Jefferson County’s Head Start program for needy children is $650,000 in the hole, putting the future of the program in jeopardy unless officials can scrape up the money to keep it going.
The federal government, along with the state, funds 80 percent of the program through grants. But it requires Jefferson County to chip in 20 percent of the costs — about $785,000 this year. If the county can’t show it has the money for 2010, the federal government has the option to discontinue or freeze the program.
County funds can come in the form of cash or in-kind donations, such as volunteers or medical equipment. But the program, under the purview of the county human-services department, has never had a designated funding source. As a result, the county has been dipping into the social-services reserve fund, which is nearly tapped out.
Lynn Johnson, who has been director of human services for 18 months, said the “sloppy” bookkeeping pre-dated her arrival and that once she found the accounting problems in November, she attempted to fix them.
No one is sure how many years the loose bookkeeping has been going on, but $164,991 for Head Start came from social-services reserves in 2007, and last year that grew to $456,692. This year, the amount is roughly $650,000.
Because of the shortfall, two Head Start employees were laid off this year, and their positions were eliminated.
Johnson, who said she has enough money left in social- services reserves to transfer into Head Start if necessary, is taking her case to the county commissioners Tuesday. But while she may be able to fill the financial hole now, next year is a different story.
“I’m going to talk to them about getting money from the county’s general fund,” Johnson said. “We need to show (the federal government) every year that we have the money.”
If a county is short on funding, Head Start will try to work with it, said Kenneth Wolfe, director of public affairs at the national Health and Human Services Department in Washington. But the program directors can also decide to give the money to another agency.
County Commissioner Kathy Hartman said she had no idea until recently that the Head Start program was running, in part, on social-services reserves. She said prior human-services directors had said the county matching funds were provided entirely through in-kind contributions.
“I guess we are going to have to authorize funding as part of budget or cancel the program,” she said. “If we don’t have an increase in revenue, then we will have to look at what our priorities are in the budget.”
Jefferson County Head Start provides preschool education, as well as medical, dental and mental-health support. It serves 406 children and families in Jefferson, Park, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties.
Karen E. Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
