Tribal Council approves applying for Head Start grants; Kennedy elected secretary

Tribal Council approved applying to the Administration for Children and Families Office of Head Start for grant funding to continue the Tribal Head Start program at its Wednesday, Sept. 16, meeting.

The application is seeking $337,795 in Head Start funding and $321,072 in Early Head Start monies per year. The grant would be for five years.

The Head Start funds would serve 20 center-based children and the Early Head Start grant would serve eight center-based children and 20 home-based children.

The Tribe has received a Head Start grant since 1998 and started Early Head Start in 2009.

Planning and Grants Manager Kim Rogers said that based on the Tribe’s standing, its application is not competitive. However, the Tribe is limited to applying for the same funding it currently receives.

Head Start serves children 3 to 5 years old and Early Head Start targets 2-year-old children.

During the Sept. 15 Legislative Action Committee meeting, Tribal Council Chairman Reyn Leno said the Tribe is currently analyzing whether it wants to continue receiving federal Head Start funding, which comes with guidelines and regulations.

Instead, Leno said, Tribal Council might decide to fund Head Start out of Education endowment earnings, allowing the Tribe to operate the program as it sees fit.

“Grants are great, but they also come with rules and regulations that we may view at this time that we can afford to basically make the funding even less costly and basically serve our membership in more of a way that we choose to do here,” Leno said. “We’re not doing away with Head Start.”

In other action, Tribal Council elected Cheryle A. Kennedy as secretary, replacing Toby McClary, who did not seek re-election.

Kennedy was nominated by Tribal Council member Chris Mercier and Tribal Council member Ed Pearsall nominated Jon A. George, who declined the nomination.

The meeting was the first for newly elected Tribal Council member Brenda Tuomi.

The meeting, in its entirety, can be viewed on the Tribal website www.grandronde.org under the News tab and then click on Videos.