Meridian School District shares plans to address child-care deserts in Whatcom County

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a vocal advocate for addressing a shortage of child care options in Washington, visited the site of the proposed early learning center on Monday in Whatcom County.

Plans are underway to create the Whatcom Early Learning Center in the Meridian School District, which will use the site to offer a solution to child care deserts in the rural parts of the county, according to the Whatcom County Early Learning Center information guide.

The center plans to have space for up to 120 children who are infants through 5-years-old. There would be extended hours and days of operation as a way to support working families.

“This is exactly what we need to be doing. We need child care available for people to go to work. We need to train people to be child-care providers and we have to have facilities that are accessible to people in their own communities, and this facility is exactly what that’s all about,” said Murray, D-Washington, during a visit Monday to Whatcom County.

There also is a proposal for infant to early childhood mental health services due to a prevalence in mental disorders in children as identified by the state.

“A meta-analysis of studies published between 2006 & 2020 estimated a 20.1% prevalence for diagnosable mental disorders in children ages 1-7,” the guide said.

The Meridian School District will also serve as a place to have the proposed Whatcom County Skills Center, which would increase career and technical education opportunities for students. This is done through a partnership with the Northwest Career and Technical Academy which has its own skills center in Skagit County, according to the Meridian School District website.

The school district was awarded $2 million by Whatcom County through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act to establish the early learning center. It is also awaiting federal funding of $4 million to be approved by Congress, which was requested by Murray. Once that is approved, an additional $7.5 million have to be collected to fulfill the project’s cost of $13.5 million.

“This is a connection that stems from establishing a skills center that will serve all Whatcom County schools. When we did the feasibility study, we discovered there’s a large number of women who aren’t in the workforce because of child care,” said Meridian Schools Superintendent James Everett.

Murray met with Everett and Lynette Brower, director of the Northwest Career and Technical Academy, to discuss the plans.

Prior to Murray’s visit to the future site of the early learning center, she toured a number of small businesses in Bellingham to discuss revitalization efforts and visited the Rural Broadband Project site to talk about expanding internet access in the county.

Murray told the Bellingham Herald that once the Covid-19 pandemic hit, a lot of child-care centers were being shut down. Many parents could not find child care or places to work and the problem soon ballooned into a crisis.

According to the guide, over 85% of Whatcom County businesses are challenged by staffing due to a lack of access to early learning and child care facilities. Everett said the Whatcom Early Learning Center would help bring more families back into the workforce.

“At approximately 10,000 square-feet, this center would provide an infant room, two toddler preschool classrooms, a transitional kindergarten room, ancillary service areas and an adult classroom for skills center and college students,” the website states.

The Whatcom Early Learning Center is slated to be ready in 2026, the website said.