Six months after local Head Start provider closed, its executive director has resigned

Sarah Hanks, executive director the Monticello Area Community Action Agency, has resigned from her position, according to the organization’s website. 

Hanks’ resignation comes about six months after MACAA decided to surrender its Early Head Start and Head grants to the national Office of Head Start. The resignation occurred at MACAA’s June board meeting, which the Board did not allow members of the public to attend.

Hanks declined to comment on her resignation in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow. 

“Sarah was instrumental in navigating the pandemic, and in strengthening our mission and vision,” MACAA Board Chair Sarah Shalf said in a prepared statement posted to the organization’s website. “We deeply appreciate her commitment to MACAA during a challenging time in our organization’s history. We look forward to continuing the work of community action in the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle, Nelson, Fluvanna, and Louisa Counties.”

Shalf declined to answer further questions about Hanks’ resignation. 

“I don’t have any further comment on Sarah Hanks’ resignation at this time, other than what is posted on our website,” Shalf said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Hanks entered her role at MACAA in August of 2019, according to her LinkedIn profile. Trish Anderson, director of early childhood services at MACAA, will serve as “temporary interim executive director” beginning July 20 until the MACAA board can secure an “outside interim executive director,” the website says. Once that person is in place, the Board will begin a search for a permanent leader.

MACAA was one of the only free options for child care in the city. Initially, its closure left about 200 families without daycare, and dozens of workers without jobs. Why MACAA closed its doors remains unclear. Last October, the Department of Health and Human Services, the federal agency that oversees Head Start offices, told MACAA that it was not meeting federal expectations. The community organization closed its doors three months later. 

In March, OHS contracted Community Development Institute Head Start, a third party organization, to run MACAA’S Head Start locations after MACAA surrendered its grant. The organization reopened five of MACAA’s nine centers by April, according to its most recent statement. Each Head Start child care center operates during the calendar of whatever school division it’s based in. As of Tuesday, CDI had not announced how many locations will open at the start of the school year in August.

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