‘Miracle Workers’ Get Management Training

With very little formal training, Head Start’s “miracle workers” have stretched small budgets to pay for everything from rent and pension plans to food and educational materials.

With training, officials reason, the popular preschool program would be even more successful.

Forty-three Head Start directors participated this month in a two-week “mini-MBA” program in management techniques at UCLA.

The curriculum includes contracts and procurement, staff motivation, cash flow analysis, marketing and quality control. It was jointly designed by Head Start, UCLA and Johnson & Johnson, which has earmarked $1.2 million for the next three years of the training.

Participants in a pilot training program have high praise for it.

Arvern Moore of Holly Springs, Miss., used his newfound skills to retrain and reassign his 400-member staff, dropping a typical staffer’s caseload from about 200 families a week to 80 while improving service.

Marilyn Thomas of Dayton, Ohio, organized “Tiger Teams” to allow middle management to decide whether to open new centers, freeing her to address broader issues.

And Patricia Poblete of Winter Haven, Fla., created a program to provide prenatal care to female migrant workers, who typically spend seven months a year in Florida and five months following the crops up the coast as far as Maine.

Alfred E. Osborne Jr., faculty director of the project, said many Head Start directors got involved as parents and teachers and lack management skills.

“They have a pittance of resources, but major responsibility for the development of our children--the responsibility for the children who are least able to afford it and come from families with some dysfunctional backgrounds and environments,” Osborne said.

Curtis G. Weeden, Johnson & Johnson’s vice president for corporate contributions, added: “Look at what one person has to do--annuity plans, pension plans, building low-income housing, financial planning. Really, they are miracle workers in many, many ways.”

Training, while always necessary, is seen as crucial now because President Bush and members of Congress want to increase Head Start funding. The likely result will be increases in enrollment and staff.

Osborne teaches the managers to cut across job titles, positions and functions and “tear down barriers which separate people from each other and hinder honest communication.”

Osborne concedes that overcoming resistance to change is no simple task.

The directors participate in lectures, group discussions, workshops and case studies on actual Head Start problems. Special seminars are held periodically to follow up on the two-week session.