Valley Head Start Overseer May Survive Cuts

Los Angeles County officials Friday received a plan to retain a local agency as the administrator of Head Start programs in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys through the end of June, raising the chances that the agency will be able to continue in charge of the program next year.

Parents and union officials approved the plan, which calls for 44 people, mostly administrators, to be laid off at the Latin American Civic Assn. The plan is designed to make up an $850,000 budget deficit that county officials say occurred because of mismanagement by the former director of the association.

Without a revised budget, the civic association was expected to run out of money Friday.

It was created nearly 30 years ago to improve the educational opportunities for Latinos in the San Fernando Valley, and operates Head Start under contract to the county. Head Start provides meals, instruction and health services to nearly 1,350 mostly poor children in the two valleys.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education is expected to review the plan next week. If it is not acceptable, the county still has the option of taking over the program and running it itself.

Officials of the civic association, however, expect the plan to be approved, and are optimistic that it will prove to federal Head Start officials that the association’s financial problems are behind it and that its leaders can responsibly run the programs next year.

County officials last month reaffirmed their decision to strip the association of funding for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.

But that decision was based on a written appeal filed before the association was totally reorganized, with a new board of directors, after longtime Executive Director Ralph Arriola resigned.

The association has appealed the county’s decision to a regional federal office that oversees the Head Start program.

Federal officials have indicated to the association that if the agency can come up with an acceptable plan to deal with its financial problems through June 30, funds would very likely be restored.

The association’s officials, parents and union officials had been negotiating for weeks to find an acceptable plan to revise the budget to make up the projected shortfall.

The talks had reached an impasse because parents and union officials did not want to accept layoffs and salary cuts proposed by the association’s board of directors, nor a suggestion by county officials to lay off nearly 100 people, leaving only a bare-bones staff.

But parents and union members softened their opposition last week, agreeing to a plan that will result in only 44 people being laid off, with only about 20 of those employees represented by the union.

There are also no salary cuts in the plan.

Jo Navarro, an official with Local 1475 of the Early Childhood Federation, which represents about 200 of the association’s 260 employees, said the membership approved the plan primarily because of the reorganization and the dedication shown by Irene Tovar since she took over as chairwoman of the board of directors last month.

“Seeing Irene in operation was a major factor,” Navarro said.

Navarro said a close analysis of the budget revealed jobs that were never filled, employees who were being overpaid and positions that were never approved by the county.

Those findings, combined with the opening of classrooms that will generate new revenues and the county’s willingness to pay about $250,000 in salaries for some positions from other funds, allowed the civic association to balance its budget for the remainder of the fiscal year.