23 Highline School District Seniors to Graduate with Diploma and Degree Through Running Start
Twenty-three Highline seniors will graduate with more than just a high school diploma this year. The students will also graduate with their Associate Degree (AA) or Certificate through the Running Start Program.
Running Start enables high school students to attend community college and simultaneously earn high school and college credit.
“Running Start is an extremely valuable option for our highly motivated students as college costs are increasing every year,” said Student Advancement Director Rachel Klein. “Students who demonstrate success in Running Start will be more attractive to admissions officers of highly competitive college and career programs, in addition to having some of their credits already paid for.
Earning an AA or Certificate at the same time as a high school diploma is not an easy task. A total of 217 seniors across the district took classes through Running Start this year; only 23 will graduate with an AA.
These students represent five Highline schools: Academy of Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE), Global Connections High School, CHOICE Academy, Highline High School, and Mount Rainier High School. (more…)
Joey Martinez Officially Announces Campaign For Burien City Council – Asks For Support in “Building a Better Burien”
33 year old Burien Resident Joey Martinez has filed for Burien City Council seat number 7. The seat is currently filled by Brian Bennett, who has decided not to run for re-election. Bennett has endorsed Martinez for the seat.
Martinez has been married since 1999 to Jackie Martinez and has two boys, both of whom attend Highline Public Schools. Martinez has volunteered for both of his boys sports teams in one way or another all their lives. He’s spent the last two years volunteering with the Burien Bearcats, first as an assistant coach then as the Head Coach for one of the teams.
Martinez has worked for Seattle City Light since 2007 and was recently promoted as supervisor to a new business unit within City Light IT. Martinez has also worked for the city of Auburn from 2001-2005.
Martinez was born in East Los Angeles, California and is a 1st generation Mexican-American on his mother’s side and 3rd generation on his fathers side. Joey is fluent in both English and Spanish, and Spanish is actually his first language.
Says Joey, “I am looking forward to working with you to Build a better Burien! Together, we can accomplish much if we stick together. My life experience as a father has taught me to be firm and patient, as a husband to listen and care, as a son to always work to improve myself, and as a friend to always be there. As a Burien Planning Commissioner I have also learned to think 20 years into the future and have come to see that actions taken today can impact us for generations. (more…)
Governor Jay Inslee in Burien to talk about budget proposal
Photo by Eric Mathison
The following article was published in partnership with the Highline Times and was written by Eric Mathison.
With a background of yellow Highline Public Schools buses and supported by officials from a dozen school districts, Gov. Jay Inslee stumped Thursday, May 2 in Burien for his education budget proposal that would raise revenues through cutting some business tax breaks.
The news conference was held at Highline’s transportation facility, next to the Puget Sound Skills Center.
Inslee has suggested adding an additional $1.2 billion into education by closing some tax breaks and extending existing taxes. The tax breaks Inslee has targeted would raise about $565 million, according to The Seattle Times.
In Burien, Inslee said the state cannot continue to cut social services to fund education.
“It is hard to educate a homeless, sick, hungry child,” Inslee declared. “We need to find another route.”
The governor said the primary duty of the state is to fund education but “not on the backs of seniors, the disabled and children.” (more…)
Two Highline Teams are heading to the World Robotics Championships
Two Highline schools are headed to St. Louis at the end of the month to compete in the FIRST Robotics World Championships.
Aviation High School holds the Washington State Robotics Champion title this year. The team also earned the Chairman’s Award at the state competition, which honors teams for excellence in design, creativity, innovation, and competition performance.
Highline High School will also compete in the World Championships. The team earned their ticket at the Seattle Regional competition by winning the Judge’s Award and the Safety Award. Highline’s coach, Fred Leuke, won the Woodie Flowers Award as the region’s best mentor. (more…)
Dual Language Opportunities Expanded in Highline Public Schools
More Highline students are learning to be bilingual and bi-literate as the district expands its dual language programs to two more elementary schools and plans dual language offerings for middle and high school levels.
Next fall, Madrona Elementary will open a Spanish-English program for kindergartners. White Center Heights will offer both Spanish-English and Vietnamese-English programs.
In Dual Language immersion programs, a new cohort of kindergartners is enrolled each year– about 24 who speak Spanish or Vietnamese as a first language, and 24 who speak English or another language at home. The students have an English teacher and a Spanish or Vietnamese teacher; they spend about half the day with each teacher. Math is taught in English; science and social students, in Spanish or Vietnamese. In Kindergarten and 1st grades, reading is primarily taught in the students’ native language. After second grade, they are taught to read and write in both languages.
Students start the program as kindergartners. A new grade level is added each year as students move through elementary school. (more…)
“Poverty is not a learning disability”: Dr. Susan Enfield’s plan for the future of Highline Schools
The following article was published in partnership with Burien’s oldest newspaper, the Highline Times, and was written by Ty Swenson.
When Susan Enfield took the job as Highline School District’s new superintendent in 2012, she started reaching out to staff and community to get a feel for the culture she was now charged with guiding into the future.
“One of the things I was struck by was … a deep sense of commitment and caring for the schools, (and) a lot of feeling sorry for our kids and their plight,” Enfield said, recalling her early days with the district while speaking to the White Center Chamber of Commerce on March 12.
“People would say, ‘We are so glad you are here but these students are so poor, and they speak other languages, and their parents have two jobs,’ and I got really good at nodding politely and smiling and then saying, ‘And there are children with those characteristics all over the country who are performing way better.’”
70 percent of Highline’s students are on free or reduced lunch, a barometer that Enfield said some (including herself) had become desensitized to. What that means, she said, is that 13,000 of Highline’s 18,000 students live in poverty. (more…)
Security officers, teachers, react to possibility Highline security officers will be disarmed
The following article was published in partnership with the Highline Times and was written by Eric Mathison.
The timing couldn’t have been worse.
Two days before a gunman killed 20 students and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school, the Highline School Board held a work/study session to review a new security plan that could include disarming school security officers.
At the study session and the following regular meeting, security officers say a few board members gave the impression that they discounted the danger that security officers face in Highline schools. Board president Angelica Alvarez implied there is a connection between armed security guards and the number of student suspensions and expulsions.
The officers’ union, Teamsters Local 763, has filed an unfair labor practice claim against the district stemming from a subsequent meeting with assistant superintendent Susan Smith Leland. The union said she threatened security officers over their testimony before the school board. (more…)
Highline Staff Demonstrate Generosity During the Holidays
Staff at the Academy for Citizenship and Empowerment (ACE) have demonstrated generosity and caring for their students and families that extends well beyond the classroom. This holiday season 13 ACE families each received personalized holiday wishes, along with a $150 Safeway Gift Card.
More than 80 percent of students at ACE qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch, one of the highest percentages in the district. With many families struggling to make ends meet, ACE staff wanted to support students by providing something tangible to help with the cost of holiday meals. For the past seven years, the team has provided grocery store gift cards to some of the schools’ neediest families. Shauna Pierson, counselor at ACE, coordinates the program. (more…)