ACTIVISTS PLANNING CENTER'S FUTURE HEAD START GROUP'S TAKEOVER LOOMING.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

SAN FERNANDO - In a last-ditch effort to save the Latin American Civic Association - the San Fernando Valley's largest provider of Head Start programs - a handful of activists met Saturday to plot out the organization's future even as hundreds of its employees applied for new jobs.

Federal authorities ordered the 42-year-old association, which cares for 1,435 poor children in the Valley, to turn over operations of its 26 centers on Tuesday to a federally appointed transition company, Denver-based Community Development Institute.

``We are going to fight with everything we got,'' said Javier Flores, a former board member and director of Pueblo Y Salud, an anti-alcohol group that hosted the meeting at its San Fernando offices.

The turnover order came earlier this month after the Administration for Children, Youth and Families - the federal agency ultimately administering Head Start - found LACA failed to prove it could provide the proper nutritional, social and health services.

Though the program educated Leticia Aguirre's two children and helped thousands more, its troubled history worried her and other employees. ``The only reason we are sad is because it's been here so long,'' said Aguirre, supervisor of the Delores Huerta site in San Fernando and a 14-year employee. ``But right now we are hopeful that something better will come in here.''

County officials nearly shut down the agency in 1993 after finding gross mismanagement and illegal expenditures. A 2003 county investigation found its practices ``deficient.''

In March, the Los Angeles Office of Education terminated its contract with LACA, citing mismanagement and failure to provide health care services. The federal Administration for Children, Youth and Families then allowed LACA to apply for funding directly. But the application was denied after the federal agency found the program inadequate.

As class let out on Friday at the Huerta site, few parents knew about the program's checkered past.

``I don't want to see them go,'' said Esmeralda Gutierrez, a 32-year-old Sylmar mother whose son Alexander Garcia had gone through the program. ``They speak our language, they know us.''

Indeed, the program, begun at a city park by local activists who wanted to help poor children in the San Fernando Valley, became a symbol of community empowerment for the poor Latino community. But as problems have mounted at the organizations, support has weakened.

At an emergency board meeting held late Friday night, several former employees pleaded with the board to oust the executive director, Irene Tovar.

``It's a shame because the children are losing now,'' said Marcelino Moreno, a former administrator who resigned in 2003. ``This is not about being Latino anymore.''

Tovar was unreachable Saturday.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, Jordon Torres, left, Angel Suaste, and Gustavo Quiles use a computer at the Delores Huerta site in San Fernando; at right, a Head Start child reaches out while learning to use a computer in a class.

(3 -- 5) At top, Diana Benkovic makes a point to teacher Alberto Lovato; at left, Natalie Castellanos plays with blocks; at right, Lourdes Anaya, left, and Lisbeth Lopez hang out in a classroom at the center in San Fernando.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News