information from Highline Public Schools

The public is invited to Highline Public Schools’ ribbon cutting and open house at the Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines on Thursday, May 2. HHS students will attend school at the interim site for two years (fall 2019-spring 2021) while a new Highline High School is constructed.

Olympic Interim Site Events 
Thursday, May 2
615 South 200th Street, Des Moines

• Ribbon Cutting 3:30 p.m.
• Open House 4:00-5:30 p.m.
• Incoming HHS 9th-Grade Family Night 6:00-7:00 p.m., with tours until 8:00 p.m.

School Board President Bernie Dorsey will speak at the ribbon cutting, as well as HHS Co-Principals Tremain Holloway and Clint Sallee, and Capital Facilities Advisory Committee Co-Chair Aaron Garcia. 

Importance of Olympic Interim Site
Voters approved the renovated Olympic Interim Site as a critical part of the 2016 school bond, making it possible to rebuild HHS and other schools.

The district is starting the design processes for Evergreen and Tyee high schools and Pacific Middle School with funds voters earmarked in the 2016 bond. With the Olympic Interim Site renovated and brought up to seismic safety codes, these and other aging high schools and middle schools can be constructed in future bonds.

Background

Constructed in 1955 as a junior high school and later converted to an elementary school, in recent years the Olympic facility housed Mount Rainier High School students and Raisbeck Aviation High School students while their schools were under construction.

Renovations
Renovations include fresh paint inside and out, new flooring, landscaping, renovated gym floors, lighting, new built-in reception and work areas, signage and hundreds of steel plates to attach the walls to the foundations of the three original buildings. Portable classrooms were added to the site to increase capacity and to replace most of the center building.

The renovated Olympic Interim Site features:

• 47 new portable classroom buildings include:
  • 7 science classroom buildings
  • 5 special education classroom buildings
  • Individual heating and air conditioning units
    
     
• 4 portable restroom buildings plus multiple restrooms in the original buildings
  • Includes ADA-accessible restrooms and staff restrooms in original buildings and in one of the portable restroom buildings
    
     
• 3 renovated original buildings include:
  • Gym/auxiliary gym/cafeteria/kitchen/athletics/music/performance arts
  • Main office/library/special education classrooms/administrative spaces/staff room
  • Woodshop/art/ceramics/computer technology

For more information on bond-funded projects, visit highlineschools.org/KeepingOurPromise.