It wasn’t a surprise when this past Tuesday, the LBUSD Board unanimously approved to cut the Head Start Program entirely from its budget following a previous decision to cut 126 of its staff this past February, saving the District about a quarter-million dollars annually.

The federal program stretched across 23 schools within Long Beach and served some 2,000 children and their families, who are provided pre-schooling due to their low-incomes. Though federally funded, Superintendent Christopher Steinhauser claimed that, while everyone in the Board room can sing of the program’s praises, due to governmental cuts, the costs of Head Start was beginning to encroach on the already-strained District budget.

This was part of an overall $21 million the Board must cut from its budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.