Commissioner Murman quoted in this Tampa Tribune article on Early Learning Coalition:

POLITICS

Hillsborough school district, organization fight turf war over early education

By Mike Salinero | Tribune Staff

Published: January 3, 2016

Updated: January 3, 2016 at 11:57 AM

TAMPA — Leaders of a local organization that administers funding for early learning and day care programs want to take over some duties now handled by the Hillsborough County school district.

The district, however, is pushing back.

Dave McGerald, CEO of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County, is pushing for the changes, saying they will increase efficiency, save taxpayers’ dollars and improve customer service.

“Right now the coalition does some services, but the school district does the majority,” McGerald said. “We looked at the nature of the services, and we know how to do this. We can do it more efficiently.”

More than $800,000 a year could be saved by moving the clerical services in-house, according to a recent report by a task force made up of coalition board members. Of the 30 early learning coalitions in Florida, 26 have taken over the contracts with providers and referral services for parents who need child care, McGerald said.

Those contracts once were handled by school districts or other larger public agencies.

The task force also found that provider contracts processed by the school board were riddled with errors.

“They’re supposed to look at a child care contract and the (county child care) license to make sure information on the contract is the same as the license,” McGerald said. “We took a look; 80 percent were incorrect.”

Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Jeff Eakins, though not rejecting the idea of a coalition takeover, said the concept needs more conversation.

“Does the Early Learning Coalition really have the resources to do this?” Eakins said. “I think they are just wanting to have a conversation with the school district about what they might be able to take on.”

The 30 early learning coalitions in Florida are an outgrowth of a law passed by the state Legislature in 1999 consolidating an array of early childhood education programs. The act created a Partnership for School Readiness to coordinate local services administered by the single- and multicounty coalitions.

In 2002, voters passed a state constitutional amendment requiring that all 4-year-olds have access to early childhood education. That resulted in Florida’s Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten Program, which is one of the responsibilities of early learning coalitions.

In the beginning, the act called for each coalition to include a “central agency,” which in Hillsborough was the school district. But amendments did away with that requirement in 2010. Consequently, 26 of the 30 local coalitions started assuming some of the contracting and child care outreach responsibilities from the larger organizations.

Right now, most of the Hillsborough coalition’s responsibilities under state law are contracted to the school district. These include providing training and processing payments to providers, reaching out to parents, and overseeing contracts with providers.

“In Hillsborough County, we serve about 10,000 children in subsidized child care on any given day,” McGerald said. “We have 4,000 to 5,000 on waiting lists because we don’t have enough money to put them in care. Parents are on waiting lists for six months to a year.”

The county also has contracts with 723 child readiness providers — 354 in centers and 369 family child care homes.

Over the past 10 years, the coalition has seen its school readiness money from the state Office of Early Learning decline from over $48 million in 2005 to $42.1 million now, according to a report from the coalition task force.

The shrinking dollars are one reason early learning coalitions across the state are bringing more services in-house, the task force said, and Hillsborough should follow suit.

“The coalitions are bringing services in-house and, consequently, through careful use of resources, realizing significant savings that can be reinvested into direct services for children and families,” the task force said in its report.

“These coalitions are also attracting new funders and actively employing fund development techniques to add additional high-quality services,” the report says.

The coalition board’s chairman, Aakash Patel, said the task force’s report makes a good case for moving the services in-house, especially its documentation of errors in contracts processed by the school system.

“Remember, these were education services, and our taxpayers were paying for them,” Patel said. “And they are not doing a good job. Jeff (Eakins) knows it. The district is not doing the best they can.”

Still, Patel said he doesn’t want to rush a decision or create more animosity between the coalition and the school district. The goal of both sides — giving young children a firm foundation as they enter school — should be the priority, not bureaucratic infighting, he said.

At least some of the coalition board members oppose taking the services away from the school district. County commissioner and board member Sandy Murman said the coalition staff is too small and inexperienced to handle such an important responsibility.

“The school board has too much experience,” Murman said. “You don’t just do a wholesale change and put our kids’ early education at risk.”

Murman acknowledged that errors were made by school district employees, but she said that partly was because the provider contracts were much lengthier in 2015 than in previous years, as borne out in the task force report.

Murman said the school employees were not trained to handle the new contracts and called the coalition for help — a plea she said was rebuffed.

According to the task force report, the coalition staff provided the school district instructions on how to complete the task.

Also favoring a slow approach to the dispute is April Griffin, chairwoman of the county school board. Griffin said she has heard that the learning coalition doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to handle the new duties.

As far as errors in contract processing, Griffin said, school administrators need to correct that problem regardless of whether the duties are turned over to the coalition.

“If there is a problem with customer service and families aren’t receiving the services they need, we need to do our part and make sure those issues are resolved in-house,” Griffin said. “But I’m not sure throwing out the baby with the bathwater is the best resolution.”

McGerald is scheduled to meet with Eakins on Monday afternoon to discuss the coalition’s proposal. Afterwards, the coalition board’s executive committee will meet at 4 p.m. at the Children’s Board of Hillsborough County, 1002 E. Palm Ave., in Ybor City.