by a three-to-one margin, staff training came out as the most frequent way centers spent their ARRA dollars, with almost 70 percent of respondents reporting. Last summer, the STN EXPO in Reno saw an increase in the number of Head Start-affiliated attendees. Transportation classes also returned to the National Head Start Association conference last April to quench the thirst for school-bus knowledge at the annual training conference.
Keeping the Money Around the Bus But, according to some of the survey contributors, school buses
were not the only transportation-related purchases. A number of centers reported that they bought child restraint systems and child passenger safety seats and paid maintenance and insurance bills for their previously-owned school buses. Unfortunately, there were also a hefty handful of respondents who said they believed the funds were not available for school bus purchases. Overall, though, only a little more than 100 respondents said
they used the funding to affect their transportation services, with school bus purchases coming in at the top spot at 62.1 percent. Te hiring and rehiring of drivers and monitors came in second, at a little more than 27 percent, and additional transportation training rounded out the top three at 24.3 percent. Te restora- tion of transportation services was last on the list, which could be either a good or bad sign, depending on whether centers cut services in the first place.
More Money, More Headaches Unlike their K-12 counterparts, the agencies that reported
owning school buses, which only included 180 of the total 549 survey respondents, had single-digit fleets. But, along with those smaller fleets comes bigger responsibilities, including some at- tached to the ARRA funds. “[Te government] slowed the distribution because of all the
setups needed in creating a separate account to track these monies before we could start distributing any of it,” said a trans- portation manager from just outside of Washington, D.C. Te increase in paperwork has caused an increase in work-
load for many Head Start centers, with one even re- porting a deterioration in the relationship with its ac- counting firm. “Reporting requirements
have been extreme,” offered an East Coast migrant Head Start program. Problems also arose with the
limited time to apply for the funds, which left some in the Head Start community scram- bling to put together propos- als. For others, the short time frame created challenges for accessing bids for school buses. Doug Jacobson, executive
director of TREC Bad- lands Head Start and Early Head
Start in
Belle Fourche, S.D., said he thought the time- line
for applications
was inconsiderate of other timelines. “It was way too short of
a notice,” said Jacobson. But, some were more
prepared than others. “Our program director
continually keeps ideas ‘in the wing,’ so it wasn’t too much of a problem. If we had started completely from scratch when the notification came through, there may have been more ‘scurrying,’” wrote Nina Hollins, assistant director of New River Community Ac- tion Head Start in western Virginia. Te small window to submit requests was nothing new for a
67% Yes No
Head Start center in northwest Missouri. “I think the planning was rushed, but, at Head Start, we are
used to that. If we have the funds available, we are ready to put the time into doing what we have to do, even if it is in a hurry,” said the respondent.
Transportation Numbers Many of the survey contributors were more than willing to of-
fer a peek into their school bus operations. When asked about a breakdown of their fleets, responses widely ranged in model years, numbers of miles driven and bus stop tallies. Although most had year 2000 and newer models, many centers reported using some buses from 1991 and 1992, some like Carpenter,
How have you used the ARRA funds? 30%
0%
Purchase school buses Training of staff
Site improvement New hires
Classroom materials Other
www.stnonline.com 45 15% 33%
Have you seen any funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009?
50%
70%
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60