FARMVILLE – A federal contracting agency has assumed responsibility for operating the area's Head Start program but the region will not be HOPE-less.

HOPE Community Services, its executive director Dr. Kitty Smith affirmed, will continue offering all of its other programs and, she believes, will position itself to expand services.

“I just know that this was a good move,” she said of the federal Head Start office's decision to bring in the Community Development Institute (CDI) to take over the local program.

“Ultimately, as the agency moves forward,” she said of HOPE, “we can now spend time on other initiatives…My philosophy is 'never say die.' You just reinvent yourself…I just want the community to be calm. I still am.”

Even though the Head Start program is no longer with HOPE, Dr. Smith assured the community, “we still have all our other programs and one of the problems, I think, for some of the parents, especially, when they heard that the Head Start program was moving, they panicked because they knew they could count on us for other services.”

They still can count on HOPE for those services, according to the agency's leader.

Dr. Smith, who has a doctorate in Ministry, said CDI was brought in because “HOPE Head Start has been in financial trouble for a number of years.”

Federal grants require a match, she pointed out, and “ultimately the agency has to come up with money…If the grant goes over budget it's up to the agency to make that difference up. For a number of years the grant went over budget and for unforeseen things. For instance, the hike in gas (prices) for the buses to operate. And we cover nine counties. Twenty-one (Head Start) centers; 366 children.”

The region's Head Start program covers an area of 5,000 square miles, which magnified and multiplied the effect of rising fuel costs.

“We're talking about from the southern part of Charlotte County to Goochland. So you can imagine what our bus mileage, alone, has been. And we were fortunate that in some areas we were able to work out agreements with school systems to help with the transportation of the children, but that's not true in every county,” she said.

But that wasn't all.

Four buses broke down in one school year, requiring major repairs, she said.

“You can only budget so much in the grant,” she explained. “You can't anticipate everything happening, so we had those kinds of things.”

A flu epidemic one year kept six Head Start teachers out of the classroom, requiring the agency to pay the teachers sick leave while paying the substitutes.

When the margins are thin, such circumstances create financial difficulty.

“It's been an ongoing thing. And I understand it goes on everywhere. Most people get excited about getting a grant but you have to be really careful with grants…You're going to have to have some money,” Dr. Smith noted, because grants don't pay for everything a program requires.

“HOPE has never been able to raise enough non-discretionary money to balance out those unforeseen things. And so it just got to the point where it was too costly for us…” Dr. Smith explained during a Monday interview.

Head Start, Dr. Smith said, is “an expensive program.”

There are many personnel costs.

“Head Start requires such a large cadre of individuals,” she said.

Having a bus driver is not enough.

“You had to have a monitor on the bus,” Dr. Smith pointed out.

“You can't just have a teacher in the classroom. Every classroom has to have two people. Even though there may only be 18 children in the classroom you still have to have a teacher and an aide…” she continued.

And with certain unique health issues “you may have to have a third person in the classroom that is like a personal attendant to that child because you don't want to keep any child away from an educational experience…” she added.

Funding support from local governments, with one notable exception, has not been reliable across the nine-county service area, according to Dr. Smith.

“The counties have been on and off. Prince Edward County has been exceptional in their funding. Every funding cycle they have us in their budget. That's not true with all the other counties,” Dr. Smith said. “It's safe to say that we spend anywhere from two to three hundred thousand dollars a year in every county. That, of course, includes the Head Start program and all the other programs.”

HOPE, living up to its name, kept working to find daylight in the financial tunnel, but reality is reality and reality got the attention of the federal Head Start office in Washington, DC.

“There was just no daylight because we have not had successful fundraising campaigns…Grant money can't be used for fundraising,” she added.

So, CDI to the rescue, which is its mission, the reason it exists.

CDI is a national interim Head Start program operator. Dr. Smith said CDI, which has experience across the nation, will operate the nine-county Head Start program for a year to 18 months before putting the program out to bid.

“They say they've done about 150 programs like this across the country. They're doing two other programs in Virginia right now…and they stay on board for 12 to 18 months, just to help get the program through the school year…and then they'll put it up for bids…” she explained.

CDI, Dr. Smith assured, “has promised they'll be no break in services to the children and their families and they have taken on as many of our employees as possible. I think there are maybe four or five employees who are not…out of about 80 employees. So they've maintained all the teachers, bus drivers, monitors,” Dr. Smith continued.

The CDI's website explains that the federal Head Start office, “in order to ensure that Head Start/Early Head Start services would not be interrupted when the existing grantee is no longer able to administer the program, established the concept of interim program operation. CDI HS allows…services to continue, through interim operation, until the formal process for finding a replacement grantee can be completed and a local, long-term replacement grantee is appointed.”

CDI emphasizes that it “is not a successor and will not be staying in the community” and notes it is awarded “a new grant to operate the program for the same dollar amount as was awarded to the prior grantee the previous year. The prior grantee will be responsible for closing out the grant under which they were operating the program independently of CDI HS as the interim manager. CDI HS is awarded a new grant without consequence of 'extra money' or deficit from the prior grantee; nothing carries over or is subtracted as a result of operations under the prior grantee,” CDI's website states.

Dr. Smith's theme throughout the interview is a recurring assurance to parents and the community that they do not have to give up HOPE.

“I think it was important to get something in the newspaper. Number one to let folks know that HOPE is not closing down because the Head Start program is the most visible of HOPE's programs so once the word went out that the Head Start program has moved everyone began to think 'Oh, my goodness HOPE is closing down,'” she said.

Naming off programs, such as Project Discovery and EnergyShare, along with what she described as “emergency services,” Dr. Smith said, “all of those programs will continue; it's just the Head Start program…It is important that we get in the newspaper, not only for our Head Start families but for the public in general that the actual story is that HOPE is still operating.”

Though there is a fiscal cliff still looming in Washington, DC that could make programs vulnerable in Farmville and across the nation.

“All of our programs face some challenges if the nation doesn't get the budget situation straight,” she said. “That's the reality that I'm dealing with on a regular basis.”