PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College’s tennis courts will soon be gone, making way for a new Allied Health and Early Childhood Development Center.

A public groundbreaking ceremony for the new center will take place at 4 p.m. Aug. 18 behind the campus at 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd., Peninsula College President Luke Robins told about 20 people at the Port Angeles Business Association on Tuesday morning.

Construction fences will go up behind the college today to begin the removal of the tennis courts and relocation of some electrical equipment, he said.

The $23 million project will house the college’s medical arts classrooms, child development classrooms and an on-site preschool.

The two-story, 41,650-square-foot structure will house the programs now operating in Buildings L and LE.

Building L, built in 1980, and LE, built in 1992, will be torn down after construction and replaced with landscaping.

The project is expected to last 18 months.

More than 75 percent of the aging campus, built in 1964, has been replaced in the past 15 years.

The college also recently completed a new Forks campus, and work is underway to remodel a former barracks at Fort Worden to establish an updated campus in Port Townsend, Robins said.

Peninsula College is the result of a trend that began with an explosion of community college openings in the 1960s and ’70s, at its height opening a new community college per week for two years, he said.

Robins said today’s community colleges are facing new challenges, including fluctuating enrollment, declining state funding and students who have to overcome serious obstacles to earn the education they desire.

Enrollment down

Enrollment is down because of a general economic recovery and a dwindling population of young people, he said.

When the economy is down, a lot of people decide it is a good time to go back to school for a new certificate or retraining for a new career, and fresh high school graduates may seek the less expensive community college option for their first two years to reduce the overall cost before transferring to a four-year university.

Peninsula College’s enrollment reached a high of 2,012 full-time enrollment in 2010-11 and fell to 1,757 for the 2014-15 school year.

Since the economy has begun to recover, people are going back to work, Robins said.

State funding per student has dropped each year, he said.

He expects that when the dictates of the McCleary decision are fully implemented, community college funding will be further drained.

The McCleary decision is a state Supreme Court ruling that requires the state to fully fund kindergarten-through-12th-grade public education.

Robins said some other states, such as Arizona, have cut much deeper.

Arizona eliminated funding for the state’s three largest community colleges and replaced that funding with local tax districts, he said.

At about the same time, he said, Oregon announced free tuition for recent high school graduates at Oregon community colleges.

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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5070, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.