Original Research by School Decision on Esu 3 Head Start - Belleaire
ESU 3 Head Start – Belleaire is an early childhood program operating under Educational Service Unit 03, a regional cooperative that supports schools across eastern Nebraska. This is a pre-kindergarten center exclusively for four-year-olds; it serves sixteen children, which makes its enrollment very small. The school is located in Bellevue, a suburban city in Sarpy County that sits within the Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area. Bellevue’s economy and identity have long been shaped by Offutt Air Force Base, home to U.S. Strategic Command, and more recently by civilian expansion along the Kennedy Freeway. The city is a mix of residential neighborhoods, commercial corridors, and military-adjacent development, and its growth over the past several decades has been steady, though recent Census estimates show a very slight population decline since 2020.
Because this is a Head Start center serving only pre-kindergarten, there are no state assessment results to report. Nebraska does not administer its standardized tests in pre-K, and no graduation rate or chronic absenteeism metric applies here. For a family or resident wondering about academic performance, the relevant measure is whether the program meets Head Start’s own federal performance standards, but those data are not part of the public school testing framework. The absence of test scores is expected for this grade band and does not signal a weak or strong outcome; it simply reflects the nature of the school.
The student body is small, which means each child receives a high ratio of adult attention, but the composition offers a clear picture of who the program is designed to serve. A large majority of children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, consistent with Head Start’s mission to support low-income families. Racially, the group is predominantly white, with a substantial Black minority and a small share of children who identify as two or more races. No data are available on the share of students with disabilities or English learners; for a Head Start program, those populations are often present, but the data simply were not reported here. A parent may want to ask the center directly about how it serves children with special needs or language support, as Head Start typically provides these services.
The school is a regular public school in governance, not a charter or magnet. It operates as part of Educational Service Unit 03, which is an intermediate agency that provides shared services to multiple school districts rather than a traditional district. Bellevue’s housing market reflects a moderately priced suburb. Home values are near the state average, and rents have been rising modestly. The broader economic context shows a national unemployment rate near four percent and mortgage rates just over six percent, which is typical for the current period. For a family considering the area, Bellevue offers a car-oriented environment with limited public transit, a historic downtown near the Missouri River, and recreational assets like Fontenelle Forest and Haworth Park. The city’s largest employer remains Offutt Air Force Base, and the school’s location on West Mission Street is central to the community.
Who this school fits: any family with a four-year-old who qualifies for Head Start’s income guidelines or meets its criteria for priority enrollment. It is not a neighborhood elementary school; it is a targeted early childhood program that provides preschool readiness, meals, and family support services. For a parent looking to understand whether this is a good school, the answer lies in the program’s compliance with Head Start quality benchmarks, not in standardized test scores or graduation rates, which do not apply. The data available show a program that serves a high-poverty population in a small, focused setting. A family exploring options in Bellevue should confirm the center’s hours, curriculum, and any additional services such as transportation or special education supports directly with ESU 3.
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