At the Burke (Image: Capitol Hill Cooperative Preschool)

There’s an alumni party coming up on Capitol Hill for generations of Seattle city kids.

After 70 years of helping little ones grow up into Seattle big kids, Capitol Hill Cooperative Preschool is closing its doors at the end of this school year due to low enrollment numbers. Its closure will be a challenge for some families but it is also a sign that things have changed when it comes to early childhood education in Seattle. Some of the older models like Seattle’s one-time robust community of co-op preschools are falling by the wayside.

“We are not alone in this struggle, as several other co-ops in the greater Seattle area are unfortunately closing for similar reasons,” Shannon King, CHCP chair said.

King says low enrollment numbers “have made it challenging for CHCP to continue operating.”

Those involved with the 10th Ave E school that shares a building with the Harbor Anglican Church just a short walk from Volunteer Park say the expansion of the Seattle Preschool Program through Seattle Public Schools and other community-based providers along with the expansion of Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program and Head Start has drastically increased childhood care and learning opportunities.

But they say families might also miss out on the co-op experience. The cooperative preschools model allows for kids to learn social, emotional and intellectual skills and for parents to improve their parenting skills, be involved in their children’s education, and form a community, co-op families say.

“It’s a great way to form a community really early on in your child’s life and receive a lot of support for the teachers and the parent educators,” teacher Elizabeth de Forest said.

(Image: Capitol Hill Cooperative Preschool)

However, more Seattle families in 2023 need full day, every day preschool due to their jobs which the cooperative model doesn’t fit.

“It’s been great families, great fellow teachers,” de Forest said. “I love working with the parents as a mentor and it’s also given me the opportunity to teach with a lot of different ages. It was really just an amazing experience.”

During the pandemic, the school had around 40 families and it has slowly dropped since. It wasn’t until the end of the 2022 school year where their numbers dropped from around 30 families to less than 10. A lot of the younger kids ages 1-2 were not moving up.

de Forest is currently the only teacher at CHCP this school year. She has been teaching at CHCP since 2014 and has been a teacher for almost 35 years.

“I certainly have missed just to support having colleagues,” de Forest said. “It was definitely a little lonely.”

Another factor behind the school’s shutdown is the closure of Seattle Central’s early childhood program

In Washington state, most of the community colleges oversee the cooperative preschools within their geographical location. Seattle Central College used to oversee the CHCP through their early childhood program until the program got shut down and CHCP transferred over to North Seattle College. Parenting classes were originally held at the Seattle Central campus location in Capitol Hill but once the program ended it’s unclear whether that had an impact on CHCP.

The impacts of the pandemic was also a difficult factor to measure. “My feeling is a lot of people came out of the pandemic feeling like they didn’t have enough bandwidth and the thought of being involved in the co-op and the work they would have to put into it might have felt daunting,” de Forest said.

It is also a housing issue, de Forest feels. The rising costs of homes and living expenses around Capitol Hill has made it difficult to raise families.

The majority of current school families live in townhomes or apartments and many of them are moving out of Seattle at the end of the school year, de Forest said.

Additionally, most of the families have one child, so there was no “next baby coming up,” de Forest said.

So, after 70 years of helping to raise those babies, the Capitol Hill Co-op Preschool will graduate its last class and say goodbye at the end of June with a bittersweet goodbye party.

“Capitol Hill Preschool Coop is closing and we would like to gather all those who have attended or loved this darling preschool community,” the invite reads. “Please come eat food and toast to the end of an era.”

The party is being held on a Saturday which should make it easier for working families to attend.

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