Cherokee Chronicle Times

Alta-Aurelia to lose Head Start for lack of waiting list

Upper Des Moines withdraws financial support


Alta Elementary School at 1009 S. Main St. in Alta is home to the district’s Head Start program. Photo by Jake Kurtz

Upper Des Moines of Opportunity has withdrawn its financial support from Alta-Aurelia School District’s preschool program because the program was allegedly undersubscribed.

Alta-Aurelia Supt. Denny Olhausen informed the district’s school board recently that Head Start intends to pull its program from Alta Elementary School effective next school year. Olhausen said the district’s preschool offerings won’t change next year and the same number of slots will be available.

“Head Start informed us that they will be pulling their program from Alta due to lack of qualified families,” Olhausen wrote in a memo to the board.

Olhausen said UDMO required Alta’s Head Start program to show a specific number of qualifying students on a waiting list. The district’s program, which currently serves 15 students, is full, Olhausen noted. But the district had no one on the waiting list, which did not satisfy Head Start. He said he isn’t certain what UDMO’s threshold is for approval.

“Head Start said they require not only a certain number of students that qualify who are in the classroom, but a required number of qualifying students on a waiting list as well,” Olhausen’s memo continues. “They stated that Alta does not have a sufficient amount of families that qualify, thus they are moving the program elsewhere.”

There are not enough low-income families waiting to be placed in Alta’s Head Start program, according to Irene Mayland, early childhood programs director at UDMO’s headquarters in Graettinger. The school district showed an “inability” to meet UDMO’s enrollment expectations.

In a letter to Olhausen dated March 6, Mayland wrote that the agency could no longer maintain a Head Start program in Alta because Buena Vista County has “a large number of families currently unserved.”

“In response to changing community needs the program will no longer have a classroom in Alta starting the fall of 2023,” Mayland wrote.

Olhausen declined to comment on UDMO’s decision. He told the school board the district is seeking further written determination on the end of the program.

In the meantime, Alta-Aurelia will maintain its existing pre-K programming. The 15 slots that will no longer be covered by Head Start will be offered similar to the district’s current preschool program. Olhausen declined to estimate what those rates will be next year, but he said the district’s existing preschool fee is $100. The Alta-Aurelia board is expected to set preschool rates by the summer.

“We plan to have the room for those students,” Olhausen noted.

The decision renders Buena Vista County with only one federally-subsidized pre-K program: Storm Lake’s program at the former Gingerbread House. Olhausen said Head Start “decided to move” Alta’s programming somewhere else, but he declined to speculate where. He deferred comment to Head Start on where Alta’s programming will be redirected. Mayland’s letter said the district can be served through the “Early Head Start Program for BV county,” or the former Gingerbread House in Storm Lake at 525 Oates St.

Storm Lake Supt. Stacey Cole said she had not been informed of UDMO’s decision to move programming away from Alta, but was hopeful the agency would consider allocating Alta’s programming to her district, which has the capacity to expand.

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