A Message to the Renton School District community:

The Board of Directors would like to thank the more than 500 parents, community leaders and staff that attended the Community Budget meetings over the past week. We attended every meeting and were very pleased to offer this new process that actively sought your comments and suggestions prior to the creation of the first budget draft. In addition to the budget meetings, there were close to 1,000 surveys completed by our constituents on the school district Web site. We truly value your participation in each forum.

You might be wondering, what are the next steps? Your suggestions will be compiled, analyzed and discussed, and included in the formulation of the draft budget. We will then come back out to you on April 20, 21 and 22 to present the draft for further review. These are difficult times for our state, our cities and our schools. Together as a community, we will work through the difficult choices that must be made with the goal of providing safe and high quality classroom instruction for the 14,500 students in the district.

We appreciate everyone who came out to give us their ideas and share their passions. For more information regarding the budget please visit the school district Web site: www.rentonschools.us

Respectfully, the Board of Directors, Renton School District

President Lynn Desmarais, Vice President David Merrill and members Al Talley, Todd Franceschina and Pam Teal