www.montereycountynow.com JULY 24-30 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 19 launched in 1965 as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty, the “whole child, whole family” approach was innovative. “The idea of providing comprehensive health, nutrition and education services to children in poverty was revolutionary, if not radical,” according to the National Head Start Association. In the 60 years since then, Head Start has served more than 40 million children and their families, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The mission is to help qualifying children—based on factors like family income, homelessness, foster care—get a leg up in their earliest years, before kindergarten, so they start school ready to learn alongside their peers from other backgrounds. For Carmona’s daughter, it did all that and more; Carmona says it helped shape her into a thoughtful and caring child who, as a kindergartner during the pandemic, decided to donate her toys to others. “Head Start has given her such a good foundation of self,” Carmona says. Carmona volunteered to serve on the county’s Early Learning Program Policy Council, composed mostly of parents serving alongside Monterey County Office of Education officials, with governance responsibilities for the local program. She was encouraged by Isabel Valtierra, then managing family engagement and special needs students for the county’s program, to be a leader. Carmona became Council chairperson, and served for five years, the maximum. “If it wasn’t for Isabel, I probably would have left after the second year,” she says. Valtierra was a Head Start parent herself before becoming an early childhood teacher, launching a 24-year career in the program. Like Carmona, Valtierra also lived and breathed it. Last year, she was promoted to assistant director. Two months later, she was placed on leave while a third-party investigator looked into allegations of mismanagement by Valtierra and the long-time program director, Sonia Jaramillo. “The following are major themes of the concerns: nepotism, favoritism, retaliation and bullying,” according to the report, commissioned by the Monterey County Office of Education last year. After 34 witnesses were interviewed and reams of paperwork were reviewed, three damning reports were produced. Jaramillo and Valtierra resigned in January. ••••• Concerns about leadership at Monterey County’s Early Learning Program (ELP)—which combines Head Start and a smaller number of state-funded preschool spots—started to emerge in summer 2024. Emails show that in July, MCOE Assistant Superintendent Ernesto Vela shared concerns from ELP staff with Chief Human Resources Officer Leigh Butler. After receiving “myriad” complaints, they discussed a requirement for all ELP managers to receive sensitivity training. A few weeks later, Butler wrote to follow up: “We have received additional complaints and feel that we need to look into the program further.” Things escalated quickly. MCOE hired San Diego-based Christy White, Inc. to investigate. White’s firm produced three extensive reports, one on contracting procedures and bid awards in November, one on stipends and summer camp hours completed in January, plus a 107page summary report that notes in the introduction, “This is a confidential investigative report.” In February, the Monterey County Weekly submitted a request under the California Public Records Act seeking the reports and associated records from MCOE. In April, Deputy Superintendent Ralph Porras wrote to say MCOE would need additional time, pending possible legal action by Jaramillo and Valtierra. “The former employees have retained legal counsel to evaluate whether to seek a court-issued protective order prohibiting disclosure of certain records responsive to your request,” Porras wrote. No such court filing ever came, and in June, MCOE provided a redacted copy of the report, along with hundreds of pages of emails. For allegation after allegation, White details her findings, but for 22 of 25 allegations, the top line is the same: “Finding: Sustained.” ••••• Between Aug. 30 and Nov. 21, 2024, 34 witnesses—names redacted—plus Jaramillo and Valtierra were interviewed. White’s report opens with an assessment of the credibility of each witness. For example, Witness #8: “Overall, her testimony is a valuable and reliable source of information for the investigation.” On Jaramillo, whose testimony is deemed partially credible: “Her responses were often inconsistent, vague or deflective when addressing key concerns such as favoritism, nepotism, policy violations and financial mismanagement.” White looked into six major areas of allegations. One of them—lack of confidence in leadership, evidenced by 39 involuntary transfers and 11 demotions—might have been addressed by sensitivity training. The rest revealed “When you don’t follow policies and you don’t follow the rules, we are going to find it and deal with it.” As California school districts roll out universal prekindergarten, it means the county is competing for a limited pool of early childhood teachers. At left, an MPUSD promotional sign, with starting pay of $50,000. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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