preschool teacher

custodian

associate teacher

early childhood specialist

home visitor

Head Start for Kent County

I absolutely LOVE the head start program - it is great for families and children, but this one is ran very poorly. I worked for another Head Start program so I know how well it could be ran but HS4KC does not have their stuff together. Instead of using logic for their reasons behind their policies/procedures, they find excuses. Some supervisors can be micro-managing and come off rude. On the other hand, I've come in contact with some supervisors who are SUPER helpful and understanding. 

Some co-workers were super helpful and nice and some others were not so friendly. Support staff is usually very helpful but they are all stretched thin. 

A lot of responsibilities of other departments fall on the teachers, as if they don't already have enough to do throughout the day. 

Communication with the families, especially during COVID times, needs some improvement. My classroom was being shut down the morning of and some of our parents would have already been on their way so I took it upon myself to call them and let them know that the classroom would be closing. A lot of pointless meetings that could have been an e-mail, especially if it didn't really pertain to your department. I absolutely LOVED working with the infants and toddlers of the EHS program and unfortunately they sometimes get the short-end of the stick.

Also - it doesn't matter now that the vaccine mandate is in place with Head Start programs but before it was, they were treating unvaccinated differently than vaccinated (different masking rules, different pay incentives). As teachers, we are encouraged not to use rewards systems with our children but HS4KC was doing that with their employees. My vaccination status does not determine my ability to provide services to families and children. I believe it is unfair to disperse a retention incentive based on vaccination status and a personal medical decision. 

I wish you the best of luck if you choose to work here. I know, after being there for only shortly over a year, it has been a great weight off of my shoulders to no longer work for HS4KC.

All they want is a warm body to fill a spit. Upper management doesn't care if you have disabilities, what your needs are etc. All they want is someone who does what they say, when they say it. I have a lot of love to give, especially to children. I fight my disabilities on a daily basis. But these people at Head Start do NOT give two hoots about being reasonable or providing accommodations for people who can't be on their feet for long periods of time. They would rather micromanage people and making them feel like they aren't to be trusted at all. They want people who are obedient to a fault and total compliance with the rules. When I was a school bus driver, I managed my own regular Ed bus and transported around 300 children to and from school daily for over 4 years. Without someone looking over my shoulder every two seconds or switching my job up every other day or raising my anxiety levels through the roof every day or making me feel like less of a person or making me feel like I couldn't do the job I was hired to do. 

What did I learn here? I learned that differences are not appreciated or tolerated here. They want the same cookie cutter mold and that right there is why they have such a hard time keeping people working there. 

If you care about your mental health, do not work here. The hiring process is painfully long and communication was terrible. I tried to get in touch with HR multiple times during the hiring process and never got a return phone call or email. Teaching staff work 9+ hours a day and are only given a 20 minute break. And that break is sometimes given to teachers 2 hours into the work day. I felt like my teaching was micromanaged. For example, we were told to not teach calender concepts during circle time. Teachers hold ECE degrees but management still micromanages each classroom. I think this creates a managment vs. teaching staff type of culture. There is no flexibility which makes it hard to raise your own family while working at HS4KC. You accumulate points that can lead to termination for being seconds late. We weren't allowed to use personal time even though we had hours to use. This lack of flexibility and understanding during a global pandemic created stress during an already stressful situation. There are many negative reviews here and I know that many employees have voiced their concerns as well and, unfortunately, nothing has changed. And I don't think it will. 

I was employed by Head Start for almost 4 years before leaving due to the vaccine mandate. The support that you get definitely depends on the site that you are at and the supervisor that you have. I worked at one site where there was very little support even though they had multiple support staff on site. They would look on the cameras to determine if they thought you need help even though you were asking for it. But I have also worked at site that had very little support staff on site where someone was to your room immediately when you called for help. At sites where they have 4 or less classroom there is no site aide to help with food which means that teachers are expected to cook all hot food in the microwave which was very frustrating at times. We were paid well comparatively to other early childhood positions. The work and expectations placed on teacher were however at times overwhelming when trainings were sent out and expected to be completed in just a couple days as one example. Overall they are a good company to work for but your happiness will very much depend on the location that you are working from. 

There are a lot of pros about this company but unfortunately, the cons outweigh the pros. I had great co workers and the site I worked out had a great work environment. Not all sites are like that though. My co teacher and co workers honestly are the ones that kept me there. The pay was pretty good and offered benefits. I love working with kids and this program is very beneficial for families. But unfortunately, there are no consequences for kids and families who treat the teachers poorly. We would have parents swearing and threatening us, and nothing was being done and sided with the parents. The upper management micromanages and will write you up for every little thing. This company focuses on getting staff in trouble and not helping them learn and grow by a mistake. Teachers run this company and if there were no teachers, they could not have this program. They treat their staff like we are replaceable. They watch your every little move and it is hard to want to be a great teacher to the kids and takes away of focusing on the kids. 

From the first day at this job over a year ago, I was thrown into a classroom with student that had majorly aggressive behaviors and little-no support. Often times would come home with ripped clothing, bruises, spit etc due to these behaviors. Students needed more support than teachers are able to provide due to little training and overwhelming amount of administrative work. I don’t mind admin work, however teachers here are often stuck with other positions responsibilities due to the teachers having the most “convenient” communication with parents. There is little to no respect for teachers in this agency from CO. We are viewed as replaceable, yet the agency is consistently understaffed for teachers. Agency asked us to write reviews of the company on websites to gain new employment but don’t want to listen to what their employees need from them now.  

I used to love working for Head Start and I guess a part of me may still; however, it's going downhill. We are extremely short-staffed at the moment and people who are not teachers are having to fill in classrooms. Support staff are in classrooms. Behavior specialists are stretched thin. This company needs to hire more! There is high turnover. The managers view you as dispensible, unfortunately. The pay is well for Early childhood education field. You won't get better pay or benefits elsewhere. There is plenty of room for advancement. Really, the issue is just with management. They need to shut a site or two down, or individual classrooms, because it's unfair having people do other people's work. We are saving the agency money, yet they won't give employees a raise or bonus. We have sick time buy back multiple times a year, but your staff deserve a bonus without taxes taken out. 

Just surround yourself with supportive co-workers, because as teachers, that's really all you have!!!

Head Start for Kent County looks great on the outside. They have a great mission and philosophy. However, when you begin working there you can see that most people there don't care about the children they work with. The teachers and teacher assistants are the ones who do 90% of the work in the agency and they get 0% credit or appreciation. Management is irresponsible and unresponsive. Many members of the management team have either never been in a classroom or haven't been in one for years, so they are extremely out of touch with the demands of teaching. In the past year or so the standards for staff have dropped dramatically. Many teachers don't hold the proper degree or experience levels that it "required" by the agency. Yet, they are the ones that get the raises in the agency to keep them on staff. 

As a bus driver I would start my job early in the mornings and had long days. But it was perfect for me as we only worked 4 days a week and had summers off with unemployment benefits.
We worked with younger children that I absolutely loved. I had the opportunity to go into the classrooms to give teachers breaks and would witness how awesome and caring most of the teaching staff was. I learned alot about respecting other cultures and the struggles some family's endured. 
I worked at Headstart for over 25 years. 

The mission of Head Start is a mirror of my own heart and soul. Unfortunately, like many government-funded programs, the bureaucracy has created a slow turning, dysfunctional machine. Way too many people, comfortable at central office, making up great new policies and procedures 4 our already overworked, front line staff to carry out.  New positions are constantly being created at central office while teachers feel more and more overwhelmed each year.  They take good teachers, chew them up and spit them out. They hand out write-ups like candy. Management definitely needs some work and trimming. This organization needs management that can Inspire Excellence rather than a Culture of Fear.


Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Preschool teacher 4 salaries reported	$23.51 per hour
Custodian 1 salary reported	$17.74 per hour
Associate teacher 3 salaries reported	$18.81 per hour
Early childhood specialist 4 salaries reported	$28.12 per hour
Home visitor 2 salaries reported	$22.68 per hour

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