JEROME, ID (KMVT) The Head Start program gives low income kids a much-needed extra educational boost. And the College of Southern Idaho is helping get the Head Start Program in Jerome all under one roof.

The College of Southern Idaho Board gave the go-ahead to build a new Head Start center in Jerome. The board unanimously accepted the low bid from Alpine Construction in Boise for just over a million dollars.

Mike Mason, Vice President of Administration of CSI, says, "We actually approved the bid for the construction project. It's a little over 6,000 square feet, the new Head Start/Early Head Start center that we're going to construct by the Jerome School District administrative office."

Longtime Jerome residents will recognize the site as the location of the former Lincoln Elementary School, which held classes for third and fourth graders up through the 1970s.

Mason says the new Head Start center to be built here will have office space in addition to three classrooms to serve the needs of the students already enrolled in Head Start in Jerome.

Mason says, "Probably not an expansion of slots for students because we're already full over there, but it will provide adequate spaces. We're actually scattered between two houses and a renovated grocery store for administrative spaces right now. This'll put everything in one spot, have a nice playground, be a very nice building."

Possible options for the project include adding a curb and gutter on 4th Avenue West just north of the Jerome School District offices, as well as five skylights in the new Head Start center, and a porcelain floor instead one made out of vinyl composition.

Mason says, "We'll probably start construction early spring, just as soon as we can get the weather to break, and it should be done by September first, in time for the school year for Head Start."

Jan. 23, 2012.