Boulder County Head Start reports five staffing openings before Aug. 17 return
A July 21 county report listed one center director, two family advocates and two lead teachers as open or entering recruitment; public records do not show whether the positions will be filled before children return.
Boulder County Head Start reported five staffing openings for the 2026-27 school year less than four weeks before children are scheduled to return Aug. 17. The county had not publicly confirmed by July 23 that the positions were filled.
At the county commissioners’ July 21 meeting, the program listed one open center director position, two family advocate positions with interviews in progress and two lead teacher positions still being opened for applications. Head Start described leadership vacancies as its largest area of need and said it was continuing to recruit, the meeting record says.
Head Start leadership was scheduled to return July 27, followed by staff pre-service training Aug. 3. Classroom preparation, home visits and parent open houses were scheduled to begin Aug. 10, with children scheduled to return Aug. 17. These are planned milestones, not evidence that the vacancies have been resolved.
The report did not say the openings had closed classrooms, changed classroom ratios or reduced services. It said the program requested redeployment of a regional family services specialist to help onboard new family advocates. The public record does not confirm whether that support or other hiring efforts will fill the positions before the school year begins.
Head Start reported 93 children enrolled for the coming year — 58 in Boulder and 35 in Lafayette — out of 110 funded slots. The program said enrollment would continue through the summer and into the school year because numbers fluctuate. The record does not establish that the 17 unfilled funded slots represent immediately available classroom capacity, and it does not provide a current waitlist count. The county’s Head Start program page lists program and enrollment information but no July staffing, waitlist or capacity update.
The 2026-27 grant year began July 1. The county report did not include a filled-versus-vacant total for all Head Start positions, a hiring deadline or a contingency plan if openings remain when children return.