Last week, I was pleased to join Highline Public Schools officials, local and state elected officials, architects, and project staff to break ground for a new Des Moines Elementary School at Zenith Park. The opening of this school is a tangible reminder of how much the Port is invested in ensuring that our local communities benefit from the Port as much as our travelers and customers do.
The Port has been so fortunate to partner with Highline Schools in so many ways over the years, from career-connected learning to supporting a college scholarship fund for Highline students. For example, we have hosted eight career exploration events in the last two years, employed Highline students as paid interns, and helped develop two new curriculum programs on sustainable growth and wildlife management.
Public schools are one of the most important foundations of a community, and the Port wants to be part of making sure that students in the Highline district have modern, clean, and quiet facilities for learning. Based on a Memorandum of Agreement we developed in 2002, the Port and the FAA have already contributed over $62 million to school construction within the Highline District, specifically to ensure that these schools are fully noise insulated based on their proximity to the airport.
Des Moines Elementary will be the school for 750 students from kindergarten through fifth-grade and will open in September 2019, along with the new Glacier Middle School in SeaTac. We hope to support construction at Des Moines Elementary with $6.2 million in combined Port and FAA funds, including $2.3 million in direct contributions from our Tax Levy funds. Through partnerships with United States Senator Maria Cantwell, United States Representative Adam Smith and school district leadership, we are making progress on federal legislation that ensures Des Moines Elementary and future school construction projects will be eligible to receive the federal noise insulation grants and funding.
Highline Public Schools has graduated some of our region’s best and most impactful leaders, including Representative Smith and Alaska Airlines CEO Brad Tilden. We want to make sure that the next generation of students has the same opportunities to thrive and achieve, and last week’s groundbreaking shows that the Port is helping to do just that.
