Life Goes On : Preschool: Children in Head Start class play and learn and teachers point to educational progress. But the program faces a funding cutoff.

While the fight continues over who should operate Head Start programs, hundreds of children continue attending classes daily, oblivious to the adult crisis around them.

During a recent visit to a classroom at the Martin Luther King Center in Pacoima--one of 87 Head Start classes run by the Latin American Civic Assn. in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys--children noisily played with toy telephones, sang songs in Spanish and English, drew pictures with crayons and ate a nutritious lunch.

None of them seem to know--or care--that the county office of education last week reaffirmed its decision to end funding of LACA after June 30 because of financial and management problems.

Watching over the 15 children was Donna Keeton of Pacoima, a Head Start veteran for 21 years, since she enrolled the first of her two children in classes.

Today, like many other parents of former Head Start students, Keeton is a teacher in the federally funded program created nearly 30 years ago to help low-income preschoolers break the cycle of poverty by providing free instruction and health services in preparation for kindergarten.

Like a proud shepherd showing off her flock, Keeton spoke of the children’s progress since they started class in August.

“Many were brought in crying and screaming,” she said. “We had to lock the door to keep them in. Then they would get quiet and keep to themselves. Now, look at them.”

Children were running from one area to another, playing or listening intently as a teacher explained a card game.

“This is what it is supposed to be all about,” Keeton said.

But teachers and other Head Start staff members have been distracted with worries about their futures. In an effort to make up a projected $822,000 deficit in the 1992-93 budget, the LACA Board of Directors two weeks ago proposed laying off 52 employees and imposing a 12% salary cut for all remaining staff members.

The cuts were immediately denounced by teachers, who said they were already underpaid and that any cuts would force many to quit. Teachers earn about $1,400 a month, and assistant teachers make less than $1,200 a month.

“It’s not that I don’t want to take a pay cut, it’s that I can’t afford a pay cut,” said Monica Moreno, a teacher at Martin Luther King. “Nobody is here because they think they are going to get rich on what they are paid.

“We are all here because of the kids. But I think if they go ahead with the pay cuts, a lot of teachers will have to quit. That will definitely affect the children.”

Concern for the kids led a parents advisory committee to refuse to support the budget cuts, creating an impasse. Federal regulations require changes in spending to be approved by the committee.

The impasse and allegations of mismanagement on the part of LACA’s longtime director, Ralph Arriola, forced Arriola and seven of 11 board members to resign.

Ten new members were added to the board, most of them founders of LACA, which was created three decades ago to improve educational opportunities for Latinos in the Valley.

The new board is working with the parents committee and the union representing staff members on a new plan to address the deficit and repay about $100,000 in disallowed expenditures during the 1991-92 fiscal year.

They are hoping to submit a new proposal to a regional federal hearing board to regain funding for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. But, with time passing, the proposed pay cut has increased to 20%.

Meanwhile, staff members try to continue doing their jobs teaching Spanish-speaking children English and instilling self-esteem and social skills.

“This is not structured instruction where we drill the children,” Moreno said. “It may look like a lot of play, but there is a purpose in everything they do.”

The children, nearly 1,800 in all, are also provided with health services their families might not otherwise be able to afford for them. All get physical exams and immunizations. Hearing and vision are tested, which is critical, staff members say, because children who simply can’t hear or see very well are sometimes diagnosed with learning problems.

Psychologists, speech therapists and dentists also help. Children are required to brush after meals and are given fluoride tablets.

Parents recognize the difference the program has made.

“It has been a great help in preparing the children for kindergarten,” said Francisco Aguilar, as he picked up his 4-year-old son, Frank.

“When he first got here, he was not speaking very much,” said Maria Barajas of her son, Juan Carlos. “Now he’s talking all the time with the other kids and the teachers. I think he’s going to be a leader.”

HEAD STARTPROGRAM HISTORY

Head Start was launched in 1965 by the federal Office of Economic Opportunity as an eight-week summer program designed to help break the cycle of poverty by providing preschool children of low-income families with a comprehensive program to meet their emotional, social, health, nutritional and psychological needs. Since then, more than 12.5 million children and their families have been served by Head Start, and currently more than 583,000 children and their families are served each year by nearly 1,350 community-based nonprofit organizations and school systems in urban and rural areas in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.