City council considers one-time funding of Ready K program
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 24, 2026
The city of Renton is considering providing the Renton School District with funds for the Ready Kindergarten program.
At the June 15 meeting, the Renton City Council voted to direct the city administration to negotiate and return a proposed agreement with the Renton School District for one-time funding not to exceed $500,000 to maintain the Ready K programs at Hilltop Heritage Elementary and Talbot Hill Elementary for the 2026-27 year.
Ready K is a full-day transitional kindergarten program for children turning 4 years old on or before Aug. 31, live within Renton School District boundaries and have had no access to quality early learning experiences. The program follows the district calendar and runs Monday through Friday.
“Due to budget reductions from the State, Renton School District’s allocation for Ready K was cut from 265 to 175 student spots,” Renton School District Director of Community Relations Randy Matheson said. “This means that we will be reducing Ready K classrooms at five of our 16 elementary schools.”
Ready K programs are in the elementary school buildings and have a certified teacher and a classified paraeducator.
“Without that access, many children enter kindergarten already behind their peers,” councilmember Valerie O’Halloran said. “Data shows that students who have participated in the ReadyK program outperform other kindergarten students who do not participate in the program. These are reasons that I support this because we are investing in those children who are innocent in all of this process and who are the ones most deserving of getting a leg up in our educational system.”
Councilmember Ed Prince said the school system is a leg of the five-legged stool supporting the city and it needs their help.
“When we’re always talking about wanting to make sure that we make investments upstream to ensure that kids get what they need, this is an investment upstream that we can see tangibly right away,” Prince said. “When my daughter was in elementary school, I remember dropping her off and seeing all the Ready K. They were getting ready to walk into the schoolhouse and how excited they were and how cute they were. I remember thinking to myself, what an investment the district was making to ensure that these kids are ready.”
Councilmember Carmen Rivera supported the $500,000 investment but worried it would not be a long-term solution and proposed a 0.1% sales tax to fund the program.
“The state of Washington passed HB 2442, which allows us to increase a 0.1% sales tax for children and families,” Rivera said. “We have done this for public safety. We’ve done it for our transportation benefit district. We’ve done this twice for, again, public safety and a transportation bi- benefit district council. We could also technically, I think, use these funds to help with this ReadyK and pre-K program. We would actually probably be able to provide more long-term funding over time, especially with what we know we can get from our sales tax.”
Councilmember James Alberson was the lone vote against the emergency fund agreement preparation. He argued funding this program was the school system’s responsibility.
“They started something that they could not find the funds to continue to operate. That’s problem number one that potentially lands in our lap,” Alberson said. “We set the precedent. Half a million dollars is not a small amount.”
Alberson was also against the idea of a councilmanic sales tax increase.
“I don’t think the public at large is going to appreciate an additional tax levied upon them no matter what the cost,” Alberson said.
Rivera said the school system originally requested $1.3 million for all five schools, each requiring $250,000. The city instead is prioritizing two of the three schools within the city that are in communities requiring the most need. Rivera said the Renton School District is in conversation with Issaquah and King County to aid in funding at the two schools outside of Renton.
