Everett child care center closes even as judge says college must observe open meetings law

EVERETT – More than a few tears fell as families and staff exchanged hugs and goodbyes Wednesday afternoon at the Early Learning Center at Everett Community College.

Hours earlier, a Snohomish County Superior Court judge said that the college’s board must comply with Washington’s open meetings law after it failed to hold a public hearing and vote before deciding to close the center.

A special meeting of the board of trustees was scheduled for Thursday afternoon. But the center hosted its last day of classes on Wednesday and won’t reopen for classes unless the college says otherwise.

“There’s some happiness, and there’s some nervousness of … what’s going to happen next, but still, we have hope,” Aleena Richie, whose two kids attended the center, said after the judge’s decision.

When college officials announced the closure in early May, they pointed to what they described as a structural and growing budget deficit, sending families of the roughly 70 kids enrolled in the center scrambling to find care amid a scarcity of child-care providers.

Parents have pushed back, taking the issue to court. Richie, who is studying early childhood education at the college, had asked the court to compel the college’s board of trustees and administrators to comply with the state’s Open Public Meetings Act. She argued that the board of trustees tried to sidestep public comment and a public vote in a “knowing violation” of the law. Her lawyer: another parent at the center.

A lawyer for the college argued that the authority to make the decision was properly delegated to the college president by the board of trustees under state law.

Superior Court Judge Patrick Moriarty said from the bench Wednesday morning that he believed the decision to close the center was subject to the state’s open public meetings law.

“To simply say that the board of trustees can delegate such a significant, impactful decision to the president and circumvent the Open Public Meetings Act does not sit well with this court,” he said.

However, Moriarity dismissed the college administrators as defendants because they are not part of the college’s governing body.

A spokesperson for the college did not respond to a request for comment from the Seattle Times on Wednesday.

College administrators have cited the loss of some public grant funding, as well as growing operating costs, in the decision to close the center. As of late May, they were aiming to lease the space to another child-care provider.

Workers at the Early Learning Center generally earn more than the average early childhood educator in Washington state – a profession that broadly faces low wages and sees high turnover. The relatively higher pay at the Early Learning Center was one, but not the only, factor in the funding shortfall, a college official told The Seattle Times in May.

Richie is pregnant and her third child is due next month. She had already secured a spot at the center for the baby. If the center closes, according to court documents, she’ll likely have to drop out of school. Her family is on waitlists for other centers that accept the grant that pays for her children’s care, but no spots are available.

Richie and her daughters, who are 4 and 1, struggle with homelessness, and they couch-surf or stay with friends and family. It felt like the center was their home “more than any couch or spare room we were staying in,” she said in a court declaration.

Learning that the college was shutting down the center “felt like an eviction,” she said.

“They took my home from me,” Richie’s declaration stated. “And they did it without a discussion, without asking how it would impact me, and with very little notice.”

Laura Matthews, a lead teacher at the center, said that teachers are used to saying goodbye as kids move on to kindergarten, or even down the hall – but this is “very different.”

She said she heard about the judge’s decision just as she greeted a TV news crew Wednesday morning.

“It’s nice to see the accountability, that the college is being held accountable,” she said.

Rosa Reed’s son has attended the Early Learning Center since he was 2 and a half. Now 5, he’ll go to kindergarten in the fall.

“For me, it’s good that he’s off to kindergarten, but for the rest of the families that have to look for child care, it’s probably harder,” she said.