Executive Director of Cook Inlet Native Head Start, Ethan Petticrew, is happy about the new partnerships and pipeline for Yup'ik language immersion with the Anchorage School District, Alaska Native Heritage Center, Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Cook Inlet Native Head Start.
However, Petticrew wants to recruit for other languages - notably Dena'ina Athabascan. "We need two
speakers who can talk in the classroom, as we aren't doing things the foreign language model, and at a minimum they need to have an Associates of Arts in Early Childhood Education."
For more information about the recruitment process, check out www.cookinletnativeheadstart.net
Petticrew also shared plans for two new playgrounds for Head Start Learners - one at the Cook Inlet Native Head Start location on Tudor, and the other at the Alaska Native Heritage Center. The one at Chugach Square Mall, the Cook Inlet Native Head Start headquarters, is planned to include old time traditional Alaska Native housing in modern playground materials, as well as qayaqs, canoes and umiaks.
At the Alaska Native Heritage Center, Petticrew says the play area is planned to celebrate Dena'ina whale hunting traditions, with an upside down tree replicated in playground materials as well - with sea animals surrounding the tree roots.
The playgrounds will also feature the art work of Phillip John Aarnaquq Charette - and the plan is to host a First Friday event when they are completed at the end of summer, perhaps September.
