Peninsula College has announced its Fort Worden campus will close at the end of the school year. 

Citing financial pressures felt by many educational institutions across the state and projecting a $2.2 million budget deficit for the 2025-26 fiscal year, the college will vacate the Fort Worden building by Sept. 1. 

“This is an extremely difficult decision. We do know it’s the right thing to do,” said Peninsula College President Suzy Ames. “For many months, my team and I were planning for a cut, and once the legislative session was over and the governor signed the budget, it turned out our budget was twice as large as we had originally been working off of. So, that forced us to put on the table every proposal that we had been considering.”

Declining enrollment levels also contributed to the impending closure. 

The college has occupied the space since 2016, following the completion of $6.1 million worth of renovations to Building 202. The 14,000-square-foot building has four general classrooms, a science classroom, a studio/art room, a learning lab, a workforce training room, student study space, reception and advising areas and faculty offices.

Ames said the college is committed to finding a new permanent location in Jefferson County and that its services, including academic advising, financial aid support, and student services, will continue to be available through remote and mobile formats. 

“Short term, we are going to be looking to offer classes at lots of different community spaces, but we have not finalized any of those,” Ames said. “Long term, we will be looking to see where it makes sense for the college to have a campus. Right now, there is a lot of buzz about the sewer and broadband going into Port Hadlock, so we’ll be exploring whether it makes sense for us to be located out there.” 

Ames said the dissolving of the Fort Worden PDA had little to do with the closure. 

“The only thing related to the PDA is that we are no longer locked into a long-term lease,” Ames said. “We were only paying $1 a year. We had a long-standing agreement because we did so many renovations on Building 202, so in exchange, we wouldn’t pay rent.” 

Students currently enrolled or planning to attend fall quarter classes at Fort Worden are encouraged to speak with an advisor.