Cairo Head Start daycare to relocate, meeting to discuss relocation ends early

CAIRO, Ill. (KBSI) – Some people are frustrated about the state of the Head Start daycare facility in Cairo, and they voiced their concerns to the Southern 7 Health Department at Wednesday’s public meeting. 

“I live here. I was born here. I believe in here and the people I serve, particularly those children,” one attendee said.

Southern 7 Executive Director Rhonda Ray said a new facility is necessary to adequately meet the needs of the people they serve.  

“We need help to find a good building to put these children in,” she said. “These children are in a building that is not safe, and we want them to be safe. We don’t want there to be any questions from any of the parents or any of the staff or anybody as to if that building is safe or unsafe.” 

The facility is in need of repairs that total over $1 million, so an exhaustive search is currently being conducted to find a suitable space in Cairo for the relocation of the Head Start program. 

“Hopefully out of this meeting, somebody will see that we desperately need help, and we want them to help us find a place to be,” Ray said.

Ray hoped to drum up some support on this front and answer any questions the community may have regarding the relocation.

“I’m a mom. I’ve had kids that were in daycare, and if somebody was going to tell me that the daycare was going to close and move somewhere else, it would have caused me alarm,” she said. “I would have wanted to see if I could help them try to figure out what to do, so that’s kind of perplexing to me that I didn’t have the support that I was hoping to get.” 

Instead, organizers ended the meeting early as tensions in the room rose over the state of the building and the relocation process. 

Ray said she and her staff will regroup and continue their search for a new Head Start facility.