Preschool Proposes Second Local Site
By The Register-Guard, Eugene, Ore.
May 13–SPRINGFIELD — TheRelief Nursery hopes to replicate its Eugene therapeutic preschool on South 42nd Streetnear Mount Vernon Elementary School.
The nonprofit agency is beginning talks with Springfield planners about how best to situate a new 14,000-square-foot building with about a half-dozen classrooms, counseling rooms, a playground and a kitchen.
The proposal calls for a building that’s only 1,000 square feet larger than the nursery’s 15-year-old building in Eugene, but it could serve many more children because it could accommodate both morning and afternoon preschool sessions.
The agency has yet to determine the project’s cost, Executive Director Irene Alltucker said. The money would come from a capital campaign that’s tentatively scheduled to begin in the fall.
Construction dates are similarly undetermined.
The Relief Nursery serves about 1,200 Eugene-Springfield preschoolers a year, and about one-third of them come from Springfield. Many of those are taken by bus to the agency in southwest Eugene.
About 100 families are on the agency’s waiting list at any given time, she said.
The Relief Nursery model — including child therapy and early childhood education; parent training and substance abuse treatment; and respite and emergency outreach for stressed-out families — has drawn national recognition.
The agency has been replicated 11 times in Oregon so far, and two new centers in Plano and Austin, Texas, are under way.
The Springfield Relief Nursery would be governed by the same board of directors and administrators. As many as 10 new classroom teachers would be hired to work at the center.
The new building is planned for 1.3 acres that the Relief Nursery purchased for $248,836 from the city of Springfield in October.
The land is zoned and designated for commercial uses, which include both childcare and counseling, senior planner Mark Metzger said.
Additionally, the Relief Nursery is hoping to buy a half-acre of Springfield School District land to the west of the site.
“They think they would have a better operation if they could negotiate a sale,” Metzger said. “They want to have adequate circulation for buses to come onto the property to drop kids off as opposed to dropping them off on the street edge.”
The school board is required to approve any such land sale.
“If that does not work I’m sure they will come back with a different configuration,” Metzger said.
Alltucker said Springfield leaders are enthusiastic about the project, including Mayor Sid Leiken, schools Superintendent Nancy Golden and business leaders such as Hamilton Construction, which has donated money, Alltucker said.
“The Springfield community has been nothing but wonderful,” she said.
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