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- The future of early childhood education in Memphis tonight on Behind The Headlines.

[intense orchestral music] I'm Eric Barnes with The Daily Memphian.

Thanks for joining us.

I am joined tonight by Rob Hughes, VP of Development from Porter-Leath, thanks for being here.

- Thanks for having me, I'm really excited.

- Along with Daja Henry who covers education and related issues for The Daily Memphian.

Daja, thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

- So Rob, the news of the day for Porter-Leath and the news of early childhood education in Memphis and Shelby County I should say, is that SCS, Shelby County Schools, surprisingly to you all, I think it would be the fair reaction, ended its contract with you all for Headstart, the federal program for I'll let you define the kids who are in there.

If you would, for people not as close to it as we are, the Headstart program serves what kids and how many and then we'll get into where things are going from here now that the contract was ending.

- Sure.

So the Headstart contract for Shelby County actually serves 3,200 children, ages 3-5 years old in the county.

Largely it is needs based, largely low income but also disadvantaged families.

- And you all had that contract through SCS for seven years?

- Right, for the last seven years and we've been a Headstart operator well before that, under the old Headstart grantees across the city through time and then in 2014, SCS was awarded the contract or the grant from HHS and we became the sole contractor at that point seven years ago, for all 3,200 children.

- You also serve other kids through other programs and so and so total number of kids that you serve.

- Sure.

So Porter-Leath as a whole across all six of our programs, whether that's Books from Birth or Cornerstone or home visitation program serves over 45,000 children a year, in total, our preschool program serves 6,500 children a year.

- So give or take 3,200 of them are moving into the... - Are Headstart, right.

- Are Headstart, going into the SCS system?

- Right.

- I should say to everyone that we'll have Joris Ray, Superintendent at Shelby County Schools and some of his staff on the show in two weeks to talk about the other side of this.

This was, before I go to Daja, you all were not happy that you lost this.

You were surprised that you lost this contract.

What went down and why did you think you should get that contract renewed?

- Let me answer your second question first.

Based on performance for the last seven years, as well as our performance before that.

The shared partnership that we had with SCS really elevating early childhood quality across the city.

Put Memphis on the national map for early childhood and the system that was being built here across all the partnerships and the quality enhancements that were happening in the centers.

So we definitely stand and run on our record from that standpoint, as far as the program outcomes go.

I think the big surprise for us is just the timing of it all, our contract ended on June 30th, Shelby County Schools had put out RFPs as early as February, we'd applied to that, it was canceled, applied to another one that was canceled and then directly engaged with the superintendent and his team in early May to talk about a contract renewal.

And then in early June, surprisingly found out that a few hours later, it would be announced that Shelby County Schools was pulling all Headstart back in house.

So just the timing was really confusing and surprising considering we were still in negotiations with SCS at that time under our understanding.

- Yeah, let me bring in Daja.

- And yes, Rob, when I spoke to you the day that this all happened, you were quite obviously frazzled.

Could you, like reflecting back on that now that some time has passed?

Was there any indication that as SCS said that those negotiations were failing?

- Just the ongoing dialogue over the last, really weeks leading up to this point, I think added to that confused and the surprising state that I mentioned a minute ago and that we, our team had spent countless hours, long nights, even texts at 10, 11 o'clock at night with SCS trying to negotiate through these finer points of the contract renewal only to hear third hand really through a Headstart Association call Statewide, that SCS was going to be bringing this back in the house, really it's just confusing on the timing of it all.

As far as the implications and leaning in on that, I don't think there were any major warning signs just because of that ongoing dialogue for really six weeks leading up to that.

- The SCS said in a statement, I think I'm quoting from your story Daja, that Porter-Leath and the organization requested quote, "A substantial increase in funding "to provide fewer services "to pre-K students at a higher cost.

"That could have jeopardized "the SCS Headstart grant by putting the district out of compliance with federal requirements."

That sounds serious, is that true?

- No.

- So there was no increase, no substantial increase that you all requested, any increase that you requested in funding?

- So we would have requested an increase in funding with the compliance issue that was brought up there, really getting off into details, SCS is the grantee with HHS, with Health and Human Services at the federal level, we were a contractor, not a delegate agency.

With that, and we're getting into some semantics with federal contracting and all of that, but because of the partnership that started in 2014, we were the largest contractor of Headstart in the country.

It's the largest relationship like this anywhere in the US, it's abnormal, for lack of a better term, to bring that into compliance in the eyes of HHS, we were a delegate, not a contractor.

Again, trying to explain all that we'd be here for days going through that.

So to bring us into better compliance and making us a delegate would have required SCS to pay those indirect cost rates that have been your story, I know, and several others in the last few weeks.

So to bring that up would have required more funding.

So to bring that all back around in negotiations with that rate to keep that compliant, we would have had to have cut classroom staff, probably 50 positions, indirect services staff, to keep that overall number the same.

It's complicated matters.

- That's okay, I mean, we have 25 minutes, people it's Behind The Headlines, we get a little wonky here, but, cutting 50 out of how many staffs?

- Over 250 and those are direct family, child serving staff, which would great, you can imagine, diminishing our quality and that's something that we're not going to do.

We're very clear about that.

- And again, before I go back to Daja one more, the compliance issue was, maybe I missed, I didn't get that.

- It was around the contractual structure and that we were being treated as a delegate and not a contractor.

So a contractor, for example, would take over one small piece of Headstart, in this example.

So they might provide custodial or janitorial services for the program.

As a delegate, we were, since we were operating that entire program, we were really a delegate.

The point of the program had been delegated to Porter-Leath in large fashion by SCS and that's okay.

We just have to be treated as a delegate, not a contractor.

So that's where... - But the compliance issues were not safety, we're not, I mean, that's the thing.

I apologize not to beat up on this but because if someone hears compliance issues and little kids, the worst thoughts go to there was a safety issue, there was a health issue, there was an outcome issue.

- No, this is a procedural, contractual, compliance issue.

- Okay.

- On that front.

- Yeah, let me go back to Daja.

- So you mentioned that you would have to ask for more, to keep that compliance issue at hand.

With that, if you look at the contracts over the past seven years, you see that there is a gap of what SCS is funding for Porter-Leath and what you said was the true cost of those services.

So what was Porter-Leath doing to accommodate that gap?

- I'm glad you brought that up.

So we were raising private dollars to make that contract work.

So our true cost of the program and what our proposal would have been this year, was our proposal this year, was 18.2 million.

That is a true cost, it's a reimbursement grant from SCS to reimburse through HHS.

The Headstart contract has increased to, oh, excuse me, the Headstart grant to SCS has increased from HHS from 20 million in 2014, up to 25.6 million in 2021.

Going back, Porter-Leath contract has gone from sixteen-point-nine million to sixteen million during that time.

So you can see the different gaps there.

Our true cost has gone up, costs for everybody go up every seven years.

If you think back on your own personal life, I doubt you're paying less for anything now than you were seven years ago.

Costs have gone up and to have quality, we have to operate the program this way.

So that our true cost was $18.2 million to operate that program.

We would not cut quality to meet the budget.

- With 15 minutes left here.

So, it is done right?

The contract is over as of the 30th.

What happens to the, I think you said 250 direct staff?

Are they out of a job or?

- So luckily we were able to retain a lot of our talent.

So we're really excited to move forward, operating Porter-Leath preschool.

We're following the exact same Headstart model that we've used since 2001, when we opened our first Headstart services.

So we're operating preschool across the county in our five centers.

Enrollment, so far in less than 30 days, we're really excited.

The interest has been there, we're well on our way to filling up our centers.

So families know where their child will go with the start of the school year on August 9th.

- And who is paying for that without the Headstart money?

- Without the Headstart money, we're able to utilize Tennessee Department of Human Services childcare vouchers as well as a pay structure for families.

- Okay.

So some families are choosing to pay, basically that's what's coming down.

- If families are not needs based it's certainly open to the public.

If families are willing to pay, we're absolutely willing to have them and would love to have them.

It's a quality program.

- Yeah.

You have spent, you have built out your infrastructure.

I should say, I mean, Porter-Leath, as we said at the top does a lot of things other than Headstart.

You've been around for... - Since 1850.

- 1850 give or take.

- I wasn't here when we were founded on that front, but now we've, I'm glad you mentioned the infrastructure piece, We've really invested in that.

And I think that's one great piece with the partnership that we had with SCS, we we're able to bring millions and millions of private funding to the community, into this partnership, building four new centers or building two new centers right now, they're open.

A third one should be open later this year and a fourth one to come, but great academies, I know y'all have been there to see those amazing facilities and really, again, putting Memphis on the national map.

We know the program is not just about great buildings, it's about great quality.

So we were able to bring private funding in from a number of different sources to invest in the quality of the program.

Whether that's LENA, which really focuses heavily on literacy work and literacy skill development for children, - LENA is the name of the program?

- LENA out of Boulder, Colorado.

As well as national partners like Sesame Street and communities helping focus on social, emotional development, a number of other programs.

Our innovative Teacher Excellence program.

Our instructional coaches are going through Harvard Graduate School of Education right now, earning their certificate in early education leadership, just phenomenal investments really that goes straight to the heart of making sure that children have a great early childhood experience.

- Let me bring Daja back in.

- And then what do you think this impact will be for the families that are, that were attending Porter-Leath facilities through SCS?

- The impact, if they continue with Porter-Leath, we know it will be great.

We've set it up to where they will not miss a beat with us.

They'll be ready to go on August 9th for the new school year, largely the same facilities they were in last year.

If they were in one of our facilities going forward, hopefully the same teachers, the same staff, everything continues on.

I think coming on the heels of a pandemic where children learn virtually for a large part of the school year, or part of the school year, I think it's really important that families are able to have that great quality option.

The last thing we want is there, we know there's going to be a COVID gap with every child across the board, whether it's K-12, pre-K, college, any of those, but coming back into the new school year, Porter-Leath is here to make sure that families do not miss a beat with us.

- And how much, the State put in some, and forgive me as I kind of ramble out loud here, the State passed a number of requirements in the session that ended this spring, holding back third graders if they weren't, I think second or third graders, if they weren't ready to move on.

There's a lot of funding for summer school to kind of make up for lost opportunities, do you all play a role in either of those new programs?

- Not in K-12.

For us we're really locked in on that preschool piece, but we know that kindergarten readiness directly influences third grade reading scores.

And again, going back to the partnership, that was one great thing that we were able to do together with SCS is enhanced kindergarten readiness outcomes up to 70 and 80% consistently over the course of, the seven-year partnership, which really prompts that for third grade reading scores for the district.

- Right, and for people joining us late, I should again mention that Superintendent Joris Ray from Shelby County Schools and some of his staff will be on the show in a couple of weeks to talk about the Headstart program, Pre-K, but also some of these other, it was a very difficult year to say the least for education.

So that will be in two weeks.

One more question before we go back to Daja, you mentioned 70-80% being ready for kindergarten, what, I think you also said, this was the largest Headstart program in the country, outsourced.

- Right, outsourced yeah.

- What are the typical numbers for a Headstart nationally?

- It differs by county.

It's determined by the number of eligible families and needs of each community there.

Typically what you see is a number of small contractual relationship.

So out of 3,200 children, you might see 5 or 6 or maybe even 10 providers.

- I asked my question poorly.

That was interesting and I appreciate you saying that.

I had asked the outcomes of around seventy-nine percent, eighty percent that you all have, what do other Headstart programs in other parts of the countries typically see?

- Every Headstart group has their own outcome, they can choose their own testing and there's not a lot of correlation between different testing models.

So I would have to go find somebody else that uses the same one, I don't know that off the top of my head.

I will say that Porter-Leath has also used brigands as another metric for us.

So we're able to show domain growth across each core area for whole child development.

And that is nationally, we would get to compare that nationally.

- Okay, all right, Daja.

- And then just to reiterate, so this was a big contract and you mentioned that enrollment interest is there for Porter-Leath, what other impacts do you see?

Do you, are there any added costs that will come from not having this contract?

- There are certainly some challenges starting up preschool so quickly.

It's been less than 30 days at this point to get up and running.

So there's some startup costs there, but largely we have a great model that we know that works and we're able to get families enrolled.

So it should be a short-term bump and not a long-term impact for us.

- One last thing on this and I know you all do other things, but I did want to read the statement from Mike Warr, Chairman of Porter-Leath's Early Childhood Foundation.

And again, reading from Daja's story, he said the relationship with SCS began to deteriorate 2 years ago and I'm quoting Mike Warr, "Apparently the new leadership "did not like innovation very much.

"They certainly didn't care for transparency by and large.

"What happened was innovation "we were doing sort of ground to a halt.

Our staff was totally miserable."

That's pretty harsh and I, what was the innovation that you were trying to do and that now in a different circumstance, apparently you are free to pursue?

So talk about some of that innovation and again, I don't mean to put you in the tit-for-tat with SCS, but I do think that notion of innovation, everyone nationally, it's been a huge focus locally on early childhood education.

That's where we start.

I mean, Mayor Strickland ran on it, the Chamber of Commerce that put a huge, there's just been so much talk about early childhood education over the last 10 years, it seemed like we finally got there and this is a strange bump in the road, but talk about innovation and what you all will pursue going forward.

- I'm glad you phrased it just like that.

This is a bump in the road, it's not the end of the road for Porter-Leath.

We're able to continue on with our innovations.

I mentioned our Teacher Excellence program, a little bit, we're able to provide performance-based coaching and, excuse me, practice-based coaching for all of our early childhood educators in the classroom to really enhance professional development opportunities from a teaching practice standpoint for all of our educators.

So that was something that we really started in partnership with SCS, but also had opened it up to any early childhood educator across Memphis and Shelby County.

So being able to continue that forward, being able to continue our work with LENA, I think I mentioned some of our social emotional development really focusing on that comprehensive child development.

So not just the academic piece that happens in the classroom, but those families services that happen as well.

So making sure that families are supported as well as the child's health, disability, nutrition needs throughout the same point of our work.

- That is important too and I mean, because of all the shows we've done on education and over the years and the various groups who work with early childhood, I mean, the thing that in the store, the articles we've written.

And the thing that becomes clear is, and Dorsey Hopson, previous SCS superintendent who I often, quote him saying as he was leaving, talking about the challenges they have with so many kids within Shelby County Schools, that the children are coming to school having not had dinner, walking to school, getting there late, wet, cold, not having books and not having finished their homework and that they are starting the day so far behind.

And he was talking more about elementary and above.

The wraparound services you all do, I mean, they can include, talk about the scope of services that you're trying to provide to kids and I think also to their families that get beyond the academics and then I'll go back to Daja.

- I mentioned we're going to continue to follow our Headstart model that we've operated for 20 years and we continue to operate early Headstarts.

And our work there is not affected by this two completely separate items.

But for example, in the first 45 school days, every child goes through an onsite physical dental exam, hearing and speech assessment, an eye exam, all onsite, and we're able to help connect families with additional resources if they're needed on that front.

We provide breakfast, lunch and snack, all USDA-approved in our centers, making sure that children have those nutritional core elements that they need each and every day.

So those wraparound services for children are fantastic, but it's also for the families.

We know that we can't just do great school, we can't just work with families.

We have to follow that two-gen model.

That's their two generation model that's so, so important.

It's been proven time and time again, to be effective.

So working with all of our families to help them achieve whatever their dream may be.

So does that mean helping families complete education or a job certification, finding better employment, finding better housing, any of those things?

How can we help those families really advance their family forward?

Really excited to be able to continue that as I mentioned and you mentioned Superintendent Hopson had shared those concerns before and focusing on how we got started, expanding outside of early and Headstart years ago with pre-K, a number of charter providers all faced the same element of having to overcome those overall needs before they can focus on learning.

So we started doing pre-K for four year olds.

I believe it was 2012 or 2013, It seems like a long time ago.

But really focusing that forward and that's allowed our preschool program to grow and our outcomes are consistent across every single channel of our preschool program.

- Daja.

- And then speaking of those other services outside of direct instruction to students, there was some disagreement from SCS about how many students Porter-Leath served placing that closer to around 1,600.

But as you mentioned, you've mentioned a number earlier of 3,200.

Was there cause for that disconnect?

- Sure.

So can easily break that number down.

The Headstart contract is for 3,200 children.

We serve, Porter-Leath has served, excuse me, 1,520 children that are center-based.

So we're providing the in-person service in our schools, as well as those wraparound services for families.

The balance of that contract, the children are served in an SCS school.

However, Porter-Leath was contracted to do the wraparound.

So there was the disconnect on those two numbers.

We call it full service if you will, for those 1,520 children and then wraparound only for those 1,680 children.

So the 1,680, SCS is providing the direct instruction to children as part of this contract.

Additionally and kind of going back to that budget number, a little bit of the disconnect there on numbers, we also provide services for seven--, I'm doing the math in my head, seven hundred and twenty children through VPK and Fund One.

So that numbers sometimes in this budget, Eric mentioned the tit-for-tat, that's some of the disconnect there.

Fund One, VPK is included sometimes, sometimes it's not.

- With about five minutes left, what you mentioned, Books from Birth, you mentioned other programs, walk through, again, we're all very close to this, but for people who aren't, don't, in pre, Porter-Leath got in the news with this pre-K contract and so on the Headstart contract, I should say, but the other services outside of that include?

- Sure.

So, preschool is just one of our six programs in two initiatives.

So do a great amount of work outside of the space.

So we have generations, which is composed of AmeriCorps members that provide individual enrichment activities for students who may be a little bit behind on incoming assessments to help them keep pace with peers through the end of the school year.

So it's really that stack services component on top of our preschool, making an impact there.

Generations also has foster grandparents, a remarkable set of individuals.

They each spend a 1,000 hours of service a year in our centers to children being that extra set of eyes and ears and the hands in the classroom.

Books From Birth, we're the largest affiliate in the world of Dolly Parton's Imagination Library.

So we serve over 40,000 children, mail over 40,000 children's books, or 40,000 children in Shelby County an age appropriate book every single month.

On top of that, we also provide home visitation services through our Cornerstone or for pregnant and parenting families, really influencing that healthy birth weight disparity that's been in the news for a long time and starting to thankfully come back down and in Shelby County, a number of other pieces, going forward as well, but we're able to really layer all those programs together to enhance our early childhood equality.

- I'm curious this, this seems like a needle in a haystack and the haystack that you all try to conquer and go through.

That's a really bad mixed analogy, but I'll stick with it.

Transportation and the notion of building now, how many facilities?

And I think that's the thing I hear constantly from nonprofits and community organizations is, we used to just, we built this great big facility and then everyone would come, but then this sort of realization, not everybody can get there and that people don't have transport, we don't have great public transport here, they may not have cars, they have jobs.

So talk about the strategy of putting facilities out in more neighborhoods.

And then do you do busing and transport in that way to get kids and families to these services?

- So we do not do transportation for a couple of different reasons, but we do sure that our centers are convenient for families.

So for example, the new facilities that we built, we really have a couple of different criteria that we look at.

One can families get there.

So we make sure that we're near amount of bus stops.

Our last two academies that we built are a shorter walk than from here to the parking lot.

Very, very easily accessible for families.

Additionally, it's right next door to a great next option for families.

So near a great performing elementary school.

If you look at Alton Elementary, it's right next door to our early childhood academy in south Memphis, our Frayser early childhood academy that we just opened in March, actually it has three elementary or two elementary schools next door and one, maybe two or three blocks away, so making that continue and possible for families to get a great early childhood education, but then go K-5, K-6 somewhere else or right down the road.

So easy to get to, but convenient for families that may be working or have older or younger children.

- With just a minute left and I keep saying that Joris Ray, the superintendent, Shelby County Schools and staff will be here in two weeks, they'll be here next week.

I don't know why I keep saying two weeks, but they'll will be here next week to talk about some of these issues and other things going on with SCS and so on and in the whole recovery from COVID and moving forward.

Thirty seconds or so, what does Porter-Leath look like in 10 years?

I mean, you're 150, more than that one 170 year old... - One hundred and seventy-one.

- One hundred and seventy-one year old organization, this is a big change in shift, but again, all these other programs you've talked about, what is your vision, call it, 10 years from now?

- Ten years?

To continue our path forward.

Ten years ago, we we're a lot smaller, but we're able to really take some lessons learned over the last 10 years and apply them so that we can continue our pre-school work in any fashion going forward.

I think as that continues to play out, we'll definitely still be improving our outcomes so that more children are ready for kindergarten than they are today.

And we'll still be here to serve the community.

- All right.

Rob Hughes, thanks for being here.

Daja, thanks for joining us and thank you for joining us.

Again, join us next week, thanks.

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