FAQ

Local Tax Base & Local Voters

Funding for construction of public schools relies on local voters within our school district approving school bonds paid for over an extended period of time through their King County property taxes. The result is that the tax base varies between school districts. Sometimes state grants are available to help once voters approve a school bond.

2016 School Bond & Future Recommendations

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 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.

CFAC recommended to the school board that construction of Evergreen, Tyee and Pacific be part of the next (Phase 2) school bond. The school board will decide when to put the next school bond on the ballot for voters.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic and the emergency transition to distance learning, voters were asked to approve a desperately needed technology levy in 2020 instead of a Phase 2 school construction bond. The next likely date for the school board to consider running a Phase 2 bond is at the time of the November general elections in 2022.

Long Gaps Between Approval of School Bonds = Aging Facilities

One of the reasons replacement/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 slow 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 design work for the new Evergreen, Tyee, and Pacific schools began in fall 2019. Three design committees met with three sets of architects to bring the three school designs to approximately 50% completion. Final design and 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 included representatives from various stakeholders, including staff, families and community members.

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

With coronavirus concerns and the economic downturn, school board members did not think November 2020 was 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. 

The more urgent need in fall 2020 was to upgrade 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. 

A technology levy was placed on the November 2020 ballot and overwhelmingly approved by voters at nearly 73%. In keeping with CFAC’s goal to keep tax rates steady, the levy will not increase taxes beyond the current rate. 

The citizen-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee suggested in 2016 that the old Des Moines Elementary school be repurposed for community use. We have no plans to sell it. For now, it will be used for district storage, including items that will not fit at the Olympic Interim site while the new Highline High School is under construction. 

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 will attend school for two years at the Olympic Interim site (from fall 2019 through spring 2021). The rebuilt Highline High School will open for students fall 2021.

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. 

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 existing Highline High School includes a wood shop; there is not an auto shop. Planning for the new school includes a new 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.