Frequently Asked Questions

We are going to be busy during summer 2025, and we couldn't be more excited about the reasons!

1. Evergreen High School moves out of its existing buildings and into its new school building next door. 

2. Tyee High School moves from the Olympic Interim Site into its new school building at the Tyee campus. 

3. Pacific Middle School moves to the Olympic Interim Site for two years, during construction of its new building.

We are working on a way to allow more access by community members to the new Sylvester track and field, outside of school hours and school use. We plan to add a smaller gate and automatic locking mechanism, like the system at the Highline High School tennis courts at the Sunnydale Site. Our security staff will add Sylvester Field to their routine each evening to ensure the field is cleared after it closes.

Security fences around our new synthetic turf fields and athletic facilities are one way we protect our community’s significant investment in athletic facilities for students. We also recognize the benefits of free play and access to recreational facilities for youth and community members of all ages. 

We received a permit, and during the first week of December 2024, began demolition of the main office/gym (100 building) that was damaged beyond repair at the Southern Heights Site. Demolishing this building is necessary for safety reasons. We are working with the insurance adjuster on the scope and timeline of next steps for the project. We will continue to update you when we have more information to share. 

Here are news posts with more information about the Southern Heights fire and response:

• Southern Heights Fire Damage Update, July 24 | July 24, 2024 
• Southern Heights Site Damaged by Fire | July 10, 2024 
• Renovations Underway at Original Beverly Park Site | August 22, 2024 
• Emergency Home for IHA & HVA Opens | September 5, 2024 
• Southern Heights' Main Office and Gym Building Demolished | December 6, 2024

We expect demolition and construction of a new Pacific Middle School to begin in the summer of 2025. Pacific students will attend school at the Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines for two years, beginning in September 2025, after the new Tyee High School opens. Tyee students are using the Olympic Interim Site while their new school is built. Highline High School used the same interim site during the construction of their new facility.

No. Not only would this go against keeping our promise to voters to replace aging school buildings, by law, capital funds may NOT be transferred to the general fund or used to pay for day-to-day costs of running a school district. School district operating funds and capital (bond) funds must be kept in separate accounts and are audited. 

The general fund pays for the day-to-day operations of schools, which includes salaries, supplies, program costs, utilities and routine maintenance. This operating fund receives money from the state and federal government, as well as local funding through our voter-approved education levy.

Bond funds may only be used for capital projects, like buying land, building facilities, making major capital improvements, and paying for costs tied to construction. Salaries and office space for capital projects work, as well as the materials and equipment needed to furnish new buildings, are also legitimate capital expenses.

One way that capital funds do support the operations budget, is by choosing efficient and sustainable construction practices, such as natural day-lighting, efficient HVAC systems, durable construction materials, solar panels, and low-maintenance finishes to reduce ongoing utility bills and maintenance costs in our new buildings.

There are many ways to add your voice and get involved in Highline Public Schools. One important step is to register to vote and vote in every election. Elections determine who is elected to serve in local government positions, including Highline school board seats. We periodically have an education levy or school construction bond on election ballots, so we encourage you to stay informed. Levies require 50% voter approval, while bonds require 60% voter approval. Find out how to register to vote and more from King County Elections.

If you are interested in helping us plan for the future, when there are empty seats on our community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC), we hold an annual lottery in the fall to select new members from Highline residents who volunteer, and we invite jurisdictions and community organizations to appoint representatives.

Stay connected with us on social media, our website and newsletter to learn about other opportunities, such as school design review committees, curriculum adoption committees,  our Family Action Committee or a parent group.

Learn about ways to be connected and involved in our schools and planning.

Here is the projected timeline for the new school buildings, which are funded by the 2022 bond, to open and where students will attend school during construction:

• Evergreen High School: opening in fall 2025
  • Evergreen students will continue attending school in the existing buildings while the new school is constructed in the northeast corner of the site. When the new building opens (projected for fall 2025), then the existing buildings will be demolished and replaced with new athletic fields. The synthetic turf football field is a recent upgrade and will remain in place. The Evergreen Pool will remain in place and is not part of the bond construction project.
• Tyee High School: opening in fall 2025
  • Tyee students will attend school at the Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines for two years, beginning in September 2023. This is where Highline High School students attended school during construction of the new HHS.
  • Maritime High School students may continue using the Olympic Interim Site until a new location is selected for their school. The hope is that Maritime High School will eventually be located closer to the Duwamish waterway and port area. 
  • Highline Virtual Academy staff will need to relocate to another site, to be determined. This decision has not been made yet.
• Pacific Middle School: opening in fall 2027
  • Pacific students will attend school at the Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines for two years, beginning in September 2025, when the new Tyee High School opens.

The Olympic Interim Site is hosting Tyee High School during the 2-year construction of a new Tyee facility (2023-24 and 2024-25). Next, the Olympic Interim Site will host Pacific Middle School for two years, starting in September 2025. The new Pacific Middle School is expected to open in September 2027.

The 2016 bond provided funds to renovate the Olympic Site as an interim home for Highline High School during construction of the new HHS, which started the summer of 2019. The new HHS opened in September 2021.

From September 2021 to June 2023, the Olympic Site served as the home for two new schools: Highline Virtual Academy and Maritime High School. Maritime High School continues to share the Olympic Interim Site. We hope Maritime High School will eventually be located closer to the Duwamish waterway and port area. 

Highline Virtual Academy staff relocated to shared space with Innovation Heights Academy at the Southern Heights Site (2023-24) and then to the Original Beverly Park Site, starting in September 2024 after a fire damaged Southern Heights.

The design work for the new Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific schools began in fall 2019, funded by the 2016 bond. Three design committees met with three sets of architects to bring the three school designs to 50% or more completion. After a pause during the Covid pandemic, the design work on Evergreen and Tyee was approved by the school board to continue to a point that the architects will be ready to submit for a building permit soon after November 2022, when the 2022 bond was approved by voters. 

The principals of Evergreen, Tyee and Pacific formed building design committees to work with the architects during the initial phase of design, called schematic design. The small, working committees included representatives from various stakeholders, including staff, families and community members. Check our school construction news posts for the latest design images and information.

Local Property taxes & Local Voters

Funding the construction of public schools is up to local voters within our school district. Highline voters decide whether to approve school bonds paid over an extended period of time by Highline taxpayers through their King County property taxes. Sometimes state grants are available to help once voters approve a school bond.

2016 & 2022 School Bonds & Future Recommendations

Voters approved Phase 1 of the long-range facilities plan recommended by Highline's community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) in November 2016. Future phases will be funded by additional bonds, if voters approve.

The November 2016 bond included funds to jumpstart the initial design of new Evergreen and Tyee high schools and a new Pacific Middle School, but did not pay for construction. The 2016 bond did pay for both design and construction of a new Des Moines Elementary School, Glacier Middle School, a new Highline High School and a renovated Olympic Interim Site.

In November 2022, voters approved Phase 2 of the future facilities plan recommended by CFAC.

Long Gaps Between Approval of School Bonds = Aging Facilities

One of the reasons replacement or renovation of many of our older schools is so far out on the timeline is that Highline voters did not pass a bond for 10 years before the successful 2016 bond. And prior to 2002, there was a 16-year gap between bonds. Because of these two periods with no new capital funding, Highline has a long list of backlogged capital needs. The school district and local taxpayers face limits in the amount of debt they can legally take on and what they are willing to take on. 

The community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC), in existence since 2015, continues the patient work of planning for future needs and prioritizing which schools are proposed to voters for replacement, taking into account enrollment fluctuation, geographic trends, building conditions and district programming needs.

The citizen-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee suggested in 2016 that the old Des Moines Elementary school be repurposed for community use. For now, it will be used for district purposes, including science kit and curriculum updating. We have no plans to sell at this time. We plan to involve the City of Des Moines administration in any discussions about the future use of this site.

The Moshier Field improvements are a City of Burien project. To see information about the new field and building, please visit the Moshier Memorial Park and Parking Lot Improvements project information page on the City of Burien website.

Contact parksinfo@burienwa.gov for more information.

The tennis courts at the Sunnydale Site are open to the public seven days per week, allowing for school district student practice or competition as a priority activity. 

A scannable QR code is posted next to the tennis gate on the east side, by the bathrooms. Community members can scan the code, enter their email address and then receive the access code. The bathrooms are available for court rentals.

The stained-glass pirate artwork has been re-installed at the same height, just inside the north entrance door, above a second set of security doors. This placement is more visible to everyone who enters or exits the north doors. It is also visible from the first and second floor commons walkways, which lead to and from the north entrance. Natural light from both sides will illuminate the stained glass.

The artwork was preserved and is now a focal point at the main historical entrance. 

Highline High School students attended school for two years at the Olympic Interim site (from fall 2019 through spring 2021, with a lot of unexpected distance learning during the second year!).

The rebuilt Highline High School opened for students on September 2, 2021.

We recognize the value of historic preservation, and ideally, we would have preserved in place at least a portion of the HHS façade. Our contractor, Skanska believed that the risk of failure actually increases for a shorter section. Skanska Vice President Rob Robinson explained that the length of the brick wall would have a stabilizing effect. Removing portions of the wall on either side of the entry panel leaves it with less support.

The expense and the risk were due to the type of construction as well as the soil conditions on the site. The facade was a one-brick-thick veneer on a wood frame. Brick buildings that lend themselves to preservation are multiple layers of masonry attached to concrete. With solid masonry, the brick is holding up the building; with brick veneer, the wood building is holding up the brick. When the wood frame is removed, a brick wall becomes extremely fragile and prone to collapse.

It would have been possible to stabilize the brick wall with steel beams, pour a new foundation below it, and build a wall to support the bricks. However, this would have been expensive, putting the project several million dollars over budget. Skanska advised that even with these measures there was a significant risk that the brick wall could collapse during construction, wasting taxpayer dollars. This would have increased the project cost even more, as we would then have needed to build a new wall at an additional cost.

Skanska and the architectural firm on the project, Bassetti Architects, both have extensive experience preserving historic buildings. Based on soil testing, existing facade construction, masonry testing, cost analysis and a taxpayer-funded budget, both recommended rebuilding with a design that honors the original. We are confident this was the right decision based on the determination of experts and stewardship of limited taxpayer dollars.

• We value the historic significance of Highline High School to our community and remain committed to retaining the look of the original building as we rebuild the school.
   
• After contractors evaluated the construction of the wall and the soil conditions, they concluded that it was not financially feasible to attempt to shore up the wall and keep it intact.
   
  • Unlike other buildings of the same era or earlier constructed of solid masonry, the north wall of HHS was brick veneer (one brick thick) on a wood frame structure.
     
  • It would have cost up to $15 million to reinforce the wall with pilings and install a new foundation. There is a significant risk the wall would have collapsed in the process, and the $15 million investment would have been wasted.
     
• The project team recommended that, instead of attempting to keep the wall intact, we honor the look of the original building by recreating key portions of the facade, using salvaged materials as much as possible.
   
  • While this is not a technical replication, it will retain key parts of the façade and reflect the historical look of the original building.
     
  • Design options were presented to the design review committee (students, staff, families and community members) for feedback, and then to the public.

Our technical team (architects, structural engineer, and other contractors) determined that, based on the conditions of the soil and the masonry, there was a significant risk the north wall would collapse during the structural reinforcement process.  The masonry was veneer (one brick thick) installed on a wood structure, which would be extremely fragile during construction. Attempting to preserve the wall was estimated to cost up to $15 million because it would need to be encapsulated and then supported on deep shoring piers. If the wall did not survive the construction process, that money would have been wasted. Our architects, general contractor and project staff agreed that this option was not financially feasible even if there was no risk of failure.

The old Highline High School included a wood shop; there was not an auto shop at the time of building closure. The new school includes a wood shop; it does not include an auto shop. Juniors and seniors with an interest in auto body or automotive technology are encouraged to find out more about programs hosted at the Puget Sound Skills Center in Burien.