Start is currently available as two program options. The first is a home-based option open to children prenatal to 5 years old and includes weekly 90-minute home visits. 

The second is a center-based program open to children 18 months to 5 years old and is held five to six hours a day, Monday through Friday.

According to Sonia Barnes-Moorhead, executive vice president of The Children’s Foundation of Astor, Astor has been operating its Head Start program in Dutchess County since 1974. 

During the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, she said Astor served a total of 422 children in its Head Start Program countywide. This includes Head Start, Early Head Start and home-based programs in six locations: Millerton, Wingdale, Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Mount Alvernia and Red Hook.

Barnes-Moorhead said the Millerton location at 11 Park St. has been operating for about 30 years. Recently, she said the demographics have shifted and enrollment at the Millerton site has decreased. In fact, Barnes-Moorhead said Astor served only 15 Head Start children and five Early Head Start children this past year.

In light of how the Millerton site’s census is now “so low that it doesn’t fill a full school,” Barnes-Moorhead said it will transition to a home-based program. 

She added Astor moved several children from Park Street to its other centers and has 10 children being taught from home.

“Astor is committed to the needs of vulnerable families in Millerton and will continue to assess the early childcare needs of the community,” Barnes-Moorhead said.

People from the area were saddened to hear of the loss of a local service that took so much effort, sweat and tears  to establish. It was the work of the late former Millerton Mayor Mariley Najdek who brought the daycare center to the village. 

Najdek’s mother, Marion Smith, opened and ran the Thriftique thrift store on Main Street in the village. She donated all of its profits to Astor day-care for years to help pay for its operations and maintenance.

“[It was] so sad to hear the daycare center has closed. Marian Smith helped keep it running with donations from Thritique. She, over the years, supplied a new furnace, outfitted the kitchen, carpeting, all the improvements that Mariley Najdek managed for the daycare center,” said Pat Johnson, a former Millerton resident and Thriftique volunteer. “I think [a sizeable amount] went into the daycare from the Thriftique, and Marian was once the guest of honor from the Astor Home Foundation. We all, her volunteers, got to ride in a limo out to Poughkeepsie for her award. It was a good memory.”

As for the Park Street site, Barnes-Moorhead said Astor is reimagining the space to best fit the changing needs of the community. It is collaborating with NECC to plan for its future use. 

“We want the space to be used for the most vulnerable in the Millerton community,” she said. “We also want it to be a collaborative space for multiple agencies.”

Considering that many moving parts are involved in the process, NECC Executive Director Christine Sergent said the first thing NECC did is negotiate with Astor to arrange bringing some mental health services to the former daycare site. Sergent hopes to serve all age groups, from children to adults. NECC Family Program Director Jessica Raymond will likely help refer future clients.

Though there’s still much to figure out, Sergent revealed NECC also wants to start a nonprofit childcare center at Park Street; it recently received some start-up funds to get it going.

“It’s still a work in progress, but we want to create something that benefits the families in the area and the businesses in the area that are striving to attract employees,” she said.

This October, NECC plans to hold a Zoom conversation; Sergent plans to invite business leaders to the conversation who might want to talk about their employees’ needs. At that point, she said, NECC intends to apply for various funding sources. 

The community center will also send out a digital survey in the next few weeks to assess local childcare needs, said Sergent.