Blue Water Community Action contesting expulsion from child care food program

Blue Water Community Action Agency is continuing efforts to appeal a state administrative decision late last year that ousted the organization from a Michigan Department of Education meal program.

The state first notified BWCAA in September that it proposed to terminate its agreement with the MDE’s Child and Adult Care Food Program, or CACFP, referencing concerns that call back to safety violations — and namely child abuse allegations against a former teacher — that had landed the agency in hot water earlier in 2023.

BWCAA requested the state review the termination, and a hearing was held in November.

In December, an administrative law judge upheld the education department’s decision to end the CACFP agreement, disqualifying BWCAA, as well as Sherry Beiser-Walter, BWCAA’s facilities manager, and Linda Lilly, chairperson of their board of directors, from future participation.

A claim of appeal was filed on Feb. 5 against the ruling in St. Clair County Circuit Court. When reached by phone last week, BWCAA’s attorney Tim Lozen said formal action on appeal would come in several weeks.

In a statement Friday, the agency said that expulsion from the CACFP, which funded school means for Head Start students, also automatically placed Lilly and Beiser-Walter on a national disqualification list administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, prohibiting them from volunteering or being employed nationwide in any similarly funded programs for seven years.

BWCAA also asserted the MDE did not follow its own regulations that mandate an agency can't be disqualified or placed on the disqualification list if "it can show that it developed and implemented appropriate correction actiosn to respond to problems at the agency."

In his own statement, Lozen said: “In appealing, the board felt that if it did not challenge the dangerous precedent that volunteer board members or officers be personally punished for merely serving as an officer or director of a nonprofit board when something goes wrong, would be devastating to recruitment and maintaining good community minded people to serve on boards such as BWCA’s and because disqualification would impact BWCA’s ability to participate in other CACFP food programs to serve other needy persons in St. Clair County.”

Lindsey Lavine, of the Michigan Attorney General’s health, education, and family services division, is the listed representing attorney for the state but referred inquiries to the AG’s press office. In an email Friday, Kimberly Bush, director of the AG’s office of public information and education, said, “We are representing MDE as their counsel on this matter, and as such they would be the appropriate entity to answer your questions.”

The MDE did not immediately return inquiries on Thursday and Friday.

It wasn’t clear what the ruling would mean, if anything, for services at large at the agency. Some members of its board of directors have said they’d expected an update on concerns at their January meeting before it was canceled amid inclement weather. BWCAA’s board typically meets on the final Tuesday of each month.

BWCAA’s federal Head Start funding for its large-capacity daycare center was suspended in August in the wake of abuse allegations and unrelated reports of children being left unattended.

Several agency staffers went on to face failure-to-report misdemeanors related to the allegations last summer, while former teacher Cody Williams pleaded to child abuse- and assault-related charges, resulting in a six-month jail sentence.

Personnel found culpable were fired as a result of the controversy, and the BWCAA board also fired the agency’s executive director in the fallout.

BWCAA was permitted by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs to operate a childcare center from September 2017 through Aug. 28, 2023, when LARA issued a notice to revoke the license.

That state agency also pointed to a week in December 2022 when issues surrounding allegations against Williams arose, as well as supervision concerns from last spring. However, the BWCA Early Childhood Center currently appears on LARA’s list of closed childcare facilities in St. Clair County and not among any centers whose license was revoked or suspended.

Lilly and Beiser-Walter, though linked to legal concerns administratively, were never charged in connection to abuse allegations.

According to the December administrative ruling, LARA’s initial notice of intent to revoke was sent to the MDE, where CACFP staff reportedly found BWCAA posed an “imminent threat” to the health and safety of participants and a “serious deficiency” within federal guidelines that govern the food program.

CACFP staff were not reported to have considered any corrective action plans from BWCAA, including those developed by Interim Executive Director Karen Lake in response to child abuse concerns.

The CACFP program addresses reimbursable meals at a variety of facilities, including preschool programs such as Head Start, according to the state.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Blue Water Community Action contesting expulsion from child care food program