| 114th Year, 15th Issue | Thursday, November 21, 2002 | Sparta, North Carolina |
Cuts in Alleghany County's Smart Start allocation have resulted in the loss of three programs designed to serve infants and small children and their families.
Ellen Wright, executive director of the Alleghany Partnership for Children, the local Smart Start agency, said the agency's allocation was reduced from $306,789 for 2001-02 to $276,661 this year, a cut of $30,128, or about 10 percent.
Most programs will remain in place. With the cuts, however, funding for three programs will be eliminated: Read2Me, administered through the Northwestern Regional Library, which promotes reading to young children; the in-home assessment program for new babies, administered through the Appalachian District Health Department; and an inclusion transition coordinator, hired by the Alleghany County Board of Education. In some cases, Wright said, the state also did not approve the plan for a given program.
The Partnership still has child care resources; "Building Blocks for Tots," a developmental play group; the "Firehouse Kids" preschool program in Glade Creek; partial funding for the school board to help fund preschools for at-risk children at Sparta Elementary School and Glade Creek Elementary School; child care subsidies, administered through the Alleghany County Department of Social Services; funding for a program called "Wages," administered through Child Care Services in Chapel Hill, which gives bonuses to child care providers to help further their education; and funding for an evaluator to report to the state.
In addition, Wright said, the Partnership has received the contract for the Alleghany County Family Resource Center (FRC).
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