BOND: District Proposal & Community Concerns

Highline District is asking for too much, too widespread without a comprehensive plan, and overly relying on ineffective technology software to teach the students.

Bond Concerns

• Without a comprehensive site assessment including a traffic study, the district does not know the actual cost or feasibility of moving Cascade Middle School to the Salmon Creek site. The public does not know if the district will use eminent domain in order to increase the property size to meet the state requirements for a middle school with 900 students. Critics want all of these questions answered before approving the bond for this project.
• The proposed Chinook Middle School partial rebuild and modernization cannot begin until 2031 due to lack of an interim site for the students during construction. Therefore, why is the district asking for money now when so many factors, including cost, will change before that time? Further, without a comprehensive assessment, critics question spending $161 M on a partial rebuild vs. the cost of a new building. If a new building will last longer and have fewer maintenance costs over time then critics would rather invest a little more money now on a new building than to put an expensive band-aid on an old one. Lastly, what would the district be doing with the $161M for the 5 years leading up to the work to begin?
• The district wants $40M for unidentified "Critical Needs." Critics want a transparent budget for these "Critical Needs" before approving the funds.
• The district wants to spend $30M on the Southern Heights campus for CHOICE Academy, a 6th-12th grade school. This $30M does not include a library, a fully functional kitchen or a full size gym. How is it possible that $30M cannot provide these basic student resources? Why should these students be denied these essential facilities when they are provided to other Highline students?
• Section 6 of the bond resolution allows excess funds to be used on any capital improvements the district wishes instead of being returned to the taxpayers. Critics argue that this vague fiscal direction will enable the district to spend the money on projects not agreed upon by the voting public, such as the Central Office building. Further, section 8 of the bond resolution states that if the conditions change and a project cannot move forward, the district can reallocate the earmarked money for another project of their choosing. This bond resolution language effectively gives the district a blank check and a free pass to do as it chooses, not as the voting public has agreed upon.
• In light of the recent changes to school board policy 6101 that have increased the Superintendent's spending power from $250K to $999,999.99K on bond and levy funds, critics are concerned that one person has access to blank checks without board or public oversight. Because this massively expensive bond and levy package has such a broad scope of work, it is easy for financial mismanagement to occur due to the minimized supervision.

  Source: Highline School District Policy 6101