The Escambia Children’s Trust (ECT) shot blanks on its first round of grants.
In June, the ECT board approved the staff’s recommendation to award two grants, totaling $67,700, for it Kindergarten Summer Bridge Program “to introduce children to a formal early education setting to help prepare them for their first day of kindergarten.”
Neither grant met expectations. Inweekly has been told Potential Preschool Academy never reconnected with ECT to get its $40,000. For the $40K, the church agreed to enroll 25 additional students in its preschool program. The cost per child was $1,600. See Potential Preschool Academy.
The original request was for $132,489 and included $93,796 for two 15-passenger vans. The grants committee deleted the vehicles from the proposal.
ReadyKids! was slated to receive $27,700 to put on three workshops for a minimum of 60 children and a maximum of 150. The average cost per child was $185 if 150 children enrolled. See ReadyKids!.
According to the nonprofit’s social media posts, ReadyKids! only worked with 17 children. Fortunately, ECT will only reimburse ReadyKids! for its actual costs, estimated to be $6,692.
The ReadyKids! proposal was for three workshops:
Program Supplies: $1,100
Personnel: $7,800
Incentives: $6,700
Transportation: $1,300
Venue: $1,300
Marketing: $5,000
ECT received five proposals, and the staff selected an outside committee to review the proposal. None of the proposals, not even the two recommendations, were available for public review, before or after the meeting. The agenda for the June meeting didn’t list the recommendations.
The website has a scoresheet that listed ReadyKids! as the top recommendation with 245 points. Potential Preschool Academy got 194 points. The scoresheet didn’t give the names of the committee members, so the public has no idea who reviewed the proposals. See RFP 02022-01 Funding Recommendations.
Watching a replay of the June meeting, it appears the board members weren’t given all the proposals. ECT Board Chair Stephanie White expressed concern about being left in the dark.
“We want to see everything, touch everything, at least for right now,” said White. “We want to be a part of it, and we’re not just going to sign checks because we just want to know everything until we get more comfortable. That’s why I definitely think that we all need to see the proposals before we vote on them, even if we’re not on the committees.”
ECT Executive Director Tammy Greer told her board that she has over 30 years of experience working with grants and advised proposals shouldn’t be available on the website because of possible proprietary information in them. Several board members disputed her claim.
ECT is carrying over to the next fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, about $8 million and is expected to collect as much as another $12 million — giving ECT about $20 million for grants to be handed out before Sept. 30, 2023.
There is time to fix the grant process and lift the veil of secrecy that has surrounded it. The first step should be for staff to listen to its board.
Otherwise, Trust staff will lose the trust of the Trust board.