It began on May 16th, 2025 when the staff of the Roane County Stand Alone Head Start facility, as well as Clay staff heard the first ideas that some of the staff may face transfer or job loss due to what Head Start Management described as a “change of scope,” due to lower attendance in the Roane and Clay Head Start centers. Staff were advised that they could bid on jobs in Roane, Calhoun and Clay, creating a possible loss of jobs in our area.
Ridgeview News spoke with Nikki Cavalier, Head Start Director and Emily Spradling, Executive Director about the news of the closure on Monday, May 19th, 2025. Ridgeview was informed that they were hoping that the Change of scope application and reduction in enrollment would allows them to keep the same funding and get back into compliance with the program. The two said that the Head Start Center in Spencer had been Chronically under enrolled since the Covid era and were not meeting their overhead costs. They are currently working with the Roane County Board of Education and will be meeting with them on Friday, May 23rd. They were told that there would be a place for every 4 year old student within the public school system. However three year old students would not have placement, although they continue to try and find a solution.
Cavalier and Spradling said that if they had not changed the scope of the program, the end result could have been the closure of all Head Start programs in an eleven county region. They further stated that “they” have people at the federal level that they took their input into consideration. Saying that it was a difficult decisions to make and application to write. “Our responsibility extends further than to Roane County,” they said.
The staff of the Roane County Stand Alone Center are currently being represented by Union SEIU 1199 in hopes of changing the impending closure.
Ridgeview News also spoke with staff members involved, some of which attended a parent rally in support of keeping the Roane Head Start Program open.
The staff questioned if the closure was being considered, why was so much money invested into a recent kitchen upgrade, cameras, etc. and why had they not included the Union Representatives in the earlier talks? Staff was upset that many had not received notice until Friday of the closure and that an email on May 2nd had informed them that in order to save 1 million dollars and the the program they had eliminated three other county programs, Doddridge, Pleasants and Tyler. Once the new program year started it was expected that the current staff would receive a raise.
According to Roane Stand Alone Head Start staff, their center has been full almost the entire year and had children registered to return in the fall.
Parents had informed the current staff that they did not feel comfortable enrolling their three year olds in a public school site and would not be placing them in the Head Start program, but rather wait until they reached Kindergarten age. Staff also had concern for the students who had made progress in their program being unable to attend.
The staff, who are losing positions, are not comfortable “bumping” staff from positions in other counties to maintain their own employment.
