A recent grant from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation has brought the Renton-based Puget Sound Educational Service District (PSESD) No. 121 one step closer to building and furnishing an early education center in White Center.
Before receiving the grant, the regional educational agency on Oakesdale Avenue Southwest had raised about 85 percent of the funds needed to complete the Greenbridge Early Learning Center.
The $200,000 from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation is a “wonderful boost,” said John Bancroft, assistant to the superintendent for early learning at the PSESD.
When completed in November of this year, Greenbridge Early Learning Center will be part of Greenbridge, an affordable housing development being built by King County Housing Authority in White Center.
Greenbridge Early Learning Center will be an Educare center, or an early childhood center that provides high intensity, comprehensive services. Bancroft says there are only about 10 Educare childhood care centers in the United States.
“This will be a shining example of how important early learning is to children’s later success in school and life,” Bancroft said of the planned center.
The center will house White Center’s Head Start program and provide care for 32 infants and toddlers and 102 preschool children ages 3 and 4. The center will also house a professional development center where White Center’s childcare providers can improve their childcare techniques. Ultimately Bancroft says the center will benefit “all 3,000 of the young children in White Center.”
White Center is one of two communities in Washington identified by Thrive by Five Washington as a place to model how early learning programs can help prepare children for elementary school. Yakima is the other community. Thrive by Five Washington is a public-private partnership focused on increasing early childhood programs.
White Center was selected as one of the two communities because of its diversity and large number of low-income families.
Puget Sound Educational Service District No. 121 is one of nine regional educational agencies serving school districts and state-approved private schools in Washington state. The district serves King and Pierce counties and Bainbridge Island, providing support services and the largest early childhood programs of any organization in the state. The district also runs Head Start and ECap (state funded preschool) programs in Renton and White Center.
The $200,000 PSESD received is just part of the $22.7 million in grants the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation paid to more than 200 area nonprofits in 2008.
ABOUT THE EDUCATION DISTRICT
For more information on Puget Sound Educational Service District, visit www.pgafoundations.com. For more information on Paul G. Allen Family Foundation visit www.psesd.org.
