SELMA, N.C. — Donna Barnette says she's reluctantly counting down the days until she can no longer step foot in the Selma Head Start classroom.

What You Need To Know

  • Community members attended a Selma Town Council meeting after Selma Head Start says it was told to “vacate” its building

  • The Head Start program is run by the nonprofit Johnston-Lee-Harnett Community Action

  • In a letter posted to Facebook, the group says the town wants to use the building for administrative offices and other programs

  • At a town council meeting Tuesday night, Mayor Byron McAllister called the letter "false and inflammatory"

The federally funded program in Selma is run by the nonprofit Johnston-Lee-Harnett Community Action and provides free services for economically and developmentally at risk 3- and 4-year-olds.

After being at the location on 605 W. Noble St. for 47 years, Barnette says relocation is an unwelcome yet real possibility.

“The mayor came and he explained to us what the plans are for this facility," Barnette said.

In a town council meeting on Tuesday night, Mayor Byron McAllister says the town did not ask Selma Head Start to vacate any buildings and did not intend to run them out of the building.

He says that although the group’s lease agreement terminates in November 2023, the town does intend to change the lease agreement. The group says its fight to stay put is about more than moving locations, it’s about protecting access to an essential resource for underserved families.

Right now, Barnette says, the facility serves 51 children, and there’s a waiting list of 131 children.

Barnette says to pack up and move is far from a simple process and would take at least six to eight months along with meeting federal, state and local mandates for a child care facility.

“Our budget is set a year in advance, so we don’t have a lot of funding to retrofit facilities, buildings for these young children," she said.

At this point, Barnette says, they don’t have enough staff to provide transportation for the children. And if the program has to move, she says that would be yet another barrier for the families they serve.

“Some parents are in school or they’re working low-wage jobs. We have some homeless as well," Barnette said.

After five years running Johnston County’s Head Start programs, Barnette says she never anticipated a challenge quite like this. It’s the reason she and other families are speaking out in hopes they can gather support and change minds.

"It is just unnerving to have to relocate all these children and this program. There needs to be some consistency and this has been it, here in the town of Selma," she said.

In that same Tuesday town council meeting, McAllister said they do eventually plan to move the town’s parks and recreation department into the space Selma Head Start currently occupies.

The mayor said he would work with the group to find or build a space to better serve Selma’s needs and the timeline for the parks and recreation move would depend on how their collective efforts to get a better space for the program went.

Despite the mayor’s words, the nonprofit says it is fearful come end of November that it will still be “evicted.” The group says it is open to the possibility of moving to another location, but it has to be within the town, and they’re worried about finding a location that suits all of their needs.