Preschools have until July 1 to vacate North City Elementary building

The Shoreline School District has confirmed that an agreement has been reached to extend the date for three Shoreline Community College co-op preschools to vacate the North City Elementary school building.

The preschools - North City, Shorenorth, and Shoreline Cooperative, have been housed at the former North City Elementary School, which was closed by the Shoreline School District in 2006-07 due to low enrollment at the time.

See previous article.

Enrollment is climbing in the District, classrooms are crowded, and the North City building will be reopened as a district elementary school. The preschools were given notice that their leases would end.

The move-out date had originally been set at June 1, based on construction schedules. The preschools protested that the June 1 date falls the day after the preschools close for the summer. The tight timeline would have made it impossible to finish the year in place, said preschool parents and staff, without shortening the spring quarter class schedules.

They now have an additional month - to July 1.

The preschools face a more serious dilemma in finding local space. There are very limited options due to today’s strong real-estate market combined with a mission to keep program tuition affordable for families.

Officials say each preschool is looking for approximately 2,000 square feet of space if they move to separate locations, or about 6,000 or more square feet altogether if they move to a single shared location.

Information on possible new sites to lease and other recommendations or offers of assistance should be directed to North City Cooperative Preschool or SCC Parent Education Coordinator Pollie McCloskey.