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Project Head Start to return to Craig under new management

It’s been a little over two years since Project Head Start had a foothold in Craig and Moffat County, but thanks to Centro De La Familia, Project Head Start is slated to make its return to the community in the next few months.

The Craig school will join three existing Centro De La Familia Project Head Start schools in Grand Junction. The new company, Centro De La Familia, which is roughly translated to the Family Center.

Seeing a need for childcare in Moffat County, Centro De La Familia jumped at the opportunity to fill the void. On top of the Project Head Start program, CDLF has a plan to open up a second pre-school classroom in Craig and expand early education in the area.



“Our goal, historically there has been a preschool classroom there. There used to be one here two years ago. Our plan is to have one preschool classroom of children ages three to five and that is going to up to about 20 children in that preschool classroom,” said Benjamin Wynn, CDLF’s assistant head start director. “We are also doing an early Head Start classroom that will be for ages zero to 3, and there will be eight children in that classroom.”

In order to attempt to avoid the same fate as the previous Project Head Start program,CDLF has signed a long-term lease and is fixing up the building that the school will be located in at 1135 U.S. 40 in Craig. They are also hiring local staff to work at the school that will be trained and monitored.



“We are used to serving children in rural communities,” Wynn said. “We have a lot of experience doing it. We have a way of monitoring it to make sure that they still have high quality services.”

The process to open the school in Craig took two years for CDLF.

“We went out, we scouted out the area, talked to some people. We put in an application, and then we had to wait three or four months until they reviewed it and they accepted it, there was a little bit of a back and forth. We started in September overall in the Western Slope and it has taken a while to get that facility up and running and moving along,” Wynn said. “So, I would say that it’s almost two years when it’s all said and done, from the beginning to now when we finally see it open up.”

Craig Head Start information

CDLF is planning an official opening day of April 5, with an April 9 open house, which is open to the public at their location of 1135 Highway 40.

For more information, visit cdlf.org, or call 385-214-6848.


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