Crescent Harbor Elementary plans farewell ceremony before renovated campus opens

Crescent Harbor Elementary is asking Oak Harbor to gather one last time around a building that has shaped generations of classroom lessons, performances, family milestones and daily routines since 1961. The school will host a closing ceremony Tuesday, June 3, at 6 p.m. at 330 E Crescent Harbor Road, giving alumni, current and former staff, families and community members a final chance to walk the halls before the current building is demolished.

The evening is being framed as more than a farewell. District leaders say it is meant to honor the school’s past and celebrate the future ahead of the renovated campus, which is expected to open for the 2026-2027 school year. At the ceremony, Crescent Harbor Elementary will also unveil a new logo and mascot, a symbolic handoff as the old building gives way to a new school designed for the next generation of students.

Community members are being asked to help make the event a shared archive as well as a sendoff. The school wants historical artifacts, photos and memorabilia submitted to Sarah Foy so items can be displayed at the ceremony. That invitation reflects the long place Crescent Harbor has held in Oak Harbor, where it has stood for 65 years and, according to KING5 reporting, has largely served children from families connected to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

The transition carries wider significance for Island County because Crescent Harbor Elementary is one of only two Oak Harbor schools eligible for the special military-installation-related grants that are financing the rebuild. Oak Harbor Public Schools says Crescent Harbor Elementary and Hand-in-Hand Early Learning Center/HomeConnection are the only schools in the district that qualify for those grants because of their location on military installations. The district says the rebuilt schools are being funded entirely by state and Department of Defense grants at no additional cost to local taxpayers.

Oak Harbor Public Schools says it has secured more than $164 million in state and federal funding for the Crescent Harbor and Hand-in-Hand/HomeConnection rebuild projects. Earlier district messaging placed the total near $30 million and said the money included more than $136 million from the Department of Defense’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation and $26 million from Washington State’s Defense Community Compatibility Account. For Oak Harbor families, the June 3 ceremony marks the final community gathering before demolition and the first public step toward a new campus already tied to the story of the old one.