Poudre School District board approves Head Start annual report, addresses bus safety deficiency and approves $4.5M controls contract

Poudre School District R-1 on Tuesday approved the 2024–25 Head Start and Early Head Start annual report and took three additional votes including affirming the superintendent's monitoring report and approving a facility controls contract for Fossil Ridge High School.

The board unanimously approved the Head Start report after a presentation from Rebecca Benedict, director of early childhood. Benedict told the board the district served 874 pre-K students in 2024–25, of whom 292 were Head Start-funded and 153 were Early Head Start; she said the district manages roughly $6 million in federal Head Start funds and about $4.7 million in state and local (UPK) funds, for a combined early childhood budget of about $11.5 million.

Benedict described the program—s family supports and screening results: Early Head Start home visits totaled about 3,000 last year, prenatal visits were 711 and Head Start home visits about 1,300. Staff logged 2,821 community referrals for families (housing and mental health among the top needs) and reported 478 families attended at least one engagement event. She said the program reached 98–99 percent of students for vision, hearing and developmental screeners and that dental coverage was 100 percent for Early Head Start and 96 percent for Head Start.

"We are paying attention to the new federal fiscal budget that's hopefully going to be passed this month," Benedict said. She also noted Head Start is administered through the federal Department of Health and Human Services and that programs must meet Office of Head Start rules and reporting requirements.

Why it matters: The Head Start program is a major early-childhood provider in Larimer County and the district's largest early-childhood budget line. The annual report…