Black River is an alternative public school that hosts students who struggle in normal classroom settings.

Mother Wendy Bluhm reported that extra security, including the King County Sheriff’s Office, were called to the school, while teachers broke the news.

However, Renton School District spokesperson Randy Matheson later stated in an e-mail that extra security was not used.

“The students were really upset. They don’t know what to do,” she said. “I’m sure dropping out is going through their minds.”

The district has plans to tear down the Black River facility and to build a new Secondary Learning Center in its place, according to a press release.

A new alternative program will be designed during the facility’s construction. It’s scheduled to open in the 2012-2013 school year.

The decision to close the school came with little discussion, said Bluhm. Teachers didn’t hear about it until an early April staff meeting.

“This didn’t occur until the last minute,” Bluhm said. “It was never in the budget.”
Parents are planning to attend Wednesday’s board meeting at the Kohlwes Education Center, 7 p.m., April 14.

Below is a press release.
Dist to Build New BR Site-3!30!10 (2)

Left: seventh-grader David Grieve. Right: Wife Shami and David Grieve now live in Marion Indiana.

A Midwest pastor sent the Renton School District a letter of confession and a $100 check of contrition for stealing food from a student store when he was a seventh-grader at Nelsen Middle School.

In 1988, David Grieve was navigating life as a bespectacled preteen and trying to fit in with the cool kids.
That year Grieve got his big chance: he was assigned to the student store, selling food and school supplies to students during the school day.
The big-selling items at the store were beef jerky and pepperoni sticks. His adviser instructed him and others that if any food items fell on the floor, they were to be tossed out.
The boys soon began to crave the pepperoni sticks and eventually succumbed to the allure of meaty goods. They began eating the food, claiming that the jerky and pepperoni would mysteriously and without help unwrap and fall to the ground. The boys also started to pocket some of the money from sales.
Now, fast-forward more than 20 years. Grieve has moved to the Midwest and become a pastor at New Life
Community Church in Marion, Indiana.
Recently, while talking to fellow church members about having a clear conscience with God, Grieve remembered his time in the student store at Nelsen Middle School and all of the food he and the cool kids consumed, along with the change they pocketed.
Guided by faith, he wrote a letter of contrition to the staff at Nelsen, confessing his transgressions. To make amends, he also included a check for $100 to replace the lost income.
Grieve told the district he now feels better after confessing his antics. Even more though, he says, it was the right thing to do. He learned to practice what he preaches.