At 8:50 a.m. on Monday, a half dozen Office of Head Start (OHS) officials arrived at the Santa Clara County Office of Education on Ridder Park Drive in San Jose, Calif. to continue their review of the county office.
OHS is an office of the Administration for Children and Families. The Administration said it does not comment on ongoing monitoring activities, but NBC Bay Area has confirmed through OHS letters to SCCOE that the federal review revolves around Santa Clara County’s Head Start program. Head Start is a federal program that helps low-income children with early development.
According to a letter from Head Start’s Regional Program Manager Cynthia Yao to Santa Clara County Schools Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan, “On April 16, 2024, the Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start Region IX office notified the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE) of our request for a formal investigation into allegation of inappropriate and misuse of federal funds. Since this notification, the Region IX office has received an additional complaint.”
Yao said that additional complaint alleges SCCOE management positions were not properly approved by Head Start/Early Head Start Program’s Policy Council and “Expenses for non-Head Start/Early Head Start employees are being charged to the Head Start/Early Head Start grant award.”
Yadira Orozco is the chairperson for Santa Clara County Head Start program’s policy council. She believes she is the one who reported that “additional complaint.”
Orozco told NBC Bay Area Santa Clara County’s Head Start Director Antonio Fuentes was placed on leave in March. We reached out to Fuentes. He had no comment. Two people close to this investigation tell the Investigative Unit, before Fuentes was placed on leave, he also reported concerns about how SCCOE was handling Head Start funds.
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“It was important to reach out to regional because…we need to know where our money is going. It’s our program’s money, our children’s money,” Orozco told the Investigative Unit.
2024 was the first year Orozco got involved with Santa Clara County’s Head Start program as a parent and policy council chairperson. She said she started digging into the program’s financials this past Spring.
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“And that’s when I started to come about finding misuse of funds for staff that wasn’t part of Head Start’s program. They were being paid,” she said. “I came across employees who were also on leave or not employees anymore who were still getting paid by Head Start.”
Head Start’s regional office requested more answers from SCCOE’s internal investigation into the allegations.
According to the county’s internal investigative report, “The only misallocated position was, in fact, the Director – Early Learning and Care Initiatives,” which is a county schools’ position and not part of Head Start.
Between January and June of this year, the SCCOE’s internal investigation found $131,054.14 of Head Start grant money incorrectly went to that director’s salary and benefits, and another $4,318.83 went to the person’s travel expenditures.
NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit requested an interview with SCCOE Superintendent Mary Ann Dewan to find out how that happened. Dewan did not respond, but her executive director and public information office Kelly Wylie sent us a statement calling the issues “an accounting error which was promptly fixed and that should have been identified and addressed by the end of the fiscal year.”
“It was an over five-month error. How can they explain that?” Orozco said. “If I hadn’t come across this ‘error,’ what would’ve happened then?”
In the emailed statement to NBC Bay Area, Wylie also wrote, "We understand that building and maintaining public trust in the programs and services we offer is of paramount importance. Accountability of course is critical.”
“This is a program that is for the low-income families. We don’t want the money and funds to go where they’re not supposed to. This is our program, and we have the right to know what’s going on with our funds and our program,” Orozco said.
Candice Nguyen is the investigative reporter on this story. To contact her about this report or if you have another investigation tip, email her at candice.nguyen@nbcuni.com.
