District Presents New School Design

The Renton School District has a plan to reduce overcrowding in its middle schools.

A new school in Newcastle, on the site of Renton Academy and near Hazelwood Elementary, is set to begin construction in March 2015, thanks to a voter-supported bond measure in April 2012.

The district teamed up with NAC Architecture and displayed schematic designs for the school to the community on Thursday at an open house.

“I’m very happy that they’re building a new school,” Renee Barger said. “My son’s seventh grade class at McKnight Middle School has 460 kids in it.”

Currently McKnight has almost 1,200 students across grades 6 through 8. Construction coordinator Stewart Shusterman said the new school will even out the population of the middle schools.

“They aren’t able to provide the middle school programs they are designed to provide because there are just too many kids,” Shusterman said.

The new middle school will open in September 2016 for students, so the first students who will go there are entering grades 3 through 5 this fall. It will be the fourth middle school in the district, joining McKnight, Dimmitt and Nelsen. Renton Academy students, who are in grades K-12, will move to Spring Glen in south Renton.

The budgeted $46 million will go towards a two-story building with new “green” technologies, such as a displacement ventilation system and rainwater harvesting.

On the whole, community members expressed excitement for the school, but some also wondered about potential problems.

“I am concerned about the 850 student maximum,” parent Pam Breske said, wondering if that number was big enough.

Since the school will be on 116th Ave. SE along with Hazelwood, there is also potential for heavy traffic along that street. However, it provides an opportunity for kids to walk to school instead, Barger said, and the increase in development in the area makes the school’s addition all the more timely.