Headstart Preschool Program
Period: July 2016
Working together to fill the gap in funding Bellevue’s Head Start Program.
Background and Activity
Early in the summer of 2016, the Bellevue School District lost funding for all of their spots (151 spots) in the Head Start preschool program. Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) decided to eliminate funding for the Bellevue School District Head Start program after 17 years of subcontracting. The recent decision was surprising given the high-quality rating recently provided to the Bellevue School District by PSESD but the decision was due to reduced federal funding.
On June 30, the Eastside Pathways partnership sent a letter asking PSESD to reconsider their decision. In the meantime, the Eastside Pathways staff (Stephanie Cherrington and Cathy Habib) went to work with other partners to begin filling the gap in funding.
The Bellevue Schools Foundation launched a fundraising campaign to back fill the Head Start seats. Deborah Duitch (BSD), Stephanie Cherrington and a team from Bellevue Schools Foundation met with BSD leadership.
BSD committed to support early learning needs and pledged $100,000.
On August 3, the Bellevue School Board voted to move $370,000 from school district reserves to support early learning education.
Media Coverage
The Seattle Times and Bellevue Reporter covered the issue in depth and met with families directly affected by these cuts.
Read the media coverage:
Head Start program needed for Bellevue’s neediest students
Bellevue school board votes to alleviate Head Start funding loss
Slash to Bellevue’s Head Start program punishes poor families
Agency cuts entire Bellevue Head Start program, affecting 151 low-income students
The Team
- Eastside Pathways
- Bellevue School District
- Bellevue Schools Foundation
Also, read about Highland Village Apartments
On a separate but closely related note, our community partners practiced collective impact by coming together to work on assisting in the Highland Village Apartments situation.
Even though Eastside Pathways was not directly involved in the resolution of this issue, it played a part in bringing up the issue at a Partner Leadership Committee meeting and having organizations connect in order to come up with possible solutions in support of our community and all of our families.
Learn more about this issue through the following media links:
Resident rejoice over a plan to save Bellevue affordable housing complex
Bellevue Affordable Housing Complex Saved
Unprecedented agreement allows 86 low-income families to stay at Bellevue apartment