By Tim Clifford

On Feb.12 a count of the ballots collected showed that the Highline School district levy will pass with over 58% of the vote while the bond measure is on track to fail with a current count of 54.65 %. Votes are still being counted at this time with a final tally to be announced in the coming days.

Voter ballots were collected on Feb. 10.

With a majority of the votes having now been counted it would be nothing short of miraculous for the final count to approve the bond measure. The vote for levies is required to surpass 50% while bond measures are required to tally 60% or more.

A similar bond measure for the school district also failed to pass last November by a mere 215 votes.

Proponents were hopeful this time around with the new bond measure having been shaved down by approximately $9 million dollars from the previous package.

If the bond measure had passed over $370 million dollars would have been used to fix crumbling interiors, leaking ceilings, and outdated construction that plague many facilities throughout the Highline School district. To supplement the hefty cost an increase in taxes for local property owners would have been required.

As it stands the levy that has passed will allow for the current operating costs allotted to the district to continue for another three years.

“Our job now is to find a solution to our overcrowding that is least harmful to our students. Like other districts in King County that have failed bonds, we will have to consider portables on play fields, double shifting, and busing students out of their neighborhoods,” wrote Superintendent Susan Enfield on the Highline Schools website of the results.

There are no immediate plans to present another bond measure but immediate consideration of the issue of overcrowding is now on the minds of school officials.

“In terms of the bond we have a sobering reality ahead of us in terms of overcrowding for the next few years. We’re going to have to have some tough conversations with our community and ask them to help us find solutions with the overcrowding that is going to be our reality for the next few years,” said Communications Officer Catherine Carbone Rogers.

“We’re going to need to find a solution that is the least impactful on our students’ education.”

Money from the bond measure was to be used to supplement brick and mortar costs to repair and enlarge facilities that are in some cases over a century old. According to Rogers these repairs would not only have updated the buildings but made them more capable of handling the ever-growing student population.

“We’re going to have to consider putting portables on our playing fields, if we can get permission from the city to do that. We are already maxed out on our portables on all of our campuses, our elementary school campuses.

We have to bus kids out of their neighborhoods to less crowded schools already but then in a short period of time there won’t be any less crowded schools,” explained Rogers.

One option that is being considered would be double shifting for yearlong schools. This is an option that would be years out and considered if portable space was no longer available.

A schedule of upcoming meetings concerning the failure of the bond measure and future action is expected to go online soon.