In Our View: Hough Pool’s Metamorphosis

A few years ago, as the fate of what was then Hough Pool was hanging in the balance, The Columbian noted editorially: “As an old saying goes, ‘If nothing ever changed, there would be no butterflies.'”

That seems appropriate now as the Hough Early Learning Center prepares to take flight just north of downtown Vancouver. Inhabiting the site of the former pool, the learning center will provide an educational opportunity for 140 low-income preschool students enrolled in the state’s Early Childhood Education Assistance Program.

The metamorphosis has been long and arduous. Hough Pool was born in 1997 out of the generosity of Paul Christensen and the nonprofit Hough Foundation. It was a favorite of neighborhood residents but proved to be financially unsustainable and closed in 2010. Local leaders long tried to revive the facility, noting its importance not just as a pool but as a community center, yet those efforts eventually proved fruitless.

Which brings us to the rebirth of the building at 18th and Esther streets. Educational Service District 112 bought the facility for $150,000 and spent another $1.5 million renovating it. With the help of a grant from the state’s early education program, the district is preparing to unveil the reconfigured building and its new program. A grand opening is scheduled for 10 a.m. today, and the first day of school is planned for Sept. 10.

In the process, the Hough Early Learning Center will serve as a beautiful butterfly that benefits local residents. As the website for the Hough Foundation, the building’s former owner, notes: “Our vision is for a healthy, thriving community transformed by empowered citizens who are actively engaged in the creation of an environment where children and families learn, grow and strengthen their connections to one another.”

It is difficult to imagine a facility that meshes with that mission better than an early learning center. Preschool learning and kindergarten opportunities have become a focus of education leaders throughout the country as the importance of such programs has become clearer and clearer. Numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of early learning in preparing children for school, providing a foundation that pays dividends throughout their educational careers. The National Association for the Education of Young Children has stated: “We can invest now in our children and families and enjoy long-term savings, with a more vibrant nation of healthy, achieving children and more stable families. Or, we can fail to make the investment and pay the price: Increased delinquency, greater educational failures, lowered productivity, less economic competitiveness, and fewer adults prepared to be effective, loving parents to the next generation of children.” Along those lines, Washington has mandated a move toward full-day kindergarten and has approved funding to bolster preschool education.

All of which makes the transformation of Hough Pool into a school particularly important. While the pool offered recreation and lessons and swim clubs aimed at children, the early learning center will carry on that mission in a different form.

In 2010, The Columbian wrote editorially: “For more than a decade the residents of the Hough community in west Vancouver have been served, strengthened and connected by their neighborhood pool.” Years from now, ideally, the same will be said about the Hough Early Learning Center, a butterfly about to emerge from its cocoon.