A former San Juan schools administrator is taking charge of the child development division of the California Department of Education after more than eight months with no one in the top post.
Debra McMannis, who coordinated early learning programs at San Juan Unified, near Sacramento, has been named to succeed Camile Maben in the education department. Maben moved to First 5 California, the state-funded agency that works on improving and expanding existing child care and education services in the state, in December 2012. The state position had been vacant until McMannis was hired. She began work this week, officials said.
McMannis will have her work cut out for her. The child development division is responsible for coordinating the state’s public preschool program, providing child care for welfare and CalWorks’ recipients and enforcing compliance with state licensing law for child care and education facilities. The division operated on a $2.2 billion budget in 20012-13, having lost $1 billion in funding since the start of the recession in 2008. An additional $55 million authorized in the 2013-14 budget should bring that total up this year. An ongoing problem for the division has been that it cannot afford to provide services for all the children in the state who are eligible under state law.
At San Juan Unified, McMannis was in charge of implementing state and federal early learning programs. In that position, she worked with the California State Preschool Program, the federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs and the state’s Program for Infant and Toddler Care, among other programs. McMannis holds a bachelor’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena.
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Janet Poole 11 years ago11 years ago
I find it interesting that the article on Debra McMannis states that she was responsible for the "state's Program for Infant/Toddler Care." This statement is incorrect. The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) is a collaboration between WestEd and CDE/CDD. Ron Lally and Peter Mangione, co-Directors of the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies, oversee the PITC. Janet Poole and Arlene Paxton are co-directors of the PITC Partners for Quality which is a statewide network … Read More
I find it interesting that the article on Debra McMannis states that she was responsible for the “state’s Program for Infant/Toddler Care.” This statement is incorrect.
The Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC) is a collaboration between WestEd and CDE/CDD. Ron Lally and Peter Mangione, co-Directors of the WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies, oversee the PITC. Janet Poole and Arlene Paxton are co-directors of the PITC Partners for Quality which is a statewide network of PITC certified Infant/Toddler specialists who provide on-site training and coaching. Alicia Tuesta is Director of Training for the PITC Trainer Institutes.
Replies
Lillian Mongeau 11 years ago11 years ago
Hi Janet, McMannis worked with PITC in her district, according to her CDE bio. The article does not state that she was responsible for creating or running the program, nor was she, as you point out. I hope the whole sentence makes the relationship clear: "In that (San Juan district) position, she worked WITH the California State Preschool Program, the federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs and the state’s Program for Infant and Toddler Care, … Read More
Hi Janet,
McMannis worked with PITC in her district, according to her CDE bio. The article does not state that she was responsible for creating or running the program, nor was she, as you point out.
I hope the whole sentence makes the relationship clear: “In that (San Juan district) position, she worked WITH the California State Preschool Program, the federal Head Start and Early Head Start programs and the state’s Program for Infant and Toddler Care, among other programs.” (emphasis added)
Thanks for reading,
Lillian