The Frederick County Board of Commissioners voted on Tuesday to relinquish control of the Head Start program over to the federal government, saving the County an estimated $2.3 million.  With a looming  $11.8 million deficit projected for the FY 2012 operating budget, County Commissioners have been looking for ways to reduce the deficit without having to tax residents.  The program has been relinquished to the federal Head Start office who has assigned Community Development Institute Head Start (CDI HS) to take over the program management until March when a new grantee is secured. Board President Blaine Young released the following statement:

“The board today made the difficult decision to relinquish the federally funded Head Start program.  We appreciate all the feedback we have received from the public and want to emphasize that Head Start services will continue in Frederick County.  We thank the Head Start employees for providing high quality services to the families and children in this program, but these are challenging times.  Due to the budget situation for this year as well as the looming deficits for future years, we believe it is in the best interest of our taxpayers to relinquish our role as a Head Start grantee.”

“Not only did the board make a program decision, but today’s action was a personnel decision.  Typically, personnel decisions are made in a closed session, but we brought the matter before the public in an open session because it dealt with a program.  Approximately 80 employees are impacted by our action today.”