WINONA — Some former Central Mississippi, Inc. (CMI) employees are speaking out in response to a CMI board member’s claims that a “personal agenda” by some members of the community led to the suspension and subsequent termination of CMI’s oversight of the Head Start program in six counties.
“There (are) some local people (who) set out to destroy the program,” Nelson Forrest, a longtime member of the CMI Board of Directors, stated in a Winona Times article. “It ain’t so much about the children. Some have a personal agenda against me and the board.”
Several former longtime employees dispute Forrest’s allegations that a personal agenda led to CMI’s loss of oversight over the federally funded Head Start program. They say they contacted the federal Office of Head Start in Washington because of CMI’s noncompliance with the Head Start Performance Standards, unfair treatment and wrongful terminations of Head Start employees, and unacceptable conditions at Head Start centers.
According to former CMI human resources coordinator Kathy McCoy, her 15-page letter to the federal Office of Head Start, as well as letters from other former employees, helped prompt a review of CMI’s Head Start facilities and administration in November. That review proved to be the catalyst to the termination of CMI’s administration of the Head Start grant on Dec. 11.
Following the November review, the Office of Head Start issued a 25-page report detailing a long list of health and safety deficiencies at the various Head Start centers and administrative shortfalls in the grant oversight at CMI’s central office. CMI was given 10 to 30 days to correct the deficiencies, but at a follow-up review, the Office of Head Start found that not all of the deficiencies had been corrected in the specified period.
Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, announced that CMI was informed that their oversight of the Head Start program had been terminated after they failed to correct all the deficiencies discovered during the November review in a timely manner.
During the suspension and now the termination, oversight of Head Start has been transferred to Central Development Institute Head Start (CDI HS) until a permanent administrator can be named. However, Head Start classes have been canceled since Nov. 17 because, according to a spokesman for the Office of Head Start, CMI still has not allowed CDI Head Start access to Head Start facilities and vehicles.
According to a statement from the Office of Head Start, complaints of former and current employees did lead the Office of Head Start to look into CMI’s handling of Head Start.
“In early November, the Office of Head Start conducted a monitoring review of CMI in response to numerous complaints received in writing from current and former staff,” stated Patrick Fisher, public affairs specialist for the Office of Communications for the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.
McCoy said she was not the only former employee to contact the Office of Head Start. A former teacher, Dora Georgia, said she sent a letter to the Office of Head Start as well, outlining her concerns about the conditions of the individual Head Start centers and what she said was unfair treatment of the staff.
According to McCoy, a team from the Office of Head Start visited Winona and began interviewing Head Start employees and former employees about the program and CMI’s oversight.
“Everything that has been stated about the deficiencies (is) true,” said McCoy. “This has been going on for years. (Dora Georgia and I) were not the only people to complain. Believe you me, they did know about concerns here in Winona.”
McCoy worked in the central office at CMI for over 21 years, with 10 years in human resources and the last three years as coordinator. She said while enjoying lunch with her daughter this past July, she came across a job listing in a regional newspaper – a listing for her job.
“I was just strolling the Internet, and there was my job announcement,” McCoy said.
She said that although she never got an official reason for her termination, she wasn’t surprised, and deep down she knew the cause.
“I was terminated because I wrote a letter to Region 4 (office of Administration for Children and Families in Atlanta) with my concerns,” said McCoy.
McCoy said she had sent the letter in the spring of 2015 alerting the office to issues with CMI not following the Head Start Performance Standards as mandated by the Office of Head Start; however, CMI’s administration learned of her letter.
“I feel I was terminated because I wanted to follow Head Start Performance Standards,” said McCoy.
McCoy said all Head Start employees are required to follow a strict set of guidelines tailored to the positions they hold.
McCoy said just after CMI’s leadership learned of her letter to Region 4, she felt a shift in the leadership’s attitude.
“They set me up for termination,” said McCoy. “I knew I was going to be terminated back in March. They were bold. They were very bold. I knew by the way I was being treated, the things that were being said to me. I was brought in front of (members of the CMI board of directors) and made to be like I didn’t know what I was doing, manipulated, harassed, intimidated. I never said a word. I was very stressed.”
McCoy said after she was terminated last summer, she decided to write another letter, but she planned to send it to the Office of Head Start in Washington, D.C.
“I have watched across the years the process of them not liking people and just schem(ing) until they got them terminated,” said McCoy. “They would harass, intimidate. I told the truth. If I hadn’t been telling the truth, do you think the funding source, the Office of Head Start, would have taken time out of their busy schedule and come to Winona? They believed me.”
Georgia worked as a Head Start teacher for nine years. She said she was terminated via text message this past September.
“I was wrongfully terminated,” said Georgia. “They didn’t like me because I spoke up.”
She claimed that when the CMI leadership did not like an employee, that employee would be transferred to the Head Start center farthest from his or her home. Georgia said prior to her termination, she was forced to travel 76 miles one way from her home in Kilmichael to a center in Holmes County.
“They shipped me around everywhere,” said Georgia. “That’s how they got rid of people. They would ship them far away.”
Georgia said she did not shy away from voicing her concerns about center conditions and noncompliance with Head Start Performance Standards.
Georgia said in January 2015, she was accused of striking a child by a center volunteer, although the child said the abuse did not happen. Georgia said the case was sent to the Department of Human Services for investigation, and she was eventually cleared of all wrongdoing. However, she was never called back to work. After a month-and-a-half of suspension, Georgia called DHS and asked about her case. She said she was told it had been closed.
She said she called CMI and told them what she had learned, and they called her back to work. Upon her return, Georgia said she was told by someone in the human resources department that they were informed she had been terminated. All of her benefits and health insurance had been canceled and had to be re-opened.
She went on to say that, on the day she returned from her suspension, she was suspended again for another day for allegedly using a cellphone in the classroom.
Georgia said that in September, while attending a staff training session, she was told she would be transferred to a center even farther away from her home, and she protested the re-assignment. Georgia said she and a supervisor got into an argument over the move, and she was sent home. The next morning, she received a text message from the executive director terminating her from CMI.
Georgia said she wrote to the Office of Head Start shortly after her termination.
“I wrote a letter entitled ‘A cry for help from the employees of CMI,’” said Georgia. “I wrote and told them how I was treated.”
Georgia said although there was money in the budget for classroom supplies, Head Start teachers often used their own money to purchase items for their classroom and teaching materials. Georgia said she purchased a rug for her classroom, art supplies, and even toys.
Georgia, who has a master’s degree in early education, said she was paid between $8 and $9 per hour; however, according to McCoy, other teachers with comparable educational backgrounds made between $14 and $15 an hour.
According to a Nov. 16 report from the Office of Head Start, one of the discrepancies levied against CMI was that there were inconsistencies in the rates of pay for some employees working for the Head Start program.
Former Duck Hill Head Start director Deborah Grace had nothing but praise for the teachers, assistants, and staff who worked under her in Duck Hill.
“Those people out in the field – hats off to them,” said Grace. “Those are some great people. They are hardworking people. These are people who held Head Start together.”
Grace said her concern for other employees led her to speak out against CMI.
“For the workers that are there now, I’ve got to speak,” said Grace.
Grace said she was terminated in June 2015 after working for 31 years as a teacher for Head Start in Eupora.
“I was good as a teacher,” said Grace. “I thought I was great as a teacher.”
In October 2013, she was approached by someone at the CMI central office about accepting the center manager position at the Duck Hill Head Start. She said she initially declined.
“I didn’t want it because I knew there was always turmoil at the (central) office,” said Grace. “And then, just traveling so far to Duck Hill from Eupora.”
Grace said it took her six months to accept the position, beginning in March 2014. She said when she began leading the Duck Hill Center, she reorganized the way things were done to adhere to Head Start Performance Standards.
“When I came in, I tried to do things based on the rules and regulations of CMI,” said Grace.
Grace said she wasn’t very popular with the staff at first because she saw certain problems and worked to fix them. She said when she spoke to a superior about the discord among the staff, she was told to “treat them like stepchildren.”
“I was told by (a supervisor) to cuss them out and then go and pray about it,” said Grace. “(The CMI central office) said the staff was taking over, and they weren’t.”
Grace said she did not take her superior’s advice on how to bring the staff together. Instead, she said she treated them like professionals.
“I respected them to the utmost,” said Grace. “They did their work. I didn’t have to worry about them. In the end, the staff and I became very close because I treated them with respect.”
Grace said she did not get the same consideration from the central office.
“There was no employee loyalty at all,” she said. “They sought me out, but when I got there, there was no support from the central office. I had more opposition from the central office than anyone else.”
Grace said this past June, she was released from Head Start. During her annual evaluation, Grace said she received low scores for two incidents.
She alleged that a central office employee changed payroll times for the Duck Hill Head Start without her permission. Grace said she was blamed for the incident, although it occurred after she turned in the times.
The other incident involved an early dismissal. One day, Grace said she was instructed by a member of senior staff to dismiss classes at noon because only one of the center’s school buses was operating that day. Grace said she was blamed for dismissing early even though she was following a direct order from a member of the senior staff.
“We only had one bus for over 100 students,” said Grace. “The children were dismissed, but (the staff) stayed to 4 p.m.”
Grace said because of these two incidents, she scored a 1.96 on her annual evaluation. The minimum score for someone to be re-hired for the next year is 2.0.
She questioned the results of the evaluation.
“I have been getting (an evaluation) for 30 years,” said Grace. “It wasn’t right.”
In the Office of Head Start’s Overview of Findings on CMI, the agency’s performance evaluations, it stated, “A review of staff files found inconsistencies in how the rating criteria were used for staff members and found ratings inconsistent with job responsibilities. In some cases, the scores used to determine performance criteria were based on faulty final evaluations.”
Grace said she believed her termination was based upon a long-planned vacation she scheduled for the first week of summer vacation.
“I scheduled my vacation for May 27,” said Grace. “We got out for summer, according to the calendar, on May 17, so I didn’t have to put in a notice for annual leave because we would already be out for summer.”
Grace said although the official calendar said they would be out of school on May 17, the central office extended the staff’s year by 10 days. Because she had already scheduled a cruise for that time, she sought official approval from the executive director, and Grace said she received approval. In addition, Grace was paid through her annual leave.
Grace said she felt like this vacation was the real reason she was released soon after she returned.
“I was told they didn’t want me to go (on vacation),” Grace said.
Grace also said that one of the members of the board of directors told her that the central office “had a personal issue with me.”
Grace said she took offense to board member Nelson Forrest’s recent claims that there is a personal agenda out to hurt the Head Start program and the CMI board of directors.
“I’ve never wanted to hurt the program,” said Grace. “The program was not run right. I love Head Start.”
