Rainier Beach High School Begins New Era With New Principal and Building

by Nimra Ahmad

For Gian Rosario, who graduated from Rainier Beach High School (RBHS) in 2018, it doesn't feel like too long ago that he was packing his friends into his mom's Honda Odyssey and driving them to school board meetings after school. Why? To urge the school board to renovate and upgrade the school building.

The fight for RBHS's renovation has a long and storied history. In 2012, students walked out in protest of deteriorating conditions at the school. In 2017, when Rosario was a junior at Beach, as it's often called in Rainier Beach, he and other students gave public testimony at school board meetings to advocate for its renovation.

In 2019, the school board approved the creation of a new building for Beach as part of the Building Excellence (BEX) V Capital Levy.

A decade after the start of the fight, construction of the new building began in the summer of 2022. Move-in is scheduled for January of next year, though the building is not expected to be completed until fall of 2026.

Not only will RBHS be getting a new building, they will also be welcoming a new principal: Annie Patu, who has worked at RBHS off and on since the 1990s. Most recently, she was the school's vice principal for two years from 2020 to 2022.

"This was definitely one of my dream jobs — to come back and to lead Beach," Patu said of the new position.

Changes are coming to RBHS, and by extension to Rainier Beach, this coming school year.

A New Building

The new high school will be around 300,000 square feet with four floors and will accommodate 1,600 students. In addition to the building, the BEX V funding will also provide resources such as computers and printers.

A few notable features of the new building include an atrium — students from the bottom floor will be able to see all the way to the top floor; a commons area for gathering and eating; a gymnasium, which senior project manager of Lydig Construction, Patrick McGlothlin, said he's particularly excited about; and a black box performing arts theater.

Additionally, it's a "very sustainable building," according to McGlothlin.

Geothermal wells are drilled throughout the site to harness the Earth's natural energy to heat and cool the building, creating an energy-efficient system. Solar panels will also be installed to offset some energy consumption.

Virginia Bethea, a community advocate and lead in the RBHS renovation, said that a clean environment and a healthy learning environment go hand in hand.

"To be able to set a clear path towards a cleaner environment, a healthier learning environment for our students, has been the goal for some time, and so for them to be able to see that, and for it to come to fruition before their very eyes … is a dream come true," Bethea said.

This has been an occupied renovation, meaning that students and faculty were onsite as renovations took place. Bethea said this was something that was negotiated back in 2013, and Rosario echoed the importance of keeping that demand in place.

"It was very important to get community voices heard, especially students, because they're the ones that are going to be in the building, and they're the ones who are going to use it. And there was also a lot of emphasis on the school not being gentrified," Rosario said. "That's why we were asking for an in-house renovation where the students would stay at Rainier Beach — we didn't want to leave Rainier Beach at all while they were building, we wanted to stay in it."

McGlothlin said what made the RBHS project stand out from other K—12 renovations he's worked on is the community involvement.

"From day one, the community has had a presence," McGlothlin said. "I mean, the community fought to keep the school open to start with, really pushed the district and worked with the district to get the funding, get it included in the levy to fund the new construction, have been involved through the contractor selection process and all the way through. But I think the other piece is, from where I sit, it's a really productive partnership with community … Sometimes it feels maybe like pressure, but I think it's good. Definitely moving the needle in a good way."

What's left: Tearing down the old building, constructing a new performing arts building and the main parking lot. McGlothlin is confident in the timeline.

A New Principal

Returning to RBHS for Patu is a homecoming.

"Rainier Beach has been a part of my story since the early '90s, so over four decades," Patu said. "I started as a cheerleader coach for Rainier Beach and that is where I fell in love working with young people."

Coaching inspired Patu to become a teacher, and it was at RBHS that she first started teaching. After a few years, she was laid off due to budget cuts and went on to teach in Tacoma for eight years.

"That's the place where I experienced student leadership shifting the entire culture of a building," Patu said. "With that experience, and wanting to expand my influence school-wide, that's what interested me in administration."

Patu again returned to Beach as an administrative intern, and then went on to be an assistant principal at Franklin High School for four years. When the pandemic hit, she came back to Beach and served as assistant principal for two years, then worked as an administrator at Kentridge High School in Kent. That was her last position before landing in the role of principal at Beach.

RBHS has been an accredited International Baccalaureate (IB) school since 2013, and Patu said that watching IB evolve has been "amazing as far as the instructional excellence" it has brought to the school. She realizes, though, that there is some questioning and confusion around the "IB for all" narrative, and she wants to combat that.

"The difference with my vision, is that I use the IB learner attributes, which is really the character or the attributes that frame the character around learning. So [IB] has these 10 character attributes that can be adopted in any learning space, not just an IB class," Patu said.

According to the IB program, IB learners should be open-minded, inquisitive and caring, among other things. At RBHS, every student is required to take an IB English class and IB social studies class starting their junior year, but Patu said that she's not so much pushing the program as she is pushing the attributes and the rigorous learning environment.

"What I love about it is that equity is built into those attributes, and I think when we embody those as a staff, as a community, that we will see our students embody it as well," Patu said.

In addition to using the IB learning attributes as an instructional framework, Patu also plans to enforce some other — perhaps controversial — policies, pending parental and community input. First is establishing a cell phone-free zone during instructional and passing periods. There will be designated areas for cell phone use, but Patu plans to limit the use of cell phones for students and faculty to help limit distractions in classrooms.

In response to increased gun violence at schools, Patu plans to make RBHS a closed campus — meaning students will stay on campus during school hours, including lunch. She's also going to push for improved attendance with an Attendance Intervention Specialist who will focus on aiding students who struggle to make it to school.

Patu said the new building will go hand in hand with the new policies and academic excellence she's striving for.

"The new building is symbolic to me, because I know so much about the history of Beach and the adversity that this community has overcome. And I always say that when I think about Beach, the word that comes to mind is 'overcomer,'" Patu said. "When I look at the existing building and I see the new building, for me, it's symbolic of moving from where Rainier Beach is to where Rainier Beach is going. And for me, when I look at the new building, I see it as a beacon of hope for our community."

📸 Featured Image: Vestiges of the old Rainier Beach High School are seen with its storied list of state championships as the construction a new high school rise behind it. (Photo: Phil Manzano)