Northwest Regional Education Service District (NWRESD) will close on a new building located near the intersection of NE Cornell Road and NE Aloclek Drive in Hillsboro this month.

The two-story, 51,140 square foot space – the size of three NHL hockey rinks – will house approximately a dozen classrooms, a large assessment center and professional learning spaces for early care professionals.

The two-story building, which was constructed in 2001, includes 276 parking spots, has a bike score of 77 and is close to a bus line. It is also adjacent to the Rock Creek Trail. Photos courtesy of LoopNet.

“Northwest Oregon families desperately need a robust early learning and care system and we couldn’t be more thrilled for the opportunity to make significant strides toward this vision” says Dan Goldman, superintendent. “This didn’t happen by accident – I am grateful to our dedicated board of directors, our NWRESD early childhood education colleagues, and our skilled fiscal team who facilitated a successful bond sale and secured $15 million for the project.”

In addition to facility expansion, NWRESD will add an additional evaluation team. Children under five who may need special education services, such as speech-language services, autism services or occupational therapy, are first referred for an evaluation to determine their eligibility to receive services through the free Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education program. The faster and earlier a child and their family start receiving services, the better prepared they will be for their K-12 school experience. The addition of an evaluation team will speed up the process for families and add to expertise in autism and second-language evaluations.


The latest addition to NWRESD’s facilities is a two-story, 51,140-square-foot building located at 3030 NE Aloclek Drive in Hillsboro. It is located near the intersection of Cornell and Cornelius Pass roads. 

Throughout the 2023-24 school year, NWRESD staff will partner with an architectural firm, families, community partners and its educational staff to design the educational facility. Making sure the building has an inclusive design that is welcoming to everyone will be a major focus of the renovation. Experience working with inclusion design experts will be part of the evaluation process of the architectural firms who apply to work on this project. The project will also involve a reconfiguration of NWRESD’s nearby Washington Service Center to maximize usage of both facilities to meet community needs. Staff and students will begin occupying the Aloclek property by the end of summer 2024.

“Not only will we increase the number of children we can serve, but we will have the opportunity to explore new partnerships and collaborations that can occur in this space,” says Stacy Rager, incoming executive director of early learning at NWRESD. “Throughout our dedicated planning year, we will ask staff, community-based organizations, public agencies and most importantly families with young children, about ways we can design a space that will have the most positive impact on the lives of children in Hillsboro.”

The new building will triple the number of children served at the current Hillsboro Early Childhood Center, located at 759 SE Washington Street. In total, roughly 280 children are expected to be served at the new facility on a weekly basis, including 200 children with special developmental needs.

“Already, we are so excited about some of the possibilities we can see in this property,” says Stacy. “We will have more secure outdoor play space, safer traffic control, adequate parking, and most importantly, more room to design supportive and inclusive learning environments for our kids."