TUSTIN : City, Schools Plan for Healthy Start Funds

City and school district officials are hoping to expand a program that provides recreation, health care and other services for children from low-income families.

At last week’s joint meeting of the City Council and the Tustin Unified School District Board of Trustees, Cyndi Glavas, student assistance coordinator for the school district, said Healthy Start will try to reach more school-age children in the next few years, if state funding becomes available.

Glavas said that a team of representatives from the school district, the city and the county is seeking a $400,000 grant from the state for the expanded program.

The proposal will be submitted in March and an answer is expected in May, she said.

The money would be used to operate a clubhouse for after-school activities and a resource center that will provide various services, such as health classes.

Healthy Start is a state program started two years ago that seeks to improve the physical and mental health of California schoolchildren.

In June, the school district received a $50,000 planning grant from the state to design a program at the Robert P. Heideman and Jeane Thorman elementary schools.

Part of the money has been used to educate the staff that runs the program through seminars and conferences, Glavas said.

Glavas said that TAFFY, or Tustin Acts for Families and Youth, is running the local Healthy Start program.

The group includes representatives from the Police Department and the county’s Health Care Agency, Social Services Agency and Department of Education.

TAFFY is focusing on child care, safe recreation and health care because these are the areas that parents and teachers are most concerned about, based on surveys and interviews, Glavas said.

Mayor Jim Potts suggested that money from the state grant should also be used to expand other youth and recreation programs in the city.