Federal Head Start officials vow that the program for preschoolers from low-income families will continue in Carroll County, despite a local nonprofit agency's decision to relinquish its $663,000 federal grant and close the program May 31.
"We are absolutely committed to seeing that Head Start services stay in Carroll County. We will not diminish them by one day or one penny," said David Lett, a regional administrator for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the early-childhood education program.
The details of continuing the program for up to 120 children will be discussed at a meeting April 7 between federal officials and representatives of Human Services Programs of Carroll County Inc., which has operated the county's Head Start sites for two years.
The board of that agency voted this month to give up the program, which employs about 30 teachers, aides and bus drivers, because of the amount of red tape required by the federal government.
"We were naive in agreeing to do it," said Sylvia Canon, executive director of Human Services Programs, which became the Head Start grant-holder after the Carroll County public schools decided in early 1997 to drop the programs it had run for more than 30 years.
"Compliance is not hard, but there is a lot of it," she said of the Head Start reporting procedures. "It was such a stretch for us that it strains our resources to where our support staff is threatening to quit."
Still, she said, the board's decision surprised her.
"It's not in us to think about quitting," she said.
Canon said the federal requirement that Human Services Program provide a 20-percent match of in-kind services for the $663,000 grant was also a burden for the agency, which operates about 40 other programs for families and individuals. Avoiding jeopardizing the other programs, which she said serve thousands of youngsters, was another reason for the board's decision.
"I hope they change their minds. There's almost nothing that we cannot work out," Lett said, offering support services, expert advice and "marginal dollars" to keep the program running. It is not unusual for groups to give up their Head Start grants in the first few years of sponsorship, when the programs seem "beyond their management capabilities," he said.
It usually takes seven to nine months to find a Head Start sponsor, and Lett said he hoped Human Services Programs would agree to continue until a replacement could be found.
Lett said Human Services is funded to serve 121 3- and 4-year-old county youngsters from families with incomes at or below poverty level.
Canon said 80 to 90 youngsters are being served this year at Elmer A. Wolfe Elementary in Union Bridge, William Winchester Elementary in Westminster and Northwest Middle in Taneytown, and in a home-based program for children who cannot go to those schools. The programs do not operate in the summer.
Pub Date: 3/31/99