Regional leaders sign early childhood cooperation pact in Pendleton

Leaders from across Northeastern Oregon will gather July 28 in Pendleton to sign a declaration of cooperation aimed at improving early relational health for pregnant people, infants and young children. The InterMountain Education Service District is part of the effort, placing Union County families inside a regional early-childhood network that already spans county lines.

InterMountain ESD serves Umatilla, Morrow, Union and Baker counties and says it has about 235 employees supporting nearly 23,000 students in 18 component school districts. The district also says early intervention and early childhood services are already part of its work, which gives the new declaration an existing base in schools, family support and child development services rather than starting from scratch.

The regional structure reaches into Pendleton through Blue Mountain Early Learning Hub, which is listed as an IMESD affiliate and is located at 2001 SW Nye Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801. Blue Mountain Kids is also listed as an IMESD affiliate. For families in Union County, that matters because the nearest point of contact for some early-childhood support often sits outside their own town or district, and the organizations involved already work across the same regional map.

IMESD’s social media posts say the district’s early learning team will gather with partners from across the region for the July 28 ceremony, and one post says former Gov. John Kitzhaber will feature in the official Declaration of Cooperation ceremony. The move points to a public commitment rather than a one-off announcement, with education leaders, early learning partners and regional agencies aligning around the same goal.

The effort also fits a broader Oregon policy framework. The state’s Early Learning Council includes leaders from the Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Department of Human Services, Oregon Department of Education and the Department of Early Learning and Care, showing that early-childhood coordination is already embedded in state government. In Eastern Oregon, IMESD says it has served the region since 1863, a long institutional reach that now carries into the cooperation pact taking shape in Pendleton.