Olympic Interim School

Student cuts ribbon at Olympic Interim Site.

Olympic Interim School, Opened for Highline High School, September 4, 2019

With passage of the 2016 bond, we renovated the Olympic site to serve as an interim school location. It is serving our students and staff in multiple ways, providing space during construction projects and for the launch of new schools:

Highline High School students attended school at the Olympic site over the course of two years during the construction of HHS, from fall 2019 through spring 2021. (Distance learning due to covid interrupted the full use, however staff continued to use the site for teaching and for pick-up and drop-off of classroom materials, books and projects.)
Olympic became the temporary home of the new Maritime High School in 2021-22.
Highline Virtual Academy and Highline Virtual Elementary staff joined Maritime High School at Olympic in 2022-23. Virtual schools' staff will be move to another site for the 2023-24 school year.
Olympic will continue to be the temporary home for Maritime High School in 2023-24, while school partners seek a new location.
Tyee High School will also use Olympic as an interim site in 2023-24 and 2024-25, while a new Tyee is under construction. When the new Tyee opens in fall 2025, Pacific Middle School will use the Olympic site as an interim location in 2025-26 and 2026-27, while a new Pacific is constructed.

Site Location: 615 South 200th Street, Des Moines

Timeline

UPDATE: Feb. 7, 2018--This timeline has been updated to reflect that HHS will now move in during the summer of 2019.

Planning & Design | January 2017 - June 2017

Bid & Award | July - September 2017

Construction | October 2017 - October 2019

Substantial Completion | October 2018

Final Completion | November 2018

Moving in Phase | January - September 2019

School Starts | September 2019

Designs & Plans

Renovations include fresh paint inside and out, new flooring, landscaping, renovated gym floors, lighting, new built-in reception and work areas, signage and hundreds of steel plates to attach the walls to the foundations of the three original buildings to meet seismic safety codes. Portable classrooms were added to the site to increase capacity and to replace a large section of the center building.

The renovated Olympic Interim Site features:

47 new portable classroom buildings including:
- 7 science classroom buildings
- 5 special education classroom buildings
- Individual heating and air conditioning units
- Elevated metal walkways and ADA-accessible ramps
4 portable restroom buildings plus multiple restrooms in the original buildings
- Includes ADA-accessible restrooms in original buildings and in one of the portable restroom buildings
3 renovated original buildings including:
- Building A
  - Gym
  - Auxillary gym
  - Cafeteria
  - Kitchen
  - Athletics locker rooms and offices
  - Music
  - Performance arts
- Building B
  - Woodshop
  - Art
  - Ceramics
  - Computer technology
- Building C
  - Main office
  - Library
  - Special education classrooms
  - Administrative spaces
  - Staff room

Small image of Olympic Interim School Site Plan showing portable classrooms where Building B existed. — Olympic Interim School, Site Plan, March 2018

Download Olympic Interim School Site Plan, March 2018 (pdf)

Background

Constructed in 1955 as a junior high school and later converted to an elementary school, in recent years the facility housed Mount Rainier High School students and Raisbeck Aviation High School students while their schools were under construction.

Before Highline High School students move in, we are required to make additional seismic improvements to meet current code requirements.

In addition, portable classrooms will be added to the site to increase capacity and to replace a large section of the center building. The timeline has been updated to host HHS students for two years instead of three. HHS students will attend school at the Olympic Interim School for two years, from fall 2019 until spring 2021.