Colorado-based nonprofit tapped to temporarily run Santa Cruz County Head Start after Encompass exit

Encompass Community Services leaders say a Colorado-based nonprofit will be in Santa Cruz County as soon as Monday to start the process to reopen and run Head Start services temporarily, after Encompass announced Tuesday it will step down from running them. 

Interim Encompass CEO Kim Morrison said Denver-based Community Development Institute Head Start will step in to run the local program, which closed down Oct. 31 amid significant funding changes and after the federal government shutdown delayed payments. The program hasn’t yet reopened. Head Start’s 91 staff members were also laid off. 

Encompass has operated Head Start locally since 1983. The federally funded child care program provides many services, including bilingual early learning to infants and children up to age 5. 

Last Wednesday, the federal Office of Head Start told Encompass to submit an operational plan to reopen the program within 72 hours, including requiring that it serve more than 400 children — a level of enrollment Encompass hasn’t seen since before the pandemic. The program served about 250 children this year before it abruptly shuttered in October. 

Morrison said she doesn’t know why the federal office made that request but said Encompass had been asking to be able to serve fewer students than that and to provide those students with more hours of care. She said she doesn’t know if the federal office required other community Head Start providers to provide similar operational plans. 

Morrison said that the organization can’t safely serve 400 children because its staffing and facilities are limited. She told Lookout that Encompass leaders decided that rather than launching into drawn-out negotiations with the federal office — leaving the local program shut down and in limbo — the nonprofit opted to stop administering the Head Start program entirely. Encompass informed the federal office of its decision on Monday. 

Morrison said that leaving the program allows the federal office to bring in another manager to restart services more quickly than negotiating a plan for Encompass to reopen. 

“Our main driver for our decision was that we wanted to provide services,” she said. “We’ve been without services since the 31st of October, and rather than go through a protracted negotiation, it was faster to provide services if we walked away from that.” 

The federal Office of Head Start told Morrison and Encompass leaders that Community Development Institute Head Start will act as the interim operator of the local program. It will ask former staff to reapply to their jobs, Encompass Board Chair Elaine Johnson said, and plans to provide the same services previously offered by Encompass. 

“Everything should be the same as it was,” said Johnson. “They’re not coming in to change anything. The only thing that will be different is they’ll be the manager versus Encompass.”

The goal is to “get the services started very quickly,” Morrison said, but she didn’t know by what date the programs will be up and running.  

Community Development Institute Head Start runs local programs temporarily when the operators no longer have the federal grant to do so. In more than 20 years, the institute has provided services for more than 220 areas across the country, according to its website. 

Johnson told Lookout that she’s “glad” the interim manager will be starting next week.

“For them to be on the ground Monday and moving forward is a comfort,” she said. “Because we want to get the kids back into the classrooms, and want to get the parents freed up so they can go back to work or whatever they need to do. That is a top priority for us.” 

Morrison said she doesn’t know how soon Head Start will reopen to families. The goal is to “get the services started very quickly,” she said. She added that Community Development Institute Head Start intends to have a new local provider selected to run the program long term within a year.

Encompass would consider reapplying to be a long-term operator of the program in the future, Morrison said, but the nonprofit would have to review the terms of any request for proposals issued by the federal Office of Head Start. She declined to say what would need to be in the request for proposals for Encompass to consider applying. 

“We really need to see the RFP when it comes out,” said Morrison. “We are interested in what that looks like. We’d be very interested in running the program, if the RFP is achievable for us to handle.”

County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah said the County Office of Education is considering submitting a proposal to keep the program in local hands. 

“Lots of other county offices of education do run the Head Start programs,” he said. “That is a possibility we’re going to be looking into.” 

He added the many disruptions to services have been challenging to families and the county office is focused on ensuring that families are aware of what programs are available to them.

“It’s a very confusing time, especially on the heels of the longest government shutdown in history,” he said. “These disruptions are creating a lot of concern and confusion.” 

Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino told Lookout the nonprofit is interested in applying as well and is exploring what that might look like. 

Morrison said Encompass doesn’t know what each of the 250 students and their families have done since the nonprofit stopped providing services last month. But she knows several enrolled their children in early childhood education and preschool programs in public school districts, including Pajaro Valley Unified School District.  

Lookout requested an interview with Head Start staff through their union, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521, but a spokesperson said staff are still processing the news. 

“We will hold Encompass accountable for leaving our community in the lurch, while working closely with the Office of Head Start to ensure a smooth and stable transition,” the union said in a statement. “Above all, our focus is restoring high-quality early childhood education as quickly as possible and ensuring SEIU 521 members can return to the work they love — providing critical early education in Santa Cruz County.” 

Morrison and Johnson said that the interim operator will first invite former employees to reapply to their positions, and if it doesn’t get enough staff, it will open up the applications to the wider community.

They said they don’t yet know how many students or staff Community Development Institute will have but that they will be using the same Head Start classrooms and spaces. 

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