Earlier this week, the Sentinel received an email that raised several concerns about the Hillsborough County Head Start Program. A head start parent, who wished to remain anonymous, also contacted the Sentinel to advise that another meeting of the Head Start Policy Council is scheduled for Thursday, December 30th.
Ms. Kymberly McMaken-Baker, former Chairman of the Head Start Policy Council, allegedly signed the letter. The letter stated that she is coming forward with the information now because “I am no longer a Policy Council Executive or General Board Member and therefore I can no longer be pushed into hiding information.”
However, when the Sentinel attempted to contact Ms. McMaken-Baker by email, she did not respond.
Copies of the letter were also emailed to Mike Merrill, County Administrator; Dave Rogoff, Department Director; Robert Sheehan, Chief Investigator; and several others.
Telephone calls from the Sentinel to Merrill and Sheehan were not returned as of press time.
The author of the letter stated she has been personally involved in several of the issues currently being discussed. She also said she has been a board member since 2007.
The author of the letter wrote, “I had the opportunity as the Chair to review the report written by Mr. Bob Sheehan, (Chief Investigator) that has been posted all over the Internet, given to parents and citizens by our County Leadership. I in fact met personally on several different occasions with Mr. Mike Merrill, and Mr. Dave Rogoff. I was also involved with the Executive Policy Council’s investigations of these cases in June and July of this year and our findings were put together in a report that was requested by Mr. Merrill the then Acting County Administrator as well as to Mr. Sheehan the[private] Chief Investigator.
“…Mr. Merrill chose to never submit this report to the media or any other individuals to my knowledge. Mr. Sheehan, to this day, has never even bothered to speak with me personally, although I have copied him on several different emails while holding the position as Chair and being in the middle of these allegations.
“What is disturbing to me about the report is that for the past several months County officials have made concerted efforts to discredit the Head Start Policy Council’s Executive Board, our Head Start Parents, and the Head Start Leadership. As your previous chair, I was instructed to suppress public information regarding the termination of the non-classified employee Dawn Dasher by Mr. Dave Rogoff to my executive board and interrupting the process, which we are, required to uphold on the termination process of our Head Start Policy Council, which to date is still not resolved.
“…These interviews that were conducted on current and previous employees clearly show why the employee turnover rate under Ms. Dasher was at the extremely high rate that originally caught our attention as a board.
The author continued, “We directed Mr. Rogoff as the new Director to find out what was going on with employee turnover. Mr. Rogoff took it upon himself to handle Ms. Dasher.”
The author alleges that the Executive Board Members were never given information needed to vote on terminating Ms. Dasher and that Ms. Dasher remains a County Employee.
Memorandum Addresses Source Of Book Complaint
However, an internal report pertaining to the investigation into the book issue stated, “On November 3, 2010, Dawn Dasher was interviewed at Compliance Services concerning Dasher’s allegation that she was going to be terminated due to retaliation for reporting misconduct.
“During her interview, Dasher stated that Head Start Fiscal Manager had diverted grant funds to the purchase of a book authored by the Fiscal Manager’s wife,” the Memorandum stated.
The report also stated that during an interview, Louis Finney stated that he knew Jimenez was married, but did not know his wife’s name.
During his interview, Finney stated that any Head Start purchases under $10,000 are signed off internally, any purchase over that amount are handled by Procurement.
Letter Writer Makes Other Allegations
The writer also alleges, “County Leader (Dave Rogoff) gave a reporter a termination letter of two Head Start employees, prior to them ever being consulted or given the opportunity for true judgment. I was at the Head Start Policy Council meeting on December 16th, 2010 when he addressed the Policy Council Board and guests as to Ms. (Marie) Mason and Mr. (Michael) Jimenez’s suspension without pay and asked that we not discuss this situation until he had an opportunity to speak to Ms. Mason first.
“This after he had already given the reporter a termination letter for both employees.”
She then outlined several other areas of concern a former Policy Board member complaining about Alpha Phi Alpha receiving special treatment and funds, and allegations of inappropriate expenditures that were false; complaints about Louis Finney that were reportedly false or unfounded.
The writer stated, “It is my opinion that this board and community cannot just stand by and allow our Program and Leadership in this Program to be attacked, and slandered in the Media.”
The author concluded the letter stating, “…I feel I have been used by Mr. Rogoff as well as Mr. Merrill, I feel I was deliberately misled, lied to and I want to make sure as an Executive Board and General Policy Council Board members are fully aware of my experiences before you make any determinations based on their information alone.”[/private]
