Tlingit & Haida Head Start plans to cut 80 classroom spots

The Head Start program operated in 10 Southeast communities by the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska wants to reduce its authorized enrollment by 80 children as the nonprofit adjusts to a tightening budget situation and staffing shortages.

The program serves Wrangell, though the tribal nonprofit said there would be no reduction in classroom slots in the community.

Tlingit & Haida is approved to serve 262 children across Southeast but has asked federal officials for permission to reduce the number to 182, according to Head Start Director Christa Green. Federal funding covers almost 80% of the program’s budget.

“We are primarily decreasing slots in Juneau and Sitka. Several other communities will decrease by just a few slots,” she said. “We looked at communities that have been under-enrolled for the past few years to make our decision,” she explained.

“The workforce shortage, which has been felt since the pandemic, has resulted in the inability to fully enroll all slots due to a lack of staff,” Green said in an email last week.

“Without being able to fill those vacant staff positions, some of the programs have to downsize. In addition, some communities are reporting lower numbers of age-eligible children than in previous years,” she said.

“The number of children is declining throughout Southeast Alaska. Families are choosing to have less children and some are moving out of town once they do.”

The cutback in classroom slots would come only after approval from the Office of Head Start, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and would only affect future student counts. “This will not interrupt services to currently accepted or enrolled children,” Green said.

Head Start provides early childhood education for free, primarily to low-income families.

Though it plans to reduce the number of children it serves, Tlingit & Haida is asking that the federal agency not reduce its funding. The tribal nonprofit would like to use the money “to increase wages for staff to make teaching and caring for young children equitable and competitive to other positions in education,” Green said.

“We believe offering competitive wages will increase our recruitment and retention rates for staff and will incentivize prospective employees to consider this career field,” the program director said. Tlingit & Haida also plans to use the money to cover increased operating costs and the higher expenses of running the infant and toddler program Early Head Start.

Federal rules require a minimum number of teachers tied to the student count at each location, and tight finances and staffing at Tlingit & Haida and other Head Start operations around the state have jeopardized meeting the federal standards.

Failure to maintain adequate staffing and enrollment could result in cuts to federal funding.

Almost half of Alaska’s Head Start early learning programs are in danger of losing millions of dollars in federal funding due to under-enrollment.

Officials with the Alaska Head Start Association said federal officials have told eight programs that they could lose as much as $12.5 million in funding due to under-enrollment, according to a news report last month from Alaska Public Media. Tlingit & Haida and Metlakatla are among the eight, according to the association.

“Our executive council and administration are taking a proactive approach to avoid any loss of funding,” Green explained in her email.

In addition to requesting federal approval to reduce the number of Head Start slots, Tlingit & Haida has asked to convert eight classroom spots and 20 preschool slots to Early Head Start to serve younger children.

Early Head Start can serve children up to 3 years old; Head Start can go up to 5 years old.

The federal government provides almost $4 million a year for the Tlingit & Haida program, with about $766,000 coming from the state.

In addition to Wrangell, with 20 Head Start slots, Tlingit & Haida operates in Angoon, Craig, Hoonah, Juneau, Klawock, Petersburg, Saxman, Sitka and Yakutat. The Wrangell program is full every year, lead teacher Sandy Churchill said last month. “We have a waitlist.”

The Metlakatla Indian Community runs its own program, and RurAL CAP, also a nonprofit, operates the program in Haines, Ketchikan and Kake.

The Legislature this year appropriated a $5 million increase in state aid so that Head Start programs across Alaska could match more federal contributions, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed 70% of the increase, cutting it to $1.5 million.

“Gov. Dunleavy’s veto of much of the Legislature’s approved increase … has hindered Head Start programs,” Richard Chalyee Éesh Peterson, president of the Central Council of Tlingit & Haida, said in a statement last month.

Consideration of cutting back classroom numbers and converting some slots to Early Head Start began before the governor’s cut in state funding, but the veto compounded the problem, Green said.

“State investment in Head Start has been flat-funded for many years without any recognition of rising costs,” she said. “The additional funding, although approved as just one-time funding, was a critical strategy to immediately address the workforce shortage issue and the lack of competitive wages in early childhood programs such as Head Start.”