EVERETT—The Early Learning Center at Everett Community College will be closing its doors June 30, 2025. For almost 33 years the on-campus facility has provided licensed childcare services for infants to children aged 5, and to many low-income families.
Approximately 20 staff members were presented with the hard news during a May 7 meeting where they also learned of their potential layoffs, pending union negotiations. Though the childcare center will be closing on June 30, it says it will delay layoffs until July 1 so that staff can keep their benefits through July.
One of those staff members was Alejanda Wood, Family Support Specialist at Everett College, who informed the Lynnwood Times that ECC President Chemene Crawford never once visited the ELC to see what they do prior to delivering the news.
“I’m tired, I’m frustrated. It’s not okay and they don’t understand how hard it is because what I do in the building is family support for most of those families,” said Wood. “This is just such a big injustice for the college to talk about community and to talk about their mission and vision but they are not walking the talk.”
Wood, who was just months shy of her 10-year anniversary with the college, added that she will be missing out on her pension due to her layoff. During her time at ECC she specialized in helping families, mostly low-income, with a variety of services from helping in times of crisis to writing job referrals.
According to Kathy Leeker, Vice President of Instruction at Everett College, the decision was in no way a reflection of staff’s years of dedicated service but a necessary decision given the center’s years of financial deficits and COVID relief funds running thin.
The ELC first announced back in 2021 that it would need to close after many years of deficits. The facility is an enterprise business for the college which does not directly align with the college’s mission of educating higher education students, Leeker added.
The early learning center has been running deficits since 2021 in the amount of nearly $200,000 a year. With COVID relief funds running dry it is projected to run a deficit this coming year in the amount of $300,000, which will only keep increasing as the cost to keep the facility open increases (such as salaries, supplies, and so on), the college said.
For years the college would have to pay those deficits from its own funding, leading to the decision to close. Around that time the facility received American Rescue Plan Act funds from the City of Everett (approx. $150,000) as well as the County (approx.. $293,520 over two years, from 2022 through 2024) to remain open.
“We’re not experts in early learning; we’re experts in higher education. We were not able to identify any long-term solutions to make it sustainable and now those grants have ended or will be ending,” said Shelby Burke, Vice President of Finance for Everett Community College.
The County-allocated funding ended last October, and the City of Everett funding will be drying up this September.
However, according to Alejandra Wood, the ELC was never allowed to access those COVID relief funds at 100% capacity even after Representative Mary Fosse paid a visit to make sure the dollars were used accordingly.
Everett College has also been receiving state Puget Sound Taxpayer Accountability Account (PSTAA) money since 2021 in the amount of approximately $283,000 ($162,000 of which goes to the ELC), per RCW 43.79.520, but even those funds are not enough to clear the facility’s projected increase in costs, the college said.
“These issues have been going on for some time and there have been challenges on making ends meet, so while it was a fiscal decision it’s also related to the volatility of higher ed funding and educational funding in general right now and making sure we’re putting as many resources as possible toward meeting our mission,” said Kathy Leeker, Vice President of Instruction at Everett Community College. “It’s a really difficult time. With the state budget lowering our allocation, a lot of uncertainty at the federal level, it just means we have to really be careful about making our financial commitments.”
As of now there is no telling what will become of the existing ELC facility. The property is state-owned through the Washington Department of Enterprise Services (DES). DES will be handling the process of leasing out the property after the facility closes. It is Leeker’s hope that another entity will lease the building to continue providing necessary early childcare, particularly considering Snohomish County is famously a childcare desert.
“We’re very hopeful that there will continue to be an early learning center in Snohomish County but we will not be affiliated with it,” said Leeker.
According to Snohomish County Councilman Jared Mead the existing childcare services are far from meeting the County’s needs by the thousands. Part of that reason, Mead said, is its rapid growth without keeping up with childcare slots.
“Washington State is ranked 49th to 50th in the nation as far as childcare to the need. So, Washington is a childcare desert state, and we are in a childcare desert within a childcare desert state,” said Mead.
Mead added that it comes down to workforce (not paying teachers enough), systemically not investing in early childcare learning, and zoning (not allowing childcare services to be zoned in residential areas).
Recently Councilman Nehring and Councilman Jared Mead, who are both fathers, co-sponsored an ordinance to expand early learning childcare services in Snohomish County. Nehring added that access to childcare services is a “big issue” for the county, so the ordinance’s intentions was to make it as easy as possible for families to access early learning programs
“I’m disappointed to hear of the closing of the early learning center. The employees of the center provide a valuable service to the community and the impact of this loss will be felt by many families that depend on early learning programs,” said County Councilman Nate Nehring.
Prior to the pandemic the ELC’s eight classrooms were fully enrolled with approximately 105-106 children. After the pandemic that number dropped to roughly 70 students.
Woods claimed that throughout her 10 years, the college had little to nothing to do with the ELC. Even after successfully securing funding via the state and county, there were no conversations about how to improve overall enrollment.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
