FAQ

If you have a question about Highline Public Schools 2016 bond projects, progress or future planning, please ask. We will respond to you personally and post answers to the most frequently asked questions.

Please email your questions to:
KeepingOurPromise@highlineschools.org.

When will the next school bond for Evergreen, Tyee and Pacific appear on a ballot?

With coronavirus concerns and the economic downturn, school board members do not think November 2020 is the right time to ask voters to approve a bond to fund construction of Evergreen, Tyee and Pacific. Work will continue on the designs of these schools this fall, since the initial design work is paid for by the 2016 bond.

A more urgent need now is to upgrade our technology tools for students and teachers, not only to support distance learning into next school year, but to prepare our students for 21st century careers.

One of the prior suggestions from our community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) to the school board was to run a levy to fund technology needs rather than include them in a bond.

The school board has asked staff to prepare a technology levy proposal for the November 2020 ballot. In keeping with CFAC’s goal to keep tax rates steady, the proposed levy would not increase taxes beyond the current rate.

Our best thinking at this time is that the next opportunity to run a school construction bond would be in 2022.

Why run a technology levy in November 2020?

The pandemic has significantly increased the urgency for technology funding. We have placed more than 13,000 devices and 1,000+ hotspots with students this spring. Many of these are aging Chromebooks. Many classroom desktop computers are also aging. Many families do not have internet access at home and are dependent on hotspots for students to do online learning.

We will complete the 2019-20 school year in a distance learning mode. Meanwhile, staff are beginning to plan for various scenarios this fall, which could include the need to create a hybrid of in-person and distance learning. There is also the possible need to return to distance learning system-wide if there is a second spike in the spread of the virus.

We must respond to the urgent needs of our students to stay connected to learning.

When will the new Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific schools be designed?

The design work for the new Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific schools began in fall 2019. Three design committees are meeting with three sets of architects. Construction of these schools will need to be funded by a future bond.

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 include representatives from various stakeholders, including staff, families and community members.

What is the status of the electronic locks paid for by the 2016 school bond?

Workers have installed and activated electronic locks on 400+ interior and exterior doors at the 15 newest schools. This phase of the locks project is 99% complete. A few additional locks added to the project at these sites will be finished this spring.

At the 16 older schools, infrastructure work, wiring and installation of locks is expected to wrap up this spring with some change orders completed in summer 2020.

Why were there delays? It has been a complex project to upgrade old buildings with multiple entries and aging infrastructure. Wiring needed to be rerouted and hardware replaced to be compatible with new electronic locks. (Much of the equipment and locks installed in the older buildings will be reused when these schools are rebuilt.)

The unexpected death of our district locksmith last fall also impacted our progress and timeline. The coronavirus shutdown and social distancing orders slowed work this spring.

Thanks to voters, this project is bringing a new level of safety and security to Highline schools, old and new.

Are there plans to renovate Sylvester Middle School? What about other schools?

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

The November 2016 bond included funds to design new Evergreen and Tyee high schools and a new Pacific Middle School. CFAC recommended to the school board that construction of these three schools be part of the next school bond. The school board will decide when to put the next school bond on the ballot for voters.

One of the reasons replacement/renovation of Sylvester and other 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. 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.

Will the district sell the old Des Moines Elementary site for new view construction?

Highline High School

When will the new Highline High School open for occupancy?

Can alumni get a brick from the old school?

It sounds simple, but it wasn't. We would have loved to recycle the bricks and provide a memento for alumni. Our environmental consultant, however, advised us not to give away bricks. We were required to dispose of all masonry waste at a properly permitted acceptance facility because of the presence of heavy metals.

Testing detected heavy metals in the mortar--originally used by masons to make the mortar last longer. Our environmental consultant advised that trained personnel would need to remove the mortar from each brick prior to giving them away, which would be difficult, time consuming and very expensive.

Why wasn't it feasible to preserve just the center portion of the original facade in place?

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.

HHS Facade Key Facts

We valued 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 will not be 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.

Why couldn’t we save the facade of Highline High School?

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.

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