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Many Renton School supporters feel they are being “Gaslighted” when told by district leaders that they voted to expand Renton High School into the neighborhood, taking 40 homes and businesses
Like the majority of Renton voters, I’ve always voted “YES” when asked for more funding by the Renton School District. Our children are our future, and they deserve the best start in life that we can give them.
But about a year ago I had an unexpected online disagreement with the husband of a School Board member, when I learned about the neighborhood that is being forcibly taken and destroyed to support the school expansion. He seemed to think it was common knowledge that the mass condemnations were going to happen, and I said I was not in favor of it. I had thought the school was going to move if we approved the bond issue. His comments sent me to the School District’s website to get my facts straight.
Well, it turns out, the School District CHANGED the details of what we voted for, after the election.
The bond issue is for 676 million dollars– over a billion dollars with interest. It’s a little short of details, so the last line directs voters to the www.rentonschools.us for more information.
Like most bond issues, the wording was short on details, so voters were told to look to the district website to see the plans.
The School District Website pointed voters to this page to get the details (which is still on the website), where voters could scroll down for property purchase details:
And here is the wording today: “Identify and purchase additional property for the expansion of the Renton High School site….we will build the new Renton High School on an expanded site at the current location”
It looks like we all voted to expand the school site, and condemn numerous homes and businesses.
But wait! What did this website say when we were voting? Check the wayback machine…..
The wording when we were voting in November 2022; “Identify and purchase about 40 acres for a future Renton High School site…we will build the new Renton High campus within district boundaries (location to be determined)”
The wayback machine also reminds me that prior to the election, the School District website also included many reasons that Renton High School had to be moved. This page was also on the website:
This page gives numerous reasons that Renton High School has to relocate to a new site, including being built on a Native American Historical site and Airport restrictions. This page can no longer be found on the School District’s website.
All of this text has now been removed from the website, and the eminent domain actions have begun to increase the Renton High footprint at a location that the district does not like.
So, we are not losing our wits when we remember we were voting to move the school, not condemn the neighborhood around it.
I looked into this further after attending the special meeting on eminent domain last week, and was surprised to see that the district now reports they were 18 months into a two-year school-siting study when we had the election. Many residents of the impacted neighborhood now believe the District had already decided they might condemn their neighborhood, but didn’t want to put it on the ballot because they knew many of us would not vote for that. The ballot issue needed 60% to pass, and it got 63%; so 3.5 % of voters saying “no” to condemning all these homes and businesses would have saved the neighborhood. I would have been one of them.
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