Education Connection

Education and Training Opportunities

Higher Education

Continuing education and job training opportunities are convenient for Burien resident.› Three publicly-support colleges are within a 15-minute drive. They are Highline Community College, Renton Technical College and South Seattle Community College.

More than a dozen colleges and universities are less than an hour's commute from Burien.› They include Pacific Lutheran University, Puget Sound University, Seattle Pacific University, Seattle University and the University of Washington in both Seattle and Tacoma.› Many institutions offer job and personal enrichment at times convenient for working adults.

Highline Community College educates more than 17,000 credit and non-credit students each year at its campus overlooking Puget Sound (Highline Community College photos above, right).

Educational Opportunities

Burien is home to the Puget Sound Educational Service District, which provides support to schools that serve more than 383,000 children in King and Pierce Counties. The ESD staff offers professional training, early childhood, financial, and instructional services; and cost-effective purchasing to the 35 public school districts and more than 200 private schools in this area.› The Washington State Criminal Justice Training and Conference Center is based on a wooded 39-acre campus in Burien. Law enforcement agencies statewide send their officers here for basic and advanced training. A 12-week Citizens Police Academy helps educate interested residents about law enforcements tasks.

Highline School District

The Highline School District educates almost 17,600 children in Burien and the surrounding communities of Des Moines, Normandy Park, SeaTac, and White Center.

Nine schools serve more than 5,000 students within the City of Burien at Highline High School; Sylvester Middle School; and Cedarhurst, Gregory Heights, Hazel Valley, Seahurst, Shorewood and Sunnydale elementary schools; and the SeaTac Occupational Skills Center.› The district's new aviation high school serving King County Students will open in the fall of 2004 with its first 100 students in the freshman class.

A community-approved bond issue in 2002 is supporting the replacement of Gregory Heights and Hazel Valley elementary schools with new state-of-the-art buildings that will open in September 2004.› Cedarhurst Elementary will also be replaced with a new facility as soon as state funds are received.

Final finishes are being done on the new Hazel Valley›Elementary School.

(City of Burien photo)

Highline School District students receive computer training, helping them develop needed skills when they enter the workforce.

(Highline School District Photo)