Far Rockaway Head Start Avoids Eviction

July 25, 2003
By Brian Magoolaghan

After parents, children and many others rallied to keep a local Head Start
program operating at its current address, a tentative agreement was reached,
Tuesday, keeping it there until June of next year.

The Head Start operating at 710 Hartman Lane is renovating a building
on Beach 41 Street, with the hopes of moving there as soon as possible.
The problem is the Hartman Lane landlord, Bnos Bais Yaakov (BBY),
a high school for Orthodox Jewish girls, says they need the space for
themselves and wants to show Head Start the door, according to
Cynthia Cummings, the Executive Director of Community Parents, Inc.,
the organization that sponsors Head Start.

The resolution:
Head Start will stay put for now, BBY will lease another location
to satisfy its need for more space and New York City will cough up
an extra $5,000 a month to cover BBY's additional expenses, Cummings said.

"We're very happy with the resolution," said Rabbi Shmuel Hiller of BBY,
but Cummings is not as satisfied.

"To put us up against the wall like that is unconscionable,"
Cummings said, adding that the "exorbitant" increase will likely cause
a suspension of the English as a Second Language and
General Equivalency Diploma programs.

with thanks to:
THE WAVE
(Rockaway's Newspaper)

Cynthia Cummings speaks to an officer from the 101 Police Precinct. Officers monitored the rally that was held along side Beach Channel Drive, but did not interfere.	A young boy holds up a sign (OUR CHILDREN NEED HEAD START) in front of the Head Start building on Monday.	Parents, children and others held signs and shouted "save our school" during the rally.