OPEN LETTER | Highline Prioritizes Relief from Oversight. What About Academics?

Editor's Note: The following Open Letter was submitted by verified Highline Public Schools parent Kristen Price.

Dear Superintendent Duran and Members of the Board,

I am writing to urge the Board to reject the current draft of the 2027 Legislative Agenda until it is revised to reflect the actual academic and transparency needs of our community.

The Superintendent’s action report states that this agenda was developed after reviewing the priorities of the Northshore and Bellevue school districts. While we can agree on shared goals like closing the gap in Special Education funding, using wealthy Eastside districts as a primary template for Highline’s needs is deeply flawed. We share very few demographic or economic realities with Bellevue or Northshore.

More concerning is that when we look to those districts for inspiration, our administration’s main "additional priority" is a plan to use our $43,000-a-year state lobbyist to weaken public oversight.

The current agenda asks the legislature to amend the Public Records Act to allow the district to put transparency requests "on hold," complaining that public oversight costs the district over $500,000 a year. The paperwork claims this anti-transparency measure "would cost the state nothing," but what it actually does is continue the erosion of community trust.

Furthermore, I have observed the behavior of this district—both directly and through the experiences of other community members—and can point to plenty of examples demonstrating that the district's priority is to be as inefficient as possible in an effort to produce as few public records as possible. This is easily evidenced by the district issuing countless invoices for mere cents, a tactic seemingly deployed in the hopes that the public will simply give up and not follow up after already waiting months since their initial request.

It would be highly beneficial for the Board to demand insight into the district's actual process for fulfilling these requests. Considering the public records officer has admitted to at least one community member that no formal process actually exists, creating one is a clear opportunity for the efficiency improvement the district claims to so desperately need.

If you look at the actual legislative agendas the Superintendent referenced, you will find that neither Bellevue nor Northshore is using public funds to lobby against the Public Records Act. Instead, they are lobbying for policies that directly impact student outcomes and district stability.

Bellevue, for example, is actively asking the state for strategies to mitigate the impact of statewide enrollment declines, to comprehensively fix the pupil transportation formula to better support students experiencing homelessness and foster youth, and to use the findings of the K-12 Equity Funding Work Group to build an equitable school funding system.

Northshore is lobbying to eliminate or fund unfunded mandates across all policy areas, ensure competitive classified salaries, and support climate action and energy cost efficiency in schools through solar panels and geothermal HVAC.

Why is Highline’s central office prioritizing protection from public records requests while our peers are lobbying for critical student interventions and systemic funding reform? Where is the urgent legislative demand for state intervention to fix our plummeting math proficiency?

I am asking this board to send this draft back. A $43,000 lobbyist should be fighting for our students' academic survival, not running interference for the central office. We need a legislative agenda that prioritizes classrooms over central office comfort.

Sincerely,
Kristen Price

RESOURCE:

Highline School District Proposed 2027 Legislative Priorities

Editor's Note: Letters to the Editor reflect the views of their authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of The Highline Journal. To submit a letter, article, story idea, or photo for consideration, email info@thehighlinejournal.com.