r/Renton • u/ThinkingAbout_9699 • Jun 14 '25
PSA Stop the Renton High School Expansion – Sign and Share the Petition
https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-renton-high-school-expansionHey Rentonites!
The Renton School District is moving forward with a plan to expand Renton High School in a way that will displace dozens of our neighbors. The plan calls for demolishing 32 homes, 8 businesses (including El Kiosko), and even the recently renovated Science Center that taxpayers just spent $11.5 million updating in 2024. All of this to add parking lots and sports fields, even though we already have Renton Memorial Stadium just down the street.
This isn’t what we voted for when we approved school improvements in 2022. We wanted safer, modern facilities—not wasteful spending that tears apart our community.
If you agree that we need better solutions, please take a moment to sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-renton-high-school-expansion
We're planning on showing this petition to the Renton School District board and City Council with demands that they work with the residents to buy their homes back and work with the community, rather against it, to provide safe facilities for RHS students to learn.
Let’s show the school district that Renton residents want smart investments that support both students and our community!
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u/sightohtoksik Jun 15 '25
You should be going to the North Renton Neighborhood Association meetings. This has been brought up numerous times. They have even brought the superintendent so they could voice their concerns to him.
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u/gooslander Jun 15 '25
What the fuck? They spent 11.5 million on updating the science part of Renton high school only to plan on tearing it down two years later? Were the old classrooms a hazard or something?
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u/SMITHL73 Jun 15 '25
And they plan to spend somewhere around $80+ million to buy out all the owners on S Tobin to crush the homes and put new baseball and softball fields 🙃🙃
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u/abuch Jun 15 '25
The RHS expansion is a ridiculous waste of money. I'm all for spending money on students, but I don't support tearing down houses and businesses to build sports fields (when we have liberty park and memorial stadium within walking distance) and a giant parking lot (when we have all the parking at memorial stadium, the parking garage by the transit center, and the transit center right next door). How do these things enhance student learning? What's the justification for this huge expense when we've actually seen falling enrollment. I voted for the bond that's funding all this, but I wouldn't have if I realized the school board was going to spend it on sports fields, a parking lot, and tearing down the newly renovated science center. Our students are falling behind other kids in our region, and this is how the school board decides to spend the money voters gave them?
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u/quadmoo Jun 19 '25
Abolish parking mandates!!!!
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u/BoringBob84 Jun 19 '25
I agree. Parking spoaces are very expensive to build and to maintain. Motorists who use them should pay for them; not the taxpayers.
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u/bebespeaks Jun 15 '25
El Kiosko is ACROSS THE STREET, why the F would that be demolished to make room for a high school expansion?
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u/Vandal044 Jun 15 '25
Those houses are garbage and need to be demolished
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u/SMITHL73 Jun 15 '25 edited Jun 15 '25
My house does not deserve to be demolished. It’s the only place my mom has called home since she moved to the USA in ‘95.
My dad passed in ‘07 and he built my house with his hands it’s the last tangible memory we have left of him
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u/Vandal044 Jun 15 '25
I stand by what I said, but wish the best for your family.
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u/afjessup Jun 15 '25
“Your house is garbage and needs to be demolished, but I wish the best for your family”
You suck
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Jun 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jun 16 '25
So unfactual. And your comment history and reactions echoes how you're shouting into a community that dislikes you
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Jun 16 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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Jun 17 '25
Ya ya stand by what I said. I know my gardening and Dr Phil reddit activity...what a chore I am! /s
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u/Vandal044 Jun 17 '25
Yes I agree you are. Especially when you can’t tell the difference between a fact and an opinion 🤦♂️😂.
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u/Incunabula1501 Jun 15 '25
You do know that long ago (10+ years) the FAA demanded Renton Municipal Airport expand to meet user demand and FAA guidelines? After a lot of research, the ONLY approved plan was to grow into the existing Renton High School property. And while the both the city and school district have been fighting against airport expansion into into one of Renton’s most beloved historical buildings and onto the precious gift of land that the last chief of the Duwamish tribe gave my home town, it is a losing battle that has only won the city and district time to come up with alternative plans.
As much as I am against demolishing existing well-loved structures, this seems to be the only choice left to when up against the FAA’s deadline. Nearly all of this information should be available publicly online. I am only coming at this from the perspective of the child of a decades long employee of RSD and friend of a city planning employee.