LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Highline School Board’s Virtual Double Standard Silences Parents

The following Letter to the Editor was submitted by verified Highline parent Kristen Price.

[NOTE FROM EDITOR: Letters to the Editor do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Highline Journal.  If you wish to submit a story, photo, article, or letter, please email us at info@thehighlinejournal.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.]

To the Editor:

During the Highline School Board meeting on June 18, 2026, our district central administration sent a clear message to tax-paying parents: Rules for thee, but not for me.

Days prior to the meeting, I submitted a formal request for a remote access accommodation to deliver public comment.

The Superintendent’s office flatly denied my request, hiding behind a corporate excuse that internal "Policy 1430" simply does not allow virtual options for public testimony.

Yet, when the live broadcast began, a member of the School Board was prominently participating, deliberating, and voting via video conference from the comfort of their own home.

The district clearly possesses fully functional, operational hybrid meeting technology. They seamlessly deploy it for their own officials, but weaponize rigid internal policies to block a parent requiring an accommodation. What makes this double standard shameful is that it directly violates the board's own active rules. Under Highline District Policy 1400, board members are explicitly only permitted to attend and vote remotely if "the meeting accommodates any member of the public who wishes to participate."

By shutting out the public, the board breached the very condition that legalizes their own remote participation. To double down on the exclusion, when I was forced to submit my comments in writing as a fallback option, the board called my name from the roster but intentionally refused to read my statement into the broadcast record.

State law (RCW 42.30.240) mandates that public agencies must provide remote comment options upon request when technically feasible. Our district has the technology, but they lack the transparency.

I have officially filed formal complaints with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and the Human Rights Commission. It is time for Highline central administration to dismantle this unlawful gatekeeping, stop silencing parent voices, and open its public platforms to the entire community.

Sincerely,
Kristen Price
Highline Parent & Community Member
Seattle, WA

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Here is Kristen Price's full statement, as submitted via email to the Highline School Board for inclusion at the June 18, 2026 board meeting. It was not read or verbally noted by President Joe Van at the meeting. Van called her name twice and moved on to next speaker.]

Dear Board Directors and Superintendent Dr. Duran,

Because the district has failed to comply with the statutory mandate of RCW 42.30.240 and actively denied my request for remote public comment access, I am submitting my testimony in writing. I demand this statement be provided directly to all board members and formally entered into the official meeting record.

Public Testimony Statement:

Good evening, President Van, Superintendent Duran, and members of the Board. My name is Kristen Price, and I am a district parent.

 I am submitting this statement tonight because there is a profound disconnect between the culture Highline Public Schools markets online and the actual operational decisions being made behind closed doors.

 Just this week, the district’s public relations team posted features celebrating Pride Month and high school graduations, highlighting "belonging" and "safety." Yet, while central administration uses these students' faces for positive PR, those same administrators spent the last month forcing out and silencing the exact building leaders who actually built those safe spaces. Celebrating "our community" online while banning a long-standing principal from even sitting as a private citizen to watch their seniors graduate isn’t leadership. It is hypocrisy.

 We see this same pattern in how public input is handled. When the district launched the recent ThoughtExchange forums, parents were told their voices mattered. But public records show that a manual gatekeeping process is actively occurring behind the scenes, with district communications staff manually overriding system flags to control which community comments are seen and which are hidden.

Finally, when we demand legal transparency, the district resorts to outright obstruction. 

When I requested narrow payroll lines, separation agreements, and intake complaints for these sidelined administrators, I was slapped with a six-month delay—until mid-December.

The families of this district notice the stalling, we notice the hypocrisy, and we expect this board to start demanding immediate accountability from the central office.

 Sincerely,
Kristen Price

Here is a video of Kristen Price speaking at the June 3, 2026 Highline School Board Meeting.

[NOTE FROM EDITOR:  If you wish to submit a story, photo, article or letter, please email us at info@thehighlinejournal.com  Even if you wish to remain anonymous, please include your name and phone number so we may contact you privately. We look forward to hearing from you.]