Leslee Barnes Resigns as Preschool for All Director

Leslee Barnes, director of preschool and early learning at Multnomah County, submitted her resignation Thursday, effective immediately.

Her resignation comes in the wake of a story WW published Tuesday that revealed a preschool Barnes owns, Village Childcare Enterprises LLC, collected $833,494 from the state between the 2020-21 and 2022-23 school years. Those dollars were meant to fund 63 slots for Preschool Promise (a state-funded child care program for at-need families) at her school, but Village Childcare filled only nine of those seats during that time.

The funding Barnes’ preschool received came from the state, not the county—Preschool Promise is entirely separate from Preschool for All, which Barnes oversaw. But the revelation of grant awards she collected from the state raised questions about Barnes’ oversight of the county program, which finished last year with more than $500 million in reserves.

Barnes’ preschool was one of four flagged by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office in an investigation of Preschool Promise made public July 23. Award and enrollment data from the Oregon Department of Early Learning and Care, which WW obtained through education watchdog Jeff Myers, corresponded directly with “Provider 2” in the state investigation.

When reached for comment Tuesday, Barnes told WW she’d collected the funds to continue providing her students full services during the pandemic. She added she thought her spending was not “wasteful” as the investigation had claimed, but in line with expectations from DELC. “It has no bearing on my role [as director for the county],” she’d said.

As of her resignation, county spokeswoman Julie Sullivan-Springhetti says Barnes’ final salary was $164,832. She had served as director since April 1, 2021.

The resignation comes shortly after the county opened an internal investigation Monday into Barnes’ actions, and after two county commissioners, Shannon Singleton and Julia Brim-Edwards, publicly called for her resignation. One of those commissioners, Brim-Edwards, told WW that “a resignation does not eliminate the need for an independent review.”

Mohammad Bader, director of the Department of County Human Services, appointed DCHS deputy director Rachel Pearl to serve as interim division director in Barnes’ place.

“In her role, Deputy Director Pearl has worked closely with the Preschool for All program,” Sullivan-Springhetti says. “All told, she has more than 25 years’ combined experience in program development, design, leadership, and public service with a focus on services for children, youth, and families.”