Frequently Asked Questions

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.

At the time Southern Heights Elementary School was closed in June 2021, enrollment had declined to 216 students and was projected to shrink further. Neighboring schools had excess space and more extensive services for students. The closure saved the district $1 million in annual operating costs.  

While school closures are difficult for all involved, this closure provided elementary students with better educational opportunities and demonstrated good stewardship of taxpayers’ dollars.

As of September 2023, the Southern Heights campus became the home of Highline Virtual Academy (HVA) and Innovation Heights Academy (formerly New Start High School located at the old Salmon Creek Elementary site). HVA moved from the Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines to make room for Tyee students during construction of the new Tyee High School.

Bond dollars funded improvements like new paint, carpeting and other renovations during the summer of 2023 at the Southern Heights campus.

In addition, these website articles document the closure, renovation and reopening of the Southern Heights campus:

• “Recommendation to Close Southern Heights Elementary”
• “Nov. 18 Hearing on Southern Heights Closure.”
• "Tyee, Highline Virtual Academy, Highline Virtual Elementary and New Start to Relocate for September"
• "Two Schools Open at Southern Heights," September 2023

These two high school project sites are different in a number of ways, so they have different project schedules. We expect both new schools to open in September 2025. Tyee and Evergreen are in different jurisdictions (SeaTac and unincorporated King County) with their own review process. The sites are different sizes. The Evergreen property has enough space to construct a new building in the northeast corner of the site where the baseball and softball fields are. This means construction can start sooner, but it will need to be done in phases, and the Evergreen ball fields will be constructed in 2025-26 after the demolition of the old school. 

Learn more about these two projects and when events are scheduled by signing up for our e-newsletter service and checking the project pages:

• Evergreen High School Construction Project
• Tyee High School Construction Project

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). Maritime High School will continue to share the Olympic Interim Site until a new site is identified for Maritime.

The 2016 bond paid 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 temporary home for the new Maritime High School as well as for the staff of the new Highline Virtual Academy. We hope that Maritime High School will eventually be located closer to the Duwamish waterway and port area. Efforts to identify a site for Maritime High School are ongoing.

With approval of the 2022 bond, Highline Virtual Academy staff relocated to the Southern Heights Site to share it with Innovation Heights Academy starting in September 2023.

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.