Information from the Highline School District

A community-led committee of Highline residents, staff, and students spent the past year intensely studying the question of how to address the need for new or renovated schools. Wednesday, the Highline School Board signaled its agreement with the committee’s recommendations. The school board introduced a resolution to put a bond measure on the November ballot to fund new school construction.

This move recognizes the many hours of study and discussion by the Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) -- the group of 39 community members who met for 10 months to craft a long-range facilities plan and bond proposal. The bond being considered by the school board contains all the projects and the amount recommended in Phase 1 of plan developed by CFAC:

• Security improvements at all schools in the district.
• Rebuild Highline High School, preserving as much of the façade as structurally and financially feasible.
• Begin design of new Evergreen and Tyee campuses.
• Build new school on the district-owned Zenith site to house Des Moines students, with room for growing enrollment.
• Build a new middle school on the district-owned Glacier site.
• Replenish the capital fund, which will be depleted in 2017-18. This fund covers critical needs and emergency repairs.
• Make required improvements to Olympic so it can be used to house students during HHS construction and future school construction projects.

CFAC’s plan lays out three phases of improvements over 15-18 years. Each phase would require a voter-approved bond to fund construction.

“On behalf of the entire board, I want to thank the committee members for their months of meetings and examining the needs of our schools. The result of their work is a bond package that truly reflects the will of the community,” said School Board President Michael Spear.

Why run the bond in November? Three reasons:
Higher than average voter turnout is expected, due to the presidential election, so the vote will more accurately reflect the community’s desires.
Sharing the ballot with other measures reduces the costs the district must pay the county for the election.
With construction costs rising, the sooner construction begins the less expensive it will be.
The proposed school bond prioritizes facilities in the worst condition and adds classrooms to address overcrowding and make room for class size reduction. It also includes dollars for initial design work on future new high schools at Evergreen and Tyee campuses.

The board will vote on the resolution at a special school board meeting scheduled for July 20, 6:00 p.m. in the Highline High School library.

Review CFAC’s presentation to the school board and listen to a complete audio recording by visiting the CFAC web section (highlineschools.org/CFAC).