YAKIMA, Wash. -- Construction on an early learning center slated for southeast Yakima won't start this spring as planned.

Ready by Five and its partners had hoped to break ground on the Educare project during the first half of 2010. But construction has been postponed due to the downturn in the economy, including federal and state budgets cuts.

"We're putting it on hold right now," Ready by Five executive director Helen Marieskind said Tuesday. "Obviously, it's not the best of economic times to be building a big building."

The Educare center was to be built through Ready by Five, the early learning initiative primarily funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Thrive by Five Washington. The initiative aims to prepare Yakima's youngest and poorest children for kindergarten through an array of programs and services.

Those programs and services -- in their second year -- are going strong, according to Marieskind. And they will continue to remain in place, even though plans for the Educare center are on hold.

"I think it was an initial disappointment," said Stacey Drake, director of early learning for the Yakima School District and director of children's programs for Ready by Five. "But now there's a new energy about creating something different."

Board members and funders will be meeting during the next several months to make new plans.

"We're regrouping," Drake said. "You don't need a big, fancy building to get kids ready for school. I think we can build off what we've already done. It will still happen; it just won't happen in that building."

Total construction costs were expected to run between $15 million to $16 million.

The Gates Foundation and the Buffett Early Childhood Fund were planning to pay for half the cost. And Ready by Five was going to seek about $6 million from state and federal sources as well as private grants. Even without the Educare center, Yakima remains one of only two Ready by Five early learning demonstration communities, or pilot sites, in the state. The local target area covers roughly 5.5 square miles on the east end of town.

About 600 children were served last year through Ready by Five's programs and services. Slightly more are being served now, in year two.

Offerings include the Nurse Family Partnership, which serves low-income, first-time mothers who are less than 28 weeks pregnant; Enhanced First Steps, which aids pregnant and postpartum low-income women and their families; Parents As Teachers, which helps pregnant women and parents of children up to age 5 learn about child development and parenting skills; and the Kindergarten Transition Program, which prepares east Yakima children to enter the Yakima School District.

The other target area is in White Center, an ethnically diverse and largely low-income unincorporated community just south of Seattle.

Both sites were chosen in 2006.

Construction on an Educare facility in White Center hasn't been affected. Work on the White Center facility started in October 2008. Staff members plan to move in at the end of the month and welcome their first students on Jan. 4.

In Yakima's target area, plans called for the Educare center to be on a portion of the Adams Elementary School campus at 723 S. Eighth St. Construction was expected to take about a year.

Originally, plans called for the local center to accommodate 191 children up to age 5. That number was recently cut to 150.

"The cost of operating a center at the level of quality we wanted to ... really must be underwritten by federal and state dollars," said Marieskind, who learned a couple of weeks ago that the project didn't receive the federal funds organizers had been hoping for.

With the state facing its own budget problems as well as the continuing recession, board members decided it was prudent to stall the project.

"It was a responsible decision," Marieskind said. Now, "We're exploring other options. A huge amount depends on federal and state plans to further support early learning."

A public capital campaign for the construction of the center hadn't quite gotten under way. Still, Ready by Five had managed to raise approximately $1.5 million toward building the facility. Washington Fruit & Produce Co. contributed a six-figure gift.

If donors want their money back, Marieskind said, it will be refunded. Or, they can wait and see what new plans Ready by Five educators and administrators come up with.

"We're still brainstorming," Marieskind said.

They're talking about increasing -- maybe even adding to -- current programs and services, thanks to additional funding anticipated to be arriving shortly from the Gates Foundation.

Locally, Ready by Five's roots go back to 2006, when Thrive by Five Washington and the Gates Foundation gave an initial grant of nearly $1.2 million to pay for planning.

Ready by Five also receives some funding from the state Department of Early Learning as well as some private grant money. The annual operating budget is about $4 million.

"I think it's really important to note that this (Educare center) was a very small part of the (Ready by Five) program -- even though it was so big and so visible and so expensive," Marieskind said.

A schematic still hangs on the wall in her office, showing a colorful, Spanish-style building with a courtyard and belltower.

Marieskind plans to leave it there.

"We're still hoping to have a big demonstration site at some point," she said.

* Adriana Janovich can be reached at 509-577-7653 or ajanovich@yakimaherald.com.

* For more information, call Ready by Five at 509-853-2052. On the Web: www.readybyfive.org.