HomeMy WebLinkAbout971210.tiffalDEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES ADMINISTRATION FOR
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May 22, '1997
Mr. Dale Hall
Board Chairperson
P O Box 1805
Greeley, Colorado 80632
Dear Mr. Hall:
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The attached letter was recently forwarded to our �
...,a, concerns
expressed by a Parent Representative from the Freonck Head Start Site.
We are attaching a copy of the letter for your review. We are requesting that
necessary follow-up occur in order to resolve any outstanding issues and concerns.
Within 15 days of receipt of the attached letter, we are requesting a written response
to the allegations.
In the meantime, if we can be of any assistance to you in resolving the issues, please
let us know. If you have any questions concerning this issue please contact your
Program Specialist, Lylia L. Keil at (303) 844-3100 ext 341.
Sincerely,
Eddie Lazo 0
Program Manager
Head Start, Child Care & TANF
Attachment
cc: Tere Keller-Amaya, Director
Walter J. Speckman, Executive Director
Linda Aragon, Policy Council Chairperson
3,64M
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()es Ns1c_..9 971210
5/2/97
Kevin Gomez
1961 Stout Street
9th Floor - Head Start
Denver, Colorado 80294
Dear Kevin,
My name is Armida R. Fierro and I am the parent of a child attending the Fredrick
Head Start site, I am also the parent who has served as the parent representative as well
as chairperson since September of 1996. I am writing to you on behalf of several parents
at this site, who like myself have concerns about the lack of interest demonstrated by
some of the Head Start staff in making sure the problems and issues that arise at the sites
are resolved. Instead, we are told to speak to the site director, Agnes Martinez, and that
any concerns are to be directed to her. Unfortunately, the person we are being sent to,
also happens to be the source of our concerns and thus makes it very unlikely that parents
are going to go to her with their issues. Many have opted to use me as an avenue and I in
turn have turned to Terry Keller-Amaya, Marcos Sanches and Janet Luna in the hope that
someone, anyone, would intervene on behalf of the parents. I have on numerous
occasions called them about the problems at this site, and after almost eight months of
repeatedly calling them and telling them of these issues, I feel that I must go elsewhere
with our concerns. As a parent of a child who will be returning to Head Start next year, I
am concerned at the amount of time that this situation has been allowed to continue and
the lack of importance that these issues have been given.
Most of our concerns branch from Mrs. Martinez discouraging parents form
participating in the classrooms, field trips and or monthly meetings, although we have
also had situations where the parents were given misinformation or encouraged to do
things that go against Head Start policies. It is my understanding that parents are not
required to participate in or out of the classroom, yet as the parent representative I was
told that parent participation should be encouraged. As a parent working with the
information I was given at the parent training, I don't understand Mrs. Martinez'
reluctance to have parents participate in whatever they can, furthermore, I don't
understand how or why parents at this site, should have to tolerate Mrs. Martinez'
negative attitude when they insist on participating.
During the first parent site meeting all the parents present gave their consent to
allow Mrs. Martinez to give me and another parent their phone numbers to call and
remind them of meetings or to update them on meetings if for some reason they couldn't
come. For three months I continually called, left messages and personally requested the
phone numbers from her to no avail, another parent also attempted to obtain these
numbers without any luck. It was during this time that I started calling Terry Keller-
Amaya, Marcos Sanchez and Janet Luna with this and issues such as the following:
-Parents who had given me their phone numbers when I saw them at the site, were being
called and told by Mrs. Martinez that they shouldn't have given me their numbers
because I had no need for them. She also told them that there was no need for them to
come to the meetings because if anything important happened, she would call them and
let them know.
-In October, Mrs. Martinez sat in as teacher due to the Head Start teacher resigning, and
demonstrating favoritism towards her grand daughter Natasha by only hanging up her art
projects and sending all the other children's work home with them.
-During the November parent meeting, parents were encouraged to buy a $5 dollar gift
for their own child and have it be given to them by Santa. I was later told at the Parent
Policy council meeting that we could not do this because soliciting was against Head
Start policy,and when I called Mrs. Martinez to inform her of this, she insisted that we
have parents bring in a $2 dollar gift instead, and that it be kept off the minutes.
-Parents who have wanted to go on field trips have been told that they don't need to
because there are already plenty of parents going. This doesn't make sense given that I
participated in all of the field trips up until late March and there were never more than
two of us there.
-My biggest concern is the fact that Mrs. Martinez has become increasingly hostile and
rude with myself and certain other parents over the course of the Head Start school year.
She has gotten to a point where she continuously interrupts and under minds what little
progress I had made in getting parents to participate. One very obvious example of this
was during the parent site meeting in March. I was explaining to the parents that we
could borrow graduation gowns from other sites if the majority of us disliked the ones
our site had when I was interrupted by Mrs. Martinez saying that the gowns were only
going to be worn for 30 minutes and that kids didn't care what they wore anyway so why
make a big deal about it. She went on to say that the graduation was more for the parents
than the kids and that given the time and effort graduations from previous years had been
given, we should be grateful that we were even getting one. I continued the meeting by
explaining to the parents that even if the graduation was for us (the parents), we had the
right to make it as nice as we wanted, and that we shouldn't have to settle for something
we didn't like. The remainder of the meeting was spent informing the parents that
several of them had requested and asked if we could get a group picture taken of the
children along with the regular pictures that were already planned. I had not finished my
sentence when again Mrs. Martinez interrupted me and accused me of trying to make the
parents buy the group picture simply because I wanted it. I again reassured the parents
that we did have options as to how we wanted our children's graduation and that if we as
parents wanted the group picture, all we had to do was request it. A week after the
meeting, I called Janet Luna and told her of what had happened during our meeting, this
prompted her to attend the meeting in April during which Mrs. Martinez ran the meeting
and continuously contradicted anything I said. I gave up trying to direct the meeting and
was disappointed when Janet did nothing to intervene and in fact commented on how
well we had complemented each other, meanwhile the overall feeling of the parents was
that there was no reason for them to continue coming to the meetings if they don't know
who they are suppose to be listening to. Most of the parents who had attended the March
meeting refused to attend the April meeting given Mrs. Martinez' behavior, likewise the
parents at the April meeting have already expressed their disinterest in coming to a
meeting where they are being given contradicting information from two different people
as well as being made to feel that they have no right to say or request anything.
Throughout the eight months that my daughter has been in Head Start I have
attempted in many ways and through many people to resolve the problems that the
parents at this site have faced, unfortunately the school year is about to end and most
parents are glad to be leaving the program. Their relief has nothing to do with the way
our children have been treated since getting the new Head Start teacher, but it has
everything to do with the parent involvement component at this site being so lacking.
Since having hired Penney Tombley as the Head Start teacher, every parent I have talked
to has had nothing but positive things to say about what our children are learning and
doing within the program. Therefore many of us who have children returning next year,
or have younger children who will be starting Head Start next term, are very excited at
having our children participate in the program, however we are also very concerned that
the issues that for almost eight months have gone unresolved are being ignored
completely by Mrs. Martinez' supervisors, especially when they are so obviously
worsening.
I don't know what if anything you can do to help us with this situation, but given the
potential this program has and the willingness the parents at this site have expressed in
wanting to get involved and participate, I would hate to see them not re -enroll their
children or the younger siblings due to the present situation.
Thank you very much for your time and please feel free to call me if you need any
additional information, my home number is 303-833-2283.
Sincerely
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Armida R. Fierro
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