NEON: No Head Start at least through the weekend

NORWALK, Conn. — Head Start parents waiting for a solution to their day care problems will have to continue to wait.

The Rev. Tommi Jackson appointed last week as Norwalk Economic Opportunity Now’s interim president and CEO, issued a press release saying there will be no program available at least through the weekend.

Jackson pointed a finger at the company appointed by the federal Administration for Children and Families and ACF itself for the continuing delay.

“Although NEON continues to fully cooperate with Community Development Institute (CDI,) in an effort to re-open Norwalk’s Head Start program at Norwalk’s Nathaniel Ely School and Ben Franklin Center at the earliest possible date,” Jackson said in the release, “the schools will remain closed through the weekend. CDI is coordinating their deliberations on re-opening both schools with the federal Administration for Children and Families offices in both Washington, D.C. and Boston.”

CDI was appointed by the federal Administration for Children and Families to administer Norwalk Head Start while NEON’s management of the program is under suspension. The suspension was announced Oct. 24.