Lamar Braxton knows how serious a low service evaluation is to the 929 Head Start children in the AJFC programs he administers. In a 1999 evaluation by the Administration for Children and Families, the federally-funded AJFC Community Action Agency was found to be under par in 14 of 17 performance standard areas.

&uot;Are we worried about it — absolutely. Are we trying to do something about it — absolutely,&uot; Braxton said. &uot;We’ll be fighting right to the last minute.&uot;

AJFC is in its 33rd year of operation and runs Head Start and other programs in nine counties, including Thompson School’s Head Start in Adams County. AJFC receives an annual $4,554,137 grant from ACF, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Under existing legislation, AJFC has one year, or until this summer, to return to standards or it could lose grant designation. ACF would then have to locate a new sponsor for the students if the program is to continue.

Despite this, Danny Osburn, public information officer with ACF’s Atlanta office, thinks AJFC should improve in time.

&uot;I don’t know why they wouldn’t be able to pull it back on track now,&uot; he said.

ACF’s evaluation found AJFC to be out of compliance in the following areas: program governance, planning, communication, record-keeping and reporting, ongoing monitoring, self-assessment, human resources, fiscal, facilities, curriculum, prevention and intervention, family partnerships building, parent involvement and community partnership.

ACF’s evaluation of AJFC cited a number of problems in finances such as agency’s needs exceeding the grant funds, being short on required non-federal match funds and paying more for some medical exams than allowed under contract.

Braxton said at least one of these problems — the non-federal match funds — was rectified by the end of the 1998 budget year.

The evaluation also cited minor things like broken commodes at the Woodville Center in Wilkinson County and broken windows at Thompson School.

&uot;What we’re talking about is 15 people going in there with magnifying glasses,&uot; Osburn said. &uot;They are going to find stuff like this. I guess the problem here is the aggregate of all these things.&uot;

These items could probably all be improved through better monitoring or management, he added.

&uot;Basically what you’re talking about is somebody in a management position with authority to act isn’t doing it,&uot; Osburn said. &uot;There’s not one thing that seems to be a fatal issue.&uot;

Osburn, who said he did not think AJFC has had this kind of trouble before, said it is common for an agency to go through a bad period.

&uot;You just never know when an agency is going to hit the skids temporarily and get some help getting back on track,&uot; he said.

ACF regional office in Atlanta operates 250 Head Start program in the southeast including about 30 in Mississippi. The office evaluates about 80 of the programs each year , and of those 10 to 15 usually score low like AJFC, Osburn said.

About two to three relinquish or lose their funding each year because of non-compliance, he added.

Hopefully that will not happen to AJFC.

&uot;We don’t want that to happen,&uot; Osburn said. &uot;Our first priority is to make the corrections within the context of the existing grantees.&uot;

In a worst case scenario, AJFC would lose funding and ACF would begin looking for another local sponsor immediately.

&uot;Our general policy is always to maintain the program within the local community,&uot;&160;Osburn said.

Braxton thinks AJFC’s poor evaluation can partly be blamed on Head Start’s new evaluation system.

&uot;(The system) had not been tested to determine whether it would adequately measure what they needed to know,&uot; he said.

AJFC did not even have time to study the new system prior to evaluation, he added.

Braxton said he tells his employees &uot;either we make the changes we need to make or we’ll all be out of business.&uot;

The office is working to improve and employees are adjusting to what he calls a more formal way of doing business.

ACF will give the agency a mock review in March to gauge improvement, he added.