Lack of early education classrooms, state funding discussed

HOOD RIVER — It was a long night for the Hood River County School District board of directors at the Dec. 11 meeting, held at Pine Grove Early Intervention. The agenda covered a wide variety of business, from honoring fall athletic teams — especially girls water polo, who took first in state (5A) for the third year, and boys water polo and boys cross country, both of whom took fourth in state — to an update from the district’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator Megan Ramey.

Ramey told the board that since 2021, she’s written 21 grants totaling $10 million for the program, with 1,800 students participating in bike rodeo in PE and 200 students receiving free bikes thanks to Anson’s Bike Buddies, among other accomplishments.

Another update came from Anne Cole, early learning director, and Anne Carloss, student services director, on early intervention and early childhood special education, both of which are housed at Pine Grove Early Intervention. The program is provided “free to families with eligible infants, toddlers, and preschoolers who have special needs in the areas of speech, language, motor, learning, hearing, vision, self-help and/or socialization” (hoodriver.k12.or.us/departments/early-learning).

The two talked about monetary cuts coming at a time of increased needs and inflation, as well as a workforce shortage and lack of Head Start and Preschool Promise programs in Hood River County.

“Our community, as we have talked about in the past, has an incredible lack of Head Start and Preschool Promise classrooms,” Carloss said. “We did the math — pre-pandemic we had about 13 classrooms running between Early Head Start, Preschool Promise and Head Start. We currently have three [classrooms serving 54 total students].”

The program is in partnership with the school district and is run primarily from state dollars that are distributed through regional hubs; Hood River County is in the David Douglas hub. “The onus is not on David Douglas — it is truly on the state not being able to figure out how much money we have,” she said; the 2025-2027 biennium budget will not be approved until the Oregon Legislature convenes in late January, so exactly how much funding will be allotted is not known.

Still, the two had some positive news, like the site’s community playgroup, free for children 0-5 and held each Friday from 10-11:30 a.m. following the school calendar. They also highlighted Parent Cafés, held periodically through Four Rivers Family Early Learning & Parenting, where parents meet and discuss a variety of topics, with food and childcare provided (more information at fourriversfamily.org/parent-café).

In closing, Cole and Carloss asked for continuing advocacy for adequate state funding (part of Superintendent Bill Newton’s 2024-2025 Legislative Priorities list; see columbiagorgenews.com for previous story).

“It is ridiculous that we are sitting here today without a budget number,” Carloss said. “Who else can operate like that? Because if that budget number comes in lower … we don’t know what we’re going to do.”