The board also emphasized that investment must extend beyond school buildings to the cities, neighborhoods, and families closest to the airport.
Highline Public Schools Board of Directors has voted unanimously to call on the Port of Seattle for stronger protections and greater investment in schools affected by Seattle-Tacoma International Airport expansion plans.
In a letter sent Wednesday, the board emphasized that Highline students and families already experience significant impacts from living and learning near the airport and under aircraft flight paths.
Highline is the only district with schools located in the area identified in the airport’s environmental review as potentially affected by the proposed expansion.
Board members are urging the Port and other regional decision-makers to ensure that airport growth does not place additional burdens on students and communities without addressing existing impacts.
“Our students are the future of this region. Their health, safety and education should not be the price of regional growth,” the board wrote in the letter. “If the airport grows, the investment in the people living with its impacts must grow with it.”
The board is calling for commitments and investments that include:
- Completing sound insulation at all affected Highline schools.
- Investing in ventilation and air filtration to support healthy classrooms.
- Monitoring air quality at schools and in surrounding neighborhoods.
- Reducing traffic impacts on students and families.
- Ensuring impacted communities have real decision-making power.
- Fully delivering and regularly evaluating commitments already made by the Port.
The board also emphasized that investment must extend beyond school buildings to the cities, neighborhoods and families closest to the airport.
