*District update on total pre-K classrooms: “We had 46 classrooms last year and 30 this year (12 NH County [funded], 2 Endowment [funded] , rest NC Pre-K and Title 1 [funding]. The district couldn’t fund 16 classrooms this year.”
At Wednesday’s Turn Around Task Force meeting, a group of educators and community leaders working on the issue of low-performing schools, the loss of pre-K funding from the federal Head Start grant program came up. New Hanover County Commissioner Rob Zapple asked the members, “What in the Sam Hill are we going to do? That’s a $3.5 million loss without that grant, and we don’t know who the replacement is.”
Acting superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes attended the meeting. He told the group that the district has a wait list for three- and four-year-olds wanting to join pre-K classes and that he has ten classrooms at the Dorothy B. Johnson school this academic year (seven are regular, and three are for exceptional children).
“If we find the money, we want to add classes back too, but we don’t know either who [the grant recipient] is,” Barnes said.
In June, the district announced that it wasn’t the grant recipient; some other organization was. WHQR has repeatedly requested information from federal Head Start staff; they said it's still pending, with the recipient set to be announced later this summer.
Samuel Saunders and Charissa Smith, parents of pre-K students, came to the school board’s public comment period in July, upset that the district could potentially no longer serve their children because of the loss of grant funding.
Saunders, who served on Johnson’s policy council, brought his three children to the podium with him and said that this devastating funding loss meant that 17 classrooms would have to be cut, 240 children could no longer be served, and countless families wouldn’t be able to apply to the school.
“I’m forced to make serious decisions to balance their education and our livelihood. It hurts to imagine what other families are going through right now. There should be no expense spared for early childhood education — you don’t need me to tell you to educate them sooner or pay for it later,” Saunders said.
He concluded that the district needed to find the money to support the community’s pre-K children.
During this public comment period, school board member Stephanie Walker made remarks from the dais, something that is not often seen (the board traditionally listens to public speakers but doesn't respond or engage in a back-and-forth). Walker said that she wanted the public to know that the school board did not decide to cut the pre-K funding but that it was the loss of the federal Head Start grant.
WHQR has contacted the district to confirm the number of classrooms that had to be eliminated because of the grant loss.
Shannon Smiles, the director of Early Childhood Education, told the board in June that they were down 17 classrooms. She added that they would not take any new enrollments — mainly serving last year’s three-year-olds.
Additionally, students who live in single-parent households, are in foster care, are experiencing homelessness, or are considered low-income (i.e. those with families earning under the federal poverty level) are considered “high risk” and will continue being served.
Smith was also a member of Johnson's policy committee. In July, she didn’t know whether her student could return next year, and she was concerned, like Saunders, that other families wouldn’t be served.
“I work in the community and see what it’s like when families don’t have access to pre-K. [...] I don’t understand what happened," she said. "I am asking the district to supplement the funding. Where and why, and how can we get the funding back?”
At the August task force meeting, former Assistant Superintendent Dr. Patrice Faison, who recently resigned to move to another position in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district, said, “We worked really hard to make the transition because it’s about the kids. [...] It has not been easy; they [Head Start] haven’t been great partners as far as this. I hate to say that, but we really have tried.”
Task force member Scott Whisnant said, “Could we turn to the Endowment to get Dorothy B. Johnson up to full staffing? We have empty classrooms now at Johnson, which is too bad. As Barnes said, we have a waiting list for pre-K, but it’s not that simple.”
Walker, who leads the task force, said, “All pre-K staff have been told that as soon as we get funding, they can fill those classrooms.”
Barnes responded that the funding is tight all around.
“We would love to open all of Johnson back again, but that money also needs to be spent for social workers and teachers in overcrowded classrooms, so it’s a hard sell,” he said.
Whisnant said, “If we only knew a county official who controlled the budget,” referring to Zapple, who was sitting in the room, and by extension the county board of commissioners.
Barnes added that every Johnson staff member has a job in the district, “so we reduced that damage. The kids are still unserved, but at least we got the adults settled.”
Pre-K classes are set to begin September 6. Freeman's pre-K program has also moved to Johnson.
