Dr. Steve Gallon III Leads Focus on Supporting and Improving Early Childhood Education in Urban Core A meeting was held with the Opa-Locka Consortium of Early Childhood and the Early Learning Coalition of South Florida to discuss resources geared toward supporting and improving early childhood programs in the urban core. The Opa-Locka Consortium of Early Childhood (OCEC) serves as the mechanism and conduit for partnerships, professional development and training, funding, and resources for early learning childhood centers and providers that are members of the consortium. As the core mission of OCEC will be to improve the overall program quality designed to meet the educational, health, social, and developmental needs of infants and children enrolled in early learning childhood centers and programs in the City of Opa-locka, a defined system that identifies, assesses, and evaluates the program quality of early learning childhood centers and programs will be critically foundational and needed. This system will also provide advocacy and assistance to early learning centers and programs committed to providing high quality programming for infants and children in the City of Opa-locka, as well as parents and families of children both enrolled and those needing to be enrolled in early childhood programs. Dr. Steve Gallon III served as an elementary school principal at Holmes Elementary School in Miami’s Liberty City where he established programs for infants, children, and parents. While principal at Miami Northwestern a Senior High School, Dr. Gallon oversaw an on-site early childhood program for the children of students and staff. An educational stalwart throughout Miami, brings a wealth of experience and perspective having served as a teacher, principal, district administrator, and Superintendent of Schools in the urban core. He has also served as a university professor in the area of Educational Leadership and Urban Education.
