It’s no secret that Clackamas County serves only a fraction of the needs of our pre-K learners. Expanding our early learning services is one of our long-term goals, and that dream is a step closer to reality, thanks to our recent purchase of a building owned by Adventist Health next door to our headquarters in Clackamas.
The purchase occurred fairly quickly due to a one-time opportunity to use money from the early learning account of the Student Success Fund for a capital project — if we could complete the purchase by June 30. Like many other early learning programs in the state, declining enrollment during the pandemic reduced service needs, leaving unspent balances in early learning accounts. We are grateful state officials made an exception to expenditure rules to allow us use these 2020-21 funds for a capital project that will help us meet long-term early learning service goals centered on inclusion and partnership.
We are beginning a “visioning” process this month to gather input from dozens of community and district partners and other stakeholders on how to make the best use of this new facility. We already have several ideas, from creating demonstration classrooms to developing better evaluation and assessment spaces. Our goal is to make sure our new building helps address the county’s most urgent needs of preschool children and their families.
Space for early learning programs in Clackamas County is hard to get. We feel very fortunate that the stars aligned to give us this opportunity: A willing building seller next door, lifted restrictions on use-or-lose money, and a long-term need to increase support for children receiving early childhood services.
