Highline Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Ivan Duran is recommending that Maritime High School close at the end of the 2026-27 school year, citing enrollment declines, financial strain and the district's inability to secure the school a permanent campus. The specialty high school, which focuses on the maritime industry and operates out of an interim site in Des Moines, currently serves just 83 students. The Highline school board has not yet made a decision on the proposal.
Duran laid out the recommendation in a message to Maritime families, writing, “I am recommending to the school board that we close Maritime High School at the end of this school year,” according to West Seattle Blog, which reported that a reader with a child at the school forwarded the family announcement the superintendent sent out the afternoon the news broke. Duran also confirmed the school's enrollment directly, stating, “Maritime currently has 83 students.” Highline Public Schools confirms the superintendent's recommendation is driven by enrollment, financial sustainability and facility needs, and notes that the school board has not made a decision.
Maritime High School opened in September 2021 as a small, project-based school built around maritime careers, marine science and environmental work, according to Highline's list of choice schools. It is described by Northwest Maritime as a regional choice public high school in Des Moines, Washington, offering students exposure to real-world maritime careers through site tours, mentorships and internships, per the school's own admissions page. In April 2026, Maritime students worked with floating wetlands on the Duwamish River as part of that hands-on curriculum.
Enrollment Numbers Don't Add Up to a Sustainable Model
Enrollment at Maritime has declined over the past three years and has not reached the level needed to sustain the school's current model, per the superintendent. The SeaTac Blog reported that the school serves 83 students including 14 ninth graders, while West Seattle Blog separately put the ninth-grade count at 13 — a discrepancy the dossier does not resolve. Despite efforts to find a permanent home, Highline has not identified one, and district leaders do not anticipate securing a permanent facility for Maritime in the foreseeable future, according to the SeaTac Blog. The school has remained at Highline's Olympic Interim Site in Des Moines throughout its six years of operation.
To keep Maritime running, Highline has relied on additional district resources and outside-partner funding, but the district says it can no longer sustain that level of support. The strain comes against a backdrop of sweeping cuts: Highline had to reduce its budget by $8 million for the current school year, according to a district budget update, and central office departments are cutting their own budgets by at least 8%, including $1.4 million in non-staffing reductions. The district is also planning roughly $5 million in additional reductions for 2027-28, saying state funding is falling short of costs, and has warned that further cuts may be needed to bring revenues and expenses back into alignment.
What Happens Between Now and the December Vote
The Highline school board is scheduled to vote on the closure recommendation Dec. 9, after a series of opportunities for public input. Students, families, staff and community members will have a chance to weigh in before the board decides, and the district has said it will share more details about the time, location and testimony sign-up process ahead of a Dec. 2 public hearing dedicated to the proposal. Under Washington law, a school board deciding on a closure must conduct hearings to receive public testimony on issues related to it, per the Washington State Legislature's school-closure statute, though the law does not spell out every procedural detail of how many hearings are required or when.
If the board approves the recommendation, Maritime High School would close at the end of June 2027, while the Class of 2027 would still graduate as scheduled. Even as the closure looms, the school's admissions timeline continues on paper: applications for the 2027-28 school year are set to open Dec. 7 and close Jan. 31, 2027, according to Maritime's own admissions page.
A School Built to Diversify a Graying Industry
Maritime High School has been promoted as a way to help ensure a continued labor pipeline into Washington's maritime industry, which the Port of Seattle says supports more than 170,000 jobs and nearly $46 billion in revenue statewide, with average annual compensation of $112,000 including benefits. Many of those jobs, including the field's most common occupation — welders, cutters, solderers and brazers — pay a living wage without requiring a four-year degree, according to the same Washington Maritime Federation study cited by the port.
The school was also designed with a specific equity goal in mind. The Seattle Times has reported that Maritime aims to break up what it called the centuries-old boys club of the maritime business by helping women and youth of color find pathways into the field, at a time when the average maritime worker in Washington is 54 years old. A potential closure would leave that mission, and the state's first dedicated maritime high school, without its original home. Highline's situation also echoes pressures playing out elsewhere in the region: Seattle Public Schools has begun its own months-long process that could lead to school mergers amid declining enrollment, according to KOMO News, though that process is separate from Highline's and not detailed in this proposal.
