ESD 112 eyes early learning site at former 49th Street Academy

A new early learning facility could soon be coming to Vancouver.

The Evergreen Public Schools Board of Directors approved a resolution at Tuesday night’s meeting to negotiate a rental lease with Educational Service District 112 to convert the site of the former 49th Street Academy to a new facility for preschool, child care and before/after school programs.

The site, located just next to Burnt Bridge Elementary School in Vancouver at 14619 N.E. 49th St., is still owned by the district but has been unused since Evergreen relocated the former 49th Street Academy last year as part of the 2018 capital facilities bond. The project is being funded by an early learning facility grant of $640,320 from the Department of Commerce in 2021.

Pending negotiations between ESD 112 and Evergreen, ESD 112 aims to offer four preschool classrooms serving a total of 72 slots within the state-funded Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program in the 2022-2023 school year — primarily in the Burton Elementary and Image Elementary communities.

Early childhood learning programs at each of those two schools were discontinued in the past year as each facility was determined to be “beyond their useful life,” per the resolution approved Tuesday night.

Child care and early learning services have been increasingly scarce in Clark County in the past year, with many independent agencies unable to pay workers competitive wages as pandemic-era stimulus funds and support programs dry up.

In recent months, local agencies such as Educational Opportunities for Children and Families in Vancouver have supported Senate Democrats’ efforts to pass a reconciliation package this summer which would provide billions in federal funding for child care programs across the country. Rekah Strong, the CEO for Educational Opportunities for Children and Families, referred to early learning as “a linchpin to getting society back on track.”