Community Process

Dear Families & Community Members,

The community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) asked for public feedback on an initial draft boundary plan from March 10 to April 20, 2018. Thank you for your feedback in 10 community meetings and more than 600 survey responses!

We read all your comments, listened to many ideas and held a boundary design session for the community. We met April 25 and May 9, 2018 to revise the CFAC boundary plan to address as many of your suggestions as possible. We met again May 23, 2018 to finalize our recommendations to the school board. On June 6, 2018, we presented a recommended boundary plan and supplemental considerations to the school board. 

The school board voted to approve the recommended boundaries at its June 27, 2018 meeting. 

The new school boundary plan took effect fall 2019—when our two new schools opened and sixth grade moved to middle school.

Rose Clark and Aaron Garcia
CFAC Co-chairs & community members

April 2017 |  Community-led Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) reconvenes after successful 2016 bond passage

May 2017 |  Lottery to refill CFAC membership

June 2017-February 2018 |  Members attend eight committee meetings to produce a set of draft boundaries for public review (March 2018)

March - April 2018 |  Feedback received from 600 survey responses and 10 community meetings throughout the district, including a Boundary Design Session open to public participation.

April - May 2018 |  Two more CFAC meetings (April 25 and May 9) to address feedback, consider suggestions and create a revised boundary plan (May 2018)

May 2018 |  CFAC finalizes proposed boundary plan and recommendations

June 2018 |  CFAC introduces boundary recommendations to the school board June 6. School board members approve the recommended boundary plan on June 27. 

Fall 2019 |  Boundary changes go into effect. This coincides with the transition of sixth grade to middle school and opening the new Glacier Middle School in SeaTac and a new, larger Des Moines Elementary School.

With passage of the November 2016 school bond, Highline constructed a new middle school at the Glacier site in SeaTac and replaced Des Moines Elementary school with a new, larger building at the Zenith site.

This required a change to school boundaries.

Additional reasons we needed to redraw school boundaries and service areas:

• To respond to projected future developments and growth in our district.
• To alleviate current overcrowding in existing schools.
• To reduce class sizes in kindergarten through third-grade.
• To transition sixth grade to middle school, to provide greater learning opportunities for 6th grade students and create space in elementary schools for K-3 class size reduction.

Between June 2017 and May 2018, members of the Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC), composed of volunteers representing every part of our community, held 12 committee meetings and 10 community meetings to develop a proposal for boundary changes that serves the needs of the district as a whole. 

Approved by the school board on June 27, 2018, the boundary plan took effect in fall 2019. The plan:

1. Keeps elementary cohorts together from kindergarten through high school once new boundaries are in effect.
    
2. With the exception of Hilltop Elementary, all elementary schools will feed into the same high schools as before the boundary change. Hilltop will feed into Highline High School in the new plan.
    
3. The new plan accounts for future growth, responding to projections showing increasing enrollment over the next decade. 
    
4. The new schools and the new boundary plan will relieve current overcrowding in elementary schools.

The 2017-2018 Capital Facilities Advisory Committee (CFAC) members established the following:

• Ensure Equity
  We will plan boundaries that serve the good of the whole district, with equitable distribution of students and access to programs, in accordance with the HPS Equity Policy #0010. The determinants of equity are the social, economic, geographic, political, and physical environments and conditions in which people live. Full and equal access to the determinants of equity are necessary to have equity for all people regardless of race, class, gender, language spoken, and geography.
   
• Forecast for Future Needs
  We will design school boundaries that allow for future growth and changes in population and land use, to the best of our ability with the information available to us now. 
   
• Value Cohorts & Community Connections

  As much as possible we will keep cohorts of students together and recognize family and community connections, municipal boundaries and possible impacts to after-school programming. We will retain high school service areas for the existing elementary schools, if possible, acknowledging that five middle schools will now feed into four high schools.

  (In education, a “cohort” refers to a group of classmates. For the purpose of boundary review, a cohort is a group of classmates at one grade level in one elementary school.)

• Plan for Safety
  We will prioritize student safety by drawing boundaries to minimize student crossing of major arterials and high traffic areas.