The new leaders at a Bloomington-based early childhood program for low-income families say they’re focused on increasing enrollment and empowering staff who’ve endured a tumultuous couple of years.
The publicly funded Heartland Head Start (HHS) has faced numerous leadership challenges and workplace-culture complaints in recent years, including a power struggle between its two governing boards that devolved into a lawsuit. This year it also faced increased federal scrutiny for failing to properly supervise a 5-year-old child on a field trip.
The interim executive director who took over this summer, Ericka Howard, has already resigned. Chuck Hartseil, a retired special education administrator, is the new interim executive director after briefly serving on Head Start’s Policy Council.
A top priority is increasing enrollment, Hartseil said. There have about 124 students now and officials want to get that number closer to 200.
“Like everybody else in the world today, we’re short-staffed, and finding people who can fill the positions we have open is impacting our ability to enroll students. So one of our top priorities is to hire staff to come in, so we can open additional classrooms that we’re waiting to open,” Hartseil said.
Head Start has four teacher vacancies, plus support staff roles. It’s also conducting a wage-comparability study; as an industry, the early childhood workforce is notoriously underpaid.
Another top priority is hiring a permanent executive director, hopefully by the end of 2023 or the start of 2024, said Ama Oforiwaa Aduonum, president of Head Start’s Governance Board. That hiring process will include a town hall-style meeting that will be open to the public, she said.
For now, Aduonum said leadership is focused on helping existing staff feel confident and empowered in their roles.
Hartseil said a big reason he took the job was the “engaged and dedicated staff.”
“They are dedicated to HHS," agreed Aduonum, a professor of ethnomusicology at Illinois State University. "They love HHS. They love the cause and support it in so many ways. We are trying to find ways to encourage them, to keep supporting, to empower, because this is how we get there.
“Like I told the board members, it’s going to be a rough ride, but we can do it. We just have to stay focused and make specific, strategic choices that are going to help empower our staff which will impact the children and their families.”
One encouraging sign is the rebuilding of the Governance Board. Aduonum said they’ve added four new members since July, bringing the board to eight people. (They can have between seven and 11.) The Governance Board oversees legal and fiscal aspects of the agency and, in consultation with Head Start’s Policy Council, hires the executive director. The Policy Council — the voice of parents in the program — is currently one or two members short, Hartseil said.
Facing competition for the grant?
Heartland Head Start’s $4 million budget is funded almost entirely by a federal grant, awarded every five years. The current grant ends in June 2025.
Every five years, every Head Start program goes through the federal Designation Renewal System — ostensibly a quality-control process. Programs are judged on seven criteria, and if they fail to meet even one of them, it automatically triggers an open competition for the next round of grant money. One of those criteria is having two or more deficiencies; Heartland Head Start has at least one already — the incident with the 5-year-old.
WGLT asked Aduonum and Hartseil whether they expected competition.
“I don’t know, but I know we’re working very hard to prevent that from happening. Because we want to hold onto that grant,” Aduonum said. “It’s very important to us that we do whatever it takes to maintain that grant. We don’t want any competitors. We’re working on it. We’re here to stay, to keep the grant.”
Hartseil said Head Start’s leaders want to “re-establish the positive view” that the community has in regard to the agency's work.
“Moving forward, we really — as an organization, as an agency — want to ensure that we’re doing the maximum. And beyond that, we want to ensure we’re creating safe spaces, creating educational spaces meant for our students and our families to succeed to higher levels and be able to compete in the world. And become honorable citizens for our societies. That is our goal,” Aduonum said.
