‘What about us?’ Evergreen students ask as board mulls $385 million bond to build Highline, other schools
By Eric Mathison
The Highline School Board is expected on June 4 to send to the voters a $385 million bond measure that would fund the rebuilding of Highline High and Des Moines Elementary as well as build two new middle schools.
The bond measure would need a 60 percent approval margin on the Nov. 4 general election ballot to pass.
Highline High would be rebuilt on its current site while Des Moines Elementary would be built on South 240th Street in Zenith, instead of its current site near downtown Des Moines.
Administrators contemplated offering a much cheaper bond option that would not have included Highline High. But they concluded conditions at the high school, built in 1923, had deteriorated to the point where it needed to be replaced.
The two new middle schools would be constructed at the old Manhattan site in Burien and Glacier site in SeaTac. The district plans to move sixth graders into middle schools to help alleviate overcrowding in elementary schools.