A new beginning for Long Island Head Start in Riverside

An already cheerful day ended in happy tears and excitement as Long Island Head Start leaders rejoiced over a surprise state funding commitment that will give them the “head start” they need to get plans in motion to revive a new Riverside center in fall 2026.

To continue its mission of providing free childcare, early education, and other vital services for eligible children from at-risk, low-income families in the Riverhead area, Long Island Head Start announced the estimated $4 million effort to build a state-of-the-art, modular facility to 77 Goodridge Ave. in Riverside.

Almost a year after being forced to shutter its Southampton location, which displaced 88 enrolled children, Long Island Head Start administrators and staff gathered with local leaders last week to present its plans to transform the Riverside property into a modern facility with five classrooms, a commercial kitchen, four office spaces, a new playground and parking lot.

The nonprofit organization said they are pursuing various funding opportunities, at both the state and local level, and already received a $200,000 donation from Power Home Remodeling. What happened next was what program operations director Annette Harris called “a blessing.”

Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni of Sag Harbor and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie made an unexpected $2.25 million funding commitment towards the project. Hearing Mr. Schiavoni’s declaration, the entire Long Island Head Start staff at the news conference couldn’t contain their emotions.

“This started with just my management team around the table, [asking ourselves] ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to do with all these children? They need us,’” said Debrah Everett-Garcia, CEO of Long Island Head Start, in response. “Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts and from our children and community, and from Suffolk County.”

Launching its first center in Suffolk County in 1966, Long Island Head Start operates 18 facilities throughout the county, as well as four Early Head Start locations. The Riverside location would be the fifth to open on the East End, joining the North Fork, Riverhead, Bridgehampton and Southampton centers.

Southampton Head Start opened in 1992 at 271 Flanders Road in Riverhead with five classrooms, office space and a large multipurpose room, and served up to 100 children. The town leased the organization the building for $1 a month. A couple of years later, Long Island Head Start purchased the Goodridge Avenue property in Riverside and opened as a satellite site to Southampton to address the growing needs of families in the Riverhead community.

The original Riverside Head Start closed in 2012, and that same year, Riverhead Head Start expanded into a rental building at St. John Place to accommodate 104 children in five classrooms.

Last August, the Southampton center was forced to close for the 2024-25 school year, displacing 88 children, including 55 in the universal pre-kindergarten program. A temporary space was secured for 28 of the children who attended Southampton Head Start, but the remaining 60 went without services this past academic program year.  

During attempted renovations this past June, Southampton Town identified structural damages, such as mold in the walls and beams detached from the building’s foundation and deemed the facility no longer serviceable. Long Island Head Start is now looking for a temporary space for the other children who were attending Southampton Head Start until the new Riverside location is completed.

“That heartbreaking discovery forced us to leave a place that had been a second home to generations of children. If not for those structural issues, we would still be there today, continuing the work that we love, in the building [Southampton] town so kindly gave us,” said Yvonne Green, Long Island Head Start’s director of facilities.

The demolition phases of the existing 2012 building could begin this fall; Long Island Head Start is currently working on an application with Southampton Town and waiting for a final inspection. This demolition would cost nearly $60,000. Next would be the pre-construction, design and engineering phase, priced at around $400,000, where testing would be conducted to make sure the property is fit to build another structure.

Other costs in the estimated budget breakdown include $2.85 million for the new modular building, $275,000 for the spacious ADA-compliant parking lot, $225,000 for an inclusive developmentally rich playground and $190,000 for sustainable landscaping to encourage outdoor learning.

In addition to Mr. Schiavoni’s $2.25 million commitment and the $200,000 from Power Home Remodeling that will help cover the demo and pre-construction costs, Long Island Head Start applied for $2.3 million in HUD funds in April through congressional spending request to Senator Chuck Schumer’s office. Governor Kathy Hochul also included $110 million in the state’s FY2026 budget to support building new childcare facilities and repairing existing sites, so there are plans to apply state money, as well as a $5,000 Community Development Block Grant from Southampton Town, in the fall.

Diane Eppolito, director of Quality Assurance for Long Island Head Start, said the average poverty rate for Suffolk County is approximately 7%. To break those figures down further, she said Riverhead’s average is about 10%, while Riverside is over three times the county average at 26%. Most of the children and families that Long Island Head Start assist are those experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, childcare and early education issues.

Riverside Head Start’s proposed full commercial kitchen would offer breakfast, lunch, and snack daily — not just for the children enrolled at this location, but for Riverhead and Bridgehampton as well.

“That’s 384 meals and 192 snacks a day that they’ll be cooking for,” Ms. Eppolito said. “This is an essential and vital building for our East End sites because it connects with them in that way … Having a center centrally located in your community enables parents to access those services, so it’s very important that we rebuild here.”

While the National Head Start Association was spared from being cut entirely in the president’s FY2026 proposed budget, there are concerns they will remain flat-funded, meaning the organization will receive the same level of funding they received in 2025. If this is the case, the not-for-profit will face significant pressures from rising costs, workforce shortages and increasing demand for comprehensive early childhood services. 

Ms. Everett-Garcia said she hopes by focusing enough attention on their Riverside project proposal and their overall mission, Suffolk County leaders and other community members will step in to give support.

“Federal funding is just to run the organization, it doesn’t take into account the need for growth, the need for expansion. We lost an entire center and now we need to rebuild from scratch. The government is not giving us that in the funding that we get annually, and with the recent cuts and everything that’s going on administratively, for Head Start, it’s a scary thought,” she said. “Knowing that there’s so much more attention being given to our cause and to the at-risk families, and knowing that they do exist here in Suffolk County, it’s an overwhelming testament that they are starting to recognize that we are in need here.”