Salina school board approves Early Head Start enrollment cut from 91 to 80 children
The Salina USD 305 Board of Education on Tuesday approved a Change of Scope grant application that asks the federal government to reduce Heartland Early Education's Early Head Start enrollment from 91 to 80 children for the 2027-2028 program year.
The reduction comes entirely in home-based programming, which drops from 59 to 48 slots. Center-based Early Head Start enrollment stays at 32. The application, approved 7-0 as part of the consent agenda, goes to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families and requests no reduction in grant funding.
The agenda packet lists several reasons for the request. Saline County's poverty rate fell from 20% in 2017 to 9.4% in 2023, shrinking the pool of eligible families, and Salina Public Schools kindergarten enrollment dropped from 555 students in 2016-2017 to 431 in 2025-2026. More families are asking for center-based care as more parents work outside the home, and families enrolled in home-based services often move to center-based openings when they become available.
The packet also cites family hesitancy about home visits, difficulty keeping weekly 90-minute visits and high turnover in the home-based family consultant position. Heartland has hired five people to fill that position over the past four years, and it takes an average of four months to hire a replacement and six more months to train one. The current home-based position has been vacant for four months and will not be filled. Thirty-three percent of children enrolled in home-based Early Head Start have Individualized Education Plans, up from 21% in 2024-2025.
Keeping the current funding level will let Heartland continue home-based services and provide a small salary increase without further staff reductions, according to the packet.
In a separate consent item, the board approved a revision to Heartland's 2026-2027 federal Head Start budget that moves $60,000 from personnel to equipment to buy two replacement vehicles, estimated at $30,000 each. The vehicles replace two that were totaled in the April 2026 hailstorm. The revision asks for no additional federal money. Insurance proceeds will go toward the replacements, with the rest used for hail damage repairs to other Heartland vehicles. Heartland will seek bids and bring the purchase back to the board for approval.
