|
ECFE Program Director Mary Lou Busta to retire
|
|
|
By Daniel McGonigle
Argus Managing Editor
Twenty-one years ago Mary Lou Busta was told she’d be a good candidate for the position of Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) coordinator.
The position was being created in Caledonia and was a new trend in education.
“Early Childhood Family Education programs are based on the premise that every child needs a good start early in life and that parents are a child’s first and most important teachers,” said Busta. “But it was pretty lean in those early years. We were scraping the bottom of the barrel to come up with enough money to keep it going.”
Twenty-one years later, now older, and wiser, the ECFE and School Readiness programs, of which Busta was so instrumental in not only starting but seeing through to its current position of strength, will say goodbye.
Effective this summer, Busta is retiring from her position with the Caledonia School District.
“She was here from the beginning,” said ECFE Advisory Council Chairperson, Stacy Meyer. “She loves children and she wants to see families thrive. The program wouldn’t be what it is today without Mary Lou.”
Busta, after being such an integral part of the ECFE program for so many years, having stepped down from her position, expects to be involved somehow, however.
“I’ll still be involved in some capacity,” she said. “I love it too much.”
The memories
In 21 years with ECFE, Busta worked with 22 different staff members, at least that is how many she can recall. She worked with five different community education directors in that time as well.
“I’ll miss all the people I worked with,” she said. “Over the years there were some wonderful and dedicated people.”
Busta noted that the volunteers, like Meyer, who make up the ECFE Advisory Council, deserve recognition as well.
For years the ECFE was bounced around from location to location within rented space in Caledonia.
“We were in the old Ace Telephone building, we were located in the music room at the elementary so we had to pack and unpack our stuff when it was used for us or when the music program was using the room, the Bissen building and many other buildings over the years,” recalls Busta. “When we got our own space in 2003 (when the new school was built and the old high-school was converted to elementary space) we thought we were in heaven.”
The ECFE room was the old shop in the high school, so plenty of space was made available to the program.
Program’s beginning
The ECFE was founded in 1987. Busta was approached by a former colleague and told ‘she’d be perfect for the job.’
So she took parent education in the summer and began the program that fall.
“Whatever I learned in those beginning years I took to Spring Grove and started the program there as well.”
In the ‘90’s, the School Readiness program was brought to the district.
The four schools in Houston County shared the dollars from that program and created “Learning Activity Packets.”
In the early years the four districts agreed to sell the materials to other schools across the state.
“We made a little money for the four schools to share,” recalls Busta.
She was instrumental in establishing the program.
“I testified at the state to help launch that program as well,” she said. “For every dollar spent on early childhood education you save $16 later on in life.”
Highlights
•Infant Development Grant: Created infant/toddler packets for the entire county.
•Other outreach: WIC visits, childcare visits to childcare programs, and a local collaboration with “Friends of Family.”
•Infant screening: “we worked with public health,” stated Busta.
•Early Childhood Initiative: Busta established this in Houston County. The focus; to make sure every child came to school ready to learn.
•Family Fair: perhaps the event most associated with ECFE.
“We’ve been doing those for 20-years,” said Busta. “The community service event provides an awareness to families of the available resources in our county.”
“Mary Lou has certainly provided our Early Childhood Family Education program with a positive role model that really has helped to grow the program into what it is today,” said Caledonia Superintendent Mike Moriarty.
Open house
There will be an Open House in honor of Busta at the elementary school cafeteria beginning at 5:30 p.m. on June 19. Everyone is invited to attend.
A mother herself
The mother of four, who raised two daughters and two sons understands the importance of ECFE.
“I always thought it was an important part being a parent educator that I was a parent,” she said. “I always told my staff members that we need to be good role models to our families so when they look at our own families they see that our families come first.”
In fact, in her retirement one of the things she’ll be doing is spending more time with her granddaughter.
Busta gave everything she had to the ECFE program and takes great pride in what it is today. That pride is realized as many students she once had in the ECFE program have now graduated, have begun careers of their own and are now enrolling their own children in the ECFE program.
“That’s how you know you’ve come full circle,” she said.
You can contact Daniel McGonigle at
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
