The directors of Monticello Area Community Action Agency want to bring their Early Head Start and Head Start programs back, and come back stronger than ever.Â
In January, MACAA’s board of directors voted to relinquish its federal Early Head Start and Head Start grants, saying only that the agency was unable to “serve the number of children we are obligated to serve in a manner that is likely to be successful.” The agency officially closed its doors to hundreds of families and dozens of workers on March 31.
At an April board of director’s meeting the, Board Chair Sarah Shalf presented a plan to restart a pilot program for its Head Start programs in Charlottesville, and Albemarle, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson counties, by applying for a grant called the Head Start Expansion, Early Head Start Expansion, and Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership Grant. It could be a way for MACAA to get back into Head Start.
Should the agency receive the grant, the pilot it launches would be an entirely new Head Start program at a single, undetermined location. It would not be a reopening of any of MACAA’s previous centers. Those centers are currently managed by a national nonprofit called Community Development Institute Head Start, or CDI. CDI is a large nonprofit that the federal Department of Health and Human Services hires to run Head Start programs whenever community groups lose their grants or close their centers.
Even if MACAA opens a pilot center, CDI would still run the others.
The new expansion grant is a “separate, smaller grant, and would be in addition to the program that CDI now runs,” Shalf said at the April 25 meeting. “We can responsibly build a model program around it.”
The grant is a chance for MACAA to redeem itself and prepare to reapply for the Head Start grant it held previously, Shalf said. The agency could still re-apply for its original Head Start grants as soon as 2025.
The board agreed to move forward with the expansion grant application, but with conditions. The group will only accept the grant if it includes an ample amount of resources “to build in the support we need to build a strong pilot program,” Shalf said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow.
The grant is meant to support new or existing Head Start providers by giving them funds to expand their existing services, according to the announcement document for the grant. The minimum grant amount is $750,000, the grant reads.
The general operating grant that MACAA relinquished provided around $2.7 million annually in 2020 to run nine centers, according to the agency’s most recent tax documents.
The MACAA board can decide to rescind its application for the expansion grant if the board believes the agency isn’t equipped to “support a successful program,” Shalf said.
After submitting an application, MACAA will negotiate with the federal Office of Head Start on the funding amount. Assuming the federal agency agrees to fund MACAA, the latest the organization can reject the offer is Sept. 30.
If MACAA were to receive the expansion grant, the money would arrive this September, but the agency would not open the pilot center until October 2025, Shalf said in the email.
“We will make decisions about opening based on when we will be ready, depending on what OHS provides for in the grant, what progress we have made on our systems internally, and our conversations with the community,” Shalf said.
Not every member of the board of directors agrees that this is the right approach.
Phillip Love, director of finance for MACAA, doesn’t think MACAA is in the right shape to go back to business so quickly.
During the board meeting, he said the agency should not move forward “unless we get the right staff in, and we change the culture, and we change the infrastructure. It’s going to take time and we will do it. We have to do that for this to work. I think for the employees, the execs, that’s what’s sitting in the back of their heads. We don’t want this to fail. This can’t fail.”
He said he thinks MACAA should wait at least another three years before stepping back into action.
Charlottesville Tomorrow reached out to Love to ask follow up questions. He did not respond to emails sent to his MACAA account.
As of Thursday morning, CDI had reopened four of the nine closed centers and one classroom at MACAA’s Park Street location, according to a recent update on CDI’s website. The organization said it is still hiring staff for its Hollymead, Greer and remaining Park Street classrooms. The Louisa location remains closed and will not be reopened at that location. It is unclear why that center will not reopen. CDI did not respond to interview requests from Charlottesville Tomorrow.
While CDI is looking for a new location to host Head Start in Louisa County, it’s unlikely it will be able to serve Louisa students for the rest of the 2023-2024 school year, Shalf said at the April meeting.
