County Says It Is Prepared to Run Head Start : Child care: Officials tell commitment to keeping programs, now operated by a financially troubled agency, going in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys.

Los Angeles County officials Wednesday told a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 parents and children that the county is prepared to take over the Head Start programs in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys if the agency running them cannot make up a more than $800,000 shortfall without hurting services.

“Our commitment, at the highest level, is to keep the sites open,” Andrew Kennedy, the county’s director of Head Start programs, told the parents, many of whom held up signs asking that the agency’s classrooms not be closed.

At the Pacoima meeting, many parents also carried signs supporting a parent advisory committee’s call for the resignation of the executive director of the Latin American Civic Assn., which has been running the Head Start program for nearly 30 years.

In addition to the ouster of Ralph Arriola, the parents’ Policy Council is seeking the resignation of three members of LACA’s board of directors--Chairwoman Suzi Rodriguez, Pat Koesler and Louis Diamond.

Only the LACA board of directors can fire Arriola. None of the people asked to resign could be reached for comment.

Head Start provides nutritious meals, instruction and medical services to nearly 1,800 mostly poor children in the two valleys.

In late February, county officials stripped LACA of $5.3 million in future federal funding, saying it was riddled with financial and other problems. LACA has appealed the decision. County officials expect to rule on the appeal next week.

On Monday, the LACA board voted to impose immediate 12% salary cuts for all employees and lay off 53 workers through June 30 to help make up an $822,000 shortfall allegedly caused by mismanagement.

Parents and employees immediately criticized the cuts, saying services and teachers were unfairly being sacrificed. Some teacher assistants, who earn about $1,100 a month, said the pay cut--about $132--would make it difficult to make ends meet. Many of them have children in the Head Start programs.

The Policy Council voted Tuesday to oppose the budget cuts, creating an impasse with the board of directors. Under federal guidelines, the parents advisory committee must approve any changes in the budget or work programs.

Kennedy, occasionally interrupted by a crying child, explained to the parents Wednesday that Head Start will continue to operate with or without LACA.

Mike Bower, spokesman for the county office of education, said LACA’s proposed budget cuts will be reviewed. If federal guidelines are not met for minimum services, the county is prepared to pull the contract from LACA and take over administration of the program through the end of June.

The county would then very likely continue operating the program into the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, and until a new agency is found to take over, Bower said.

Shelli Yeoman, chairwoman of the Policy Council, said she would like LACA to continue operating the program, but not with the present administration.

“LACA has been a part of this community for a long time, but people do not believe in the current LACA administration any more,” Yeoman said after the meeting.

Many of the parents in the audience at the Boys & Girls Club of the San Fernando Valley agreed.

“The children and the staff should not have to sacrifice because of what one man did,” said Magdalena Hernandez, whose daughter is enrolled in a program in Pacoima. “I don’t want to see any pay cuts or any sites closed.”

“If all these problems are because of one person, than that person should be made responsible, not everyone else,” said Consuelo Carrillo, another parent from Pacoima.

LACA’s problems began last summer when county inspectors, responding to complaints from parents and staff members, found that LACA had violated federal regulations by renting office space and vans from its own employees, overpaid staff members and engaged in nepotism.

In December, the agency was ordered to repay $104,700 in federal funds for some of those violations. Arriola has acknowledged committing some of the violations, but denies profiting from them.