Zoe Berg, Senior Photographer

Four social workers with decades of experience were laid off in August as part of the planned “reorganization” of the Head Start program at New Haven Public Schools.

As Marilyn Carson, Lisa Langley, Luz Lopez-Broderick and Arlice Brogdon — with a combined experience of over 100 years, according to their union — returned to work at NHPS on Aug. 23, they were “blindsided” by an email in their inbox informing them of their immediate termination. Carson, herself a former Head Start parent and grandparent, could not even open the email. She was already locked out of her account. 

The layoffs are a result of Head Start’s restructuring, coming after its federal funding is set to reduce by $892,484 over the next five years.

“The bills didn’t stop coming. I still have to pay rent, and I have to pay my utilities. And I’m where I started from, in poverty, as a Head Start parent, but as a senior now,” said Carson, formerly at Lincoln-Bassett Community School and Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning Center. “I know they could have shown us more dignity.”

The four Head Start social services employees were laid off before a series of high-profile firings and resignations at NHPS. Their health benefits expired eight days later. The district claimed the layoffs were part of a planned “reorganization” based on federal recommendations. 

According to a timeline provided by Justin Harmon, director of communications at NHPS, the employees should have been notified of the impending layoffs by August 2nd at the latest, when the city’s labor director confirmed that the relevant unions had been given detailed information on impending layoffs. Information on the possibility of layoffs was made public as early as November 2023, according to Harmon.

When reached for comment, Renee Hamel, responsible for Local 884’s communications, did not deny this timeline. The union’s leadership recently changed, although Hamel did not confirm when this transition had occured and how it might have affected communication with the social workers about the impending layoffs.

“The fact remains that these four social workers were blindsided by their termination and feel let down by NHPS. They are worried about the impact this has on services and the students and families who relied on their steadfast support and advocacy,” Hamel wrote the News. 

Local educator Lola Nash helped found the first Head Start program in the United States in New Haven’s Elm Haven neighborhood, based on research by Yale developmental psychologist Edward Zigler. 

The program, implemented nationwide in 1965, was a key pillar of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, tackling poverty through comprehensive early childhood education and social services support. Over 35 million students and their families have benefited from the program, including thousands in New Haven. 

The social workers were responsible for helping parents and families reach critical social services, from housing and food assistance to legal help and employment. 

“They’re my children, those Head Start children,” Carson, who has over 30 years of experience at Head Start, told the News. “We work directly with families, parents first, to help them find their voice and their words and educate them.” 

Head Start’s restructuring, layoffs

In a memorandum addressed to the Board of Education on Sept. 6 and provided to the News by NHPS communications director Justin Harmon, NHPS administrators outlined the changes to the Head Start program which led to the layoff of the four social workers. According to Lopez-Broderick, four other Head Start employees were laid off as well, mostly from the program’s administrative staff.

The document details a $892,484 reduction in federal grant funding for Head Start programs at NHPS over the next five years. The city plans to apply for funding to support families with children under three years old, which necessitates the current grant cut, according to Harmon. 

The restructuring involves the elimination of Head Start classrooms with low enrollment numbers, including at Dr. Reginald Mayo Early Learning Center, where three of the four social workers were employed. 

The program will now receive funding for 438 students instead of 531. Seven classrooms at Mayo will be eliminated, with another eliminated at the Truman School. Three new classrooms were opened at other schools for a total of 26 Head Start classrooms, down from 31 last year.

“With this funding reduction there will be an impact on staffing,” the document reads. “We have restructured appropriately, updated job descriptions and roles, and aligned the program with the current Head Start Program Performance Standards, educational requirements, and management wheel.”

In an interview with the News, Harmon echoed these claims, promising that the district was working with affected unions to redesign positions for which some of the laid-off employees might be eligible to reapply.

Through a spokesperson, Tijuana Johnson, the new president of Local 3144 representing the four workers, said that these employees were not certified social workers, although all hold relevant bachelor degrees, making it difficult to “bump” them into other positions.

“These are individuals who have played an important function within the context of the services that Head Start provides, but some of the roles and responsibilities are shifting as we implement the guidance that has come to us from Head Start about the efficacy of the program,” Harmon said. 

These changes, Harmon said, would lead to “better service.”

Harmon initially declined to comment on the layoff process and the sudden expiration of benefits. He also declined to confirm whether AFSCME Local 3144, the union representing the four social workers, was one of the unions the district is consulting as it rewrites job descriptions. 

Johnson claimed  that the district had not been in contact with her on this issue.

In a timeline of changes made to the program, the document describes “in-person meetings with impacted personnel as a result of elimination of grant positions, for Local 3144 and Local 884 are held at 54 Meadow Street.” 

Grappling with unexpected layoffs

Langley, who worked for the Head Start program for 15 years and was also a Head Start parent and grandparent herself, described being summoned to the district’s downtown offices on Meadow Street late last month.

“We were all blindsided. I know things happen, budget cuts, I get it, but financially, it’s difficult obviously” she said. 

The four were handed a letter at their exit meetings with a formal layoff notice and explanation of staffing changes.

Lopez-Broderick, who worked in the Head Start program for almost 20 years, has found it difficult to explain the situation to her children, a son with special needs and a daughter who just graduated from nursing school.

She criticized what she characterized the district’s failure to notify her and her colleagues beforehand. She and her colleagues also expressed frustration that the rapid expiration of their healthcare benefits the following week left them without healthcare.

“It was like a slap on the face that we weren’t really informed appropriately about how this is going to go about. If they knew this a long time ago, they should have talked to us. They should have sat down, and we would have had an option to start looking for new jobs,” she said. “They didn’t give us any options.”

Carson had promised her granddaughter that she would help with college tuition. Brogdon, who also worked for Head Start for almost 30 years, described how the layoff would also make it difficult for her to pay her child’s college tuition money. 

Brogdon expressed many of the same frustrations, wondering what the district expected the four of them to do to find health insurance coverage. 

“You told us on the 23rd that we were laid off, and the benefits were done on the 31st. What am I supposed to do on a Friday? What appointments can I make on a Friday that I can get in between now and then?” she said. 

Johnson, the president of the union representing the four employees, emphasized the importance of the relationships with families that the four had developed over decades. At the beginning of the school year, Johnson added, families were expecting to reengage with the staff they have build these relationships with.

The social workers echoed these concerns.

When she went to pick up her grandson from the school where she worked, Brogdon was inundated with requests from confused parents who needed help with paperwork. Brogdon mentioned a Head Start mother who was struggling to file the necessary paperwork to gain custody of her child, paperwork Brogdon could no longer help her complete.

If the families and children served by Head Start do not get “the right foundation that they were promised,” this might have “detrimental” consequences for New Haven, Carson said. 

Head Start is overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Correction 9/20: This article was corrected to reflect new information from NHPS on the timing of layoffs and notification of the social workers. Comment from Local 884 was also added.