New Riverside Head Start to open in 2026
Head Start attendees perform at Tuesday's event announcing $2.25 million in state funding for a new Head Start building in Riverside. Credit: Tom Lambui
State officials announced Tuesday that $2.25 million in funding would be committed toward the construction of a new Head Start facility in Riverside, which will replace a Southampton location that shut down last year due to structural issues.
The new $4 million building, slated to open in the fall of 2026, will include five "modern integrated" classrooms, a commercial kitchen and a playground, Head Start officials said.
"It means the world," Kristina Foster, center supervisor for Southampton Head Start, said of the state funding. Foster, who has been with the organization for more than three decades, said she benefited from the program and it now helps families like hers.
"It’s about these kids. These kids that don’t have, and get to come to a place where they can have. It gives them an even better start," she said in an interview after Tuesday's news conference.
Rendering of the new building. Credit: Tom Lambui
In July 2024, Southampton Town officials found structural issues in a building that Head Start had leased for 33 years, Newsday previously reported. Moisture in the ground had corroded studs, and mold was discovered, officials said.
"That heartbreaking discovery forced us to leave a place that had been a second home to generations of children," said Yvonne Green, Long Island Head Start's director of facilities.
Twenty-eight of the 88 preschool students who had attended the Southampton location were relocated to a facility in Riverhead, while the remaining 60 were not able to access Head Start services for the year, officials said.
'These programs are important'
Long Island Head Start has more than 20 locations in Suffolk, including early Head Start programs for toddlers and infants, and serves more than 1,000 children, officials said. The organization provides prekindergarten for 340 children and partners with additional organizations to provide day care.
The new Riverside facility also will replace a former Head Start building on Goodridge Avenue in the hamlet that closed in 2012. The new facility will serve 88 students.
Diane Eppolito, Long Island Head Start's director of quality assurance, noted during the news conference that Riverside — with a population of nearly 3,000 — has a poverty rate of 26%, more than three times the Suffolk County average.
Eppolito said the new Head Start facility will cook about 384 meals daily and provide about 200 snacks for children in need.
Head Start received a $200,000 donation from Melville-based Power Home Remodeling, an exterior home remodeling company, and has applied for federal funding, officials said.
The state funding was announced by state Assemb. Tommy John Schiavoni (D-Sag Harbor), who was joined by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (D-Bronx).
"I can think of nothing more important than the education of our young people," said Schiavoni. He added: "These programs work. These programs are important."
State officials announced a $2.25 million funding commitment toward the construction of a new Head Start facility in Riverside. The information was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
