July 1, 2004
Head Start Group Accuses Program Official of Ethics Violations
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO, NY TIMES, July 1, 2004

WASHINGTON, June 30 - Advocates for Head Start day care centers on Wednesday accused the national head of the Head Start program, Windy M. Hill, of violating federal ethics rules in an effort to cover up evidence of mismanagement at a Head Start center she ran in Texas before coming to Washington.

The advocates also said that Ms. Hill announced in a management meeting several weeks ago that she planned to step down as head of the $6.7 billion program in November. Ms. Hill, accused by Head Start providers of mismanaging her own Head Start program in Texas, has been under investigation by the inspector general's office at the Department of Health and Human Services for several months.

Wade F. Horn, assistant secretary for children and families, said in a statement that Ms. Hill had not submitted her resignation and that he did not expect her to.

Chris Downing, a spokesman for the bureau for children and families, said officials believed that the Head Start Association's accusations were "baseless," adding that if the advocates felt strongly enough about the issue then they should refer it to the Office of the Inspector General.

But Sarah Greene, president of the National Head Start Association, said the group was outraged that the administration had overlooked Ms. Hill's record at Cen-Tex Family Services in Bastrop, Tex., the Head Start program she ran from 1992 until 2002, in appointing her to oversee the national program.

"What kind of review or investigation was done about this person before being appointed to such a high position?" asked Ms. Greene, whose group represents 2,500 Head Start providers. "This is not about being mean-spirited."

The administration and Congressional Republicans have been at loggerheads with Head Start providers. The providers have criticized administration plans to reorganize Head Start, while the administration, frequently led by Ms. Hill, has publicized instances of improprieties by individual Head Start providers.

Earlier this year, the group alleged that Ms. Hill had mismanaged more than $140,000 at Cen-Tex, and collected roughly $30,000 in bonuses and unused vacation time, in violation of the day care provider's employment policies. The group also said that the extra salary was not reported to the tax authorities.

Ms. Hill has said the payments to her were not improper, and said the $140,000 was spent in the weeks after she left Cen-Tex. She also maintains that she ultimately reported the extra income and paid the taxes due.

On Wednesday, the group said that Ms. Hill had tried to continue to control Cen-Tex after going to Washington, in an effort to cover up evidence of mismanagement. It alleged that she had given three-year contracts to accountants who had given Cen-Tex clean audits during her time there, contradicted by later independent audits citing questionable practices.

The contracts contained no termination clauses, and one accountant, Fred Rogers of Houston, had had his credentials suspended for a time, according to the Web site of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy.

In an interview, Mr. Rogers said the board had failed to hold a hearing before the suspension, and he contended that his credentials were never properly suspended.

The group also said that Ms. Hill should have recused herself from cases involving her former employer. Instead, the group said she had taken steps after her departure to replace Cen-Tex's board with new members, one of them her sister.

Derek R. Van Gilder, a lawyer in Bastrop representing Ms. Hill, said he had not spoken to her about the accusations.


EducationNews
Daily News Bulletin Board

NHSA TO OUTLINE NEW EVIDENCE OF FINANCIAL MISMANAGEMENT, COVER-UP BY U.S. HEAD START BUREAU DIRECTOR

Group Will Show Misstatements in April 2004 Hill Denial of Initial Charges; NHSA to Renew Its Call for Hill Resignation and Formal HHS Investigation.

WASHINGTON, D.C.///May 27, 2004 News Advisory///Armed with new evidence showing misstatements and additional proof of a cover-up of financial mismanagement, the National Head Start Association (NHSA) will hold a May 27, 2004, news event to renew its call for the resignation and formal investigation of Windy Hill, the chief federal official responsible for the Head Start program. NHSA unveiled on April 13, 2004, audit and other documents detailing how Hill mismanaged the Texas Head Start agency for which she was responsible before being appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as associate commissioner of the Head Start Bureau.

This week, NHSA will provide a point-by-point rebuttal of the subsequent response made by Hill in April 2004 and, in doing so, outline new evidence of Hill's mismanagement and subsequent cover-up efforts. Given its ongoing concerns that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has facilitated the Hill cover-up of her misconduct, the Association will renew its call for Hill's resignation and also for a formal HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) investigation of the growing scandal. While HHS officials have indicated to the news media that such an investigation would be forthcoming, it has not been announced publicly in the same way that Hill and HHS have seen fit to trumpet any investigation of all matters large or small involving local Head Start grantees.

Hill's misconduct and the subsequent cover-up first came to light in April 2004 through documents obtained by the NHSA via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and other sources. NHSA officials objected to (1) the scale of the Hill abuses, (2) their subsequent cover-up and (3) the "clear double standard" used by Hill and HHS in pillorying local Head Start grantees for any problem, while failing to disclose Hill's own abuses. The documents uncovered by NHSA implicated Hill in awarding improper bonuses to herself, multiple months of unauthorized vacation pay to herself, improper reimbursement of undocumented expenses and illicit income that did not appear to have been declared to the IRS for income tax purposes.

News event speakers will be:

* NHSA President and CEO Sarah Greene; and

* NHSA Board Chairman Ron Herndon, who also is director of the Albina Head Start program (Portland, OR).

The National Head Start Association is a private not-for-profit membership organization dedicated exclusively to meeting the needs of Head Start children and their families. It represents more than 900,000 children, 190,000 staff and 2,500 Head Start programs in the United States. The Association provides support for the entire Head Start community by advocating for policies that strengthen services to Head Start children and their families; by providing extensive training and professional development to Head Start staff; and by developing and disseminating research, information and resources that enrich Head Start program delivery.