Board hears proposal to move programs from Thomson and raze school

Hearing for public input planned for March 29, 6 p.m., in board room

March 2006 - Renton School Board members were presented a proposal at a recent meeting to move programs currently housed at Thomson School into other buildings in the district and raze the school.

At previous study sessions, Board members had heard an update on the condition of the school and options for housing the academic programs at other district facilities as well as a discussion of the financial impacts of keeping the school open.

Rick Stracke, the district’s executive director for facilities planning, reported to board members that closing the school is a facilities issue: Thomson is the district’s least salvageable facility.

Superintendent Dolores Gibbons told board members that closing a school is a challenging and difficult decision: students, staff, parents and community are all affected in some manner.

“However,” Dr. Gibbons added, “this move does not eliminate any programs for students or cause the loss of a job for any staff. We have the capacity to house kindergarten students at their neighborhood schools; we have space availability at other facilities to house other programs currently at Thomson; and staffing needs remain the same.”

The proposal includes use of the current Thomson site for a new capital projects, security, maintenance and grounds department facility; these departments currently share space with the transportation department (expected to continue to reside at its current site). The proposal also calls for a community area at the site, including a park with children’s Big Toy and continued availability of current sports fields.

Board members continue to deliberate the proposal and will take staff and community input at a public hearing on Wednesday, March 29, 6 p.m. in the board room at the district administrative offices. They will act on the proposal at their scheduled meeting on April 5.

MORE INFORMATION:

A diagram of the proposed location for programs currently housed at Thomson, PDF File 58K

Minutes from several School Board study sessions in which facilities use and Thomson School were discussed: