Anson County officials learned Tuesday morning that the Central Head Start office, administrated by Union County Community Action, was temporarily closed.
“This means that 150 3- and 4-year-old children are not in child care today and may not be for the rest of the week pending funding,” said Elaine Scarborough, executive director of the Anson County Partnership for Children. “Parents were notified yesterday afternoon by a letter sent home with the children. Please be aware of these young children in our community this week who are not in the care their parents had counted on.”
Lillie Seels, deputy director of UCCA, said in an email: “Our sites are not operating due to not receiving our Award Notice from Head Start. We have been in contact with our funding source and they have found the error in their computer system. They are working to get us our award document. Until it is received, which we anticipate to be 1-2 days, we are unable to operate.”
The Head Start program in Morven was unaffected, however, and continued to operate as normal.
On Tuesday afternoon, UCCA was able to get the needed documentation, and planned to reopen as normal on Wednesday.
“We worked very diligently and will be open tomorrow for normal business hours,” Seels said.
As of 2:30 p.m., parents were in the process of being notified that all Head Start programs would be open normal hours on Wednesday.
A makeup day will be scheduled for all UCCA Head Start programs except Morven, and parents and staff will be notified.