EVERETT—U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) toured the Machinist Institute’s Little Wings Early Learning Academy with Executive Director Jill Thornton and IAM District 751 President and Little Wings Board Member Jason Chan Tuesday, July 7, ahead of the early learning center’s September opening date.
Little Wings received $1 million in American Rescue Plan funds, which Rep. Larsen supported passage of in 2021 to help Northwest Washington recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have the best aerospace workers in the world who work at Boeing, they build the best airplanes in the world, and now those workers will get the best childcare available to them because of the machinist institute investment,” Rep. Larsen told the Lynnwood Times. “Success makes appearance and this place has made appearance.”
Little Wings Early Learning Academy is an early learning childcare center located just right off Airport Road (2407 106th St SW) in Everett.
The center will offer care and education (with an emphasis on STEM/STEAM learning) from infants to children five years of age though it will also offer school-aged after school, and summer care. Little Wings Early Learning Academy is licensed to serve up to 168 kids.
Cognizant of the region’s affordable childcare issue, tuition at Little Wings is on par, if not less than county averages for childcare, staff says. It will also offer state subsidies and an additional 10% discount to all IAM union members.
When IAM District 751 launched the Machinist Institute – a nonprofit educational institution serving the aerospace, manufacturing, and automotive machinists’ industries – they found there was a shortage in childcare for shiftwork, namely before 6 a.m. and after 6 p.m.
“To solve this problem, the union decided to solve the problem themselves by creating the nonprofit Little Wings,” Little Wings Executive Director Jill Thornton told the Lynnwood Times.
Depending on an engineer’s schedule, they could go into work at 5:30 a.m. or get off at 10 p.m. – windows that are difficult to find available childcare.
A few decades ago, IAM District members approved the union to purchase housing to be kept as low-income housing for the community. Ultimately the union sold these properties to the Seattle Housing Authority and King County Housing Authority to be maintained in perpetuity as low-income housing.
The union took those funds and wanted to put it into training which is what the Machinist Institute was born from.
“Little Wings Early Learning Academy is something we’re very proud of, we’ll be able to serve our community, and our members with this great opportunity to have this childcare and early learning just right up the street from the factory,” IAM District 751 President and Little Wings Board Member Jason Chan told the Lynnwood Times.
Chan informed the Lynnwood Times the childcare center could ultimately operate 24/7 but at the very minimum will be opening at 4 a.m. into the evening for the “second shifters.”
The Little Wings Early Learning Academy is also intended to serve as a training center for early learning educators by partnering with Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center whose students will be onsite gaining hands-on experience for college credits.
“The opportunity to have our early child program train future employees here, and have our culinary program students work in the kitchen, will help them get the real life, hands on, experience they need to be successful and build a resume,” Wes Allen, Executive Director of Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center told the Lynnwood Times.
Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center offers a two-year program for early childhood education where students can receive five college and high school classes (two away from their lead teacher endorsement in early learning), leaving them highly qualified to be employees at Little Wings, or elsewhere.
Little Wings Early Learning Academy will have two classrooms (with a total capacity of 16) or infants aged birth to 11 months, three classrooms (with a capacity for 42) for toddlers aged 12-29 months, and four classrooms for preschoolers (with a total capacity of 80) aged 30-months to 6 years old. There is also an onsite kitchen (serving snacks and three meals a day), a common room, lobby, and playground.
There is also a school age and multiflex room for children aged five to 12.
The education curriculum will revolve around music and creativity, physical challenge, and science and discovery.
Though Little Wings is set to open in September 2026, the exact date is contingent on its licensing and onboarding staff.
The early learning center was funded by the IAM District 751 union, Snohomish County ARPA funds, and the Washington State Department of Commerce.
According to Thornton the level of staffing will depend upon enrollment. For example, the center has the capacity to hold 16 infants, which would require a total of four teachers but once those kids grow older the level of teachers decreases. At minimum, she said, the center should require anywhere between 10 and 15 teachers to open.
Snohomish County is one of the worst areas for childcare access in Washington State, comparative to the number of children who need them, according to Snohomish County Dave Somers. An estimated 80% of residents live in an extreme “childcare desert,” Somers continued.
According to Child Care Aware, there are 62 slots of childcare in the county for every 100 infants, toddlers, or preschoolers, which is far below the state average of 79 slots per 100 children.
Author: Kienan Briscoe
