Opinion ID: 43218
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Allegations of Differential Treatment

Text: As discussed later, Jeronimus contends that Tucker supervised and treated Gail Wiggs (“Wiggs”), the PCOC Head Start Director, and Lela Wooten (“Wooten”), a Senior Program Resource Coordinator, more favorably because they are black and female.5 Thus, we review the facts regarding Wiggs and Wooten. As Head Start Director, Wiggs was responsible for having additional children enrolled in the Head Start program. Head Start sent a letter to PCOC indicating that funding was available to expand enrollment by an additional 68 children. Wiggs was responsible for getting additional children enrolled and Jeronimus was responsible for implementing the financial aspects of the expansion. Although Jeronimus completed his duties with respect to the expansion, Wiggs did not. Jeronimus reported Wiggs’s failure to the PCOC Board of Directors every month for eight months. In addition, Tucker visited some of the sites and had 5 Jeronimus also suggests that there was an environment of racial discriminatory animus at PCOC. Jeronimus notes two statements by Tucker (his superior), and two statements by Wooten (a colleague). During a meeting with an insurance carrier, Tucker asked the rhetorical question, “why is it that the good guys wear white and the bad guys wear black?” A second incident coincided with a training that Jeronimus was giving, in which Tucker told Jeronimus that he “better be training the black people in this room too or it’s not – it’s going to look like you’re only taking care of the nonblacks.” After two presentations given by white males who worked for outside vendors, Jeronimus heard Wooten say “white boy” with a smirk on her face, which Jeronimus took to mean “What does he know? He’s a white boy.” After the second presentation, Jeronimus mentioned the “white boy” comment in passing to Etzel because he thought it was “odd.” 8 concerns that some of the children might not be prepared for kindergarten. For these reasons, in the fall of 2002, Tucker urged Wiggs to step down as Head Start Director. Wiggs stepped down and took the position of Assistant Head Start Director. Gail Wooten (“Wooten”) was responsible for, among other things, preparing grant applications to secure funding for the CSBG program. On February 23, 2001, Hilda Frazier, FDCA Planning Manager, wrote to PCOC and stated that FDCA could pay 100% of the contract allocation and incorporate any carryover from the previous fiscal year into the next contract. The funding, however, would not be released until appropriate modification documentation was submitted by PCOC and approved by the FDCA. The following year, on March 27, 2002, PCOC received a letter from FDCA indicating that the modification documentation had not been received and that the documentation must be submitted “as soon as possible to avoid delays in processing [PCOC’s] request for payment.” The modification documentation was submitted on May 6, 2002, and the FDCA funds did not become available until the end of June, 2002. According to Jeronimus, the delays in receiving FDCA funds caused a cash shortage in the CSBG program. Jeronimus also notes that by failing to satisfy several conditions of a Teen Outreach grant award, Wooten caused PCOC to incur a ten percent monthly 9 holdback penalty, resulting in a total loss of $5,000 to PCOC.