At the June 30 meeting the Tahoma School Board unanimously voted to close Russell Ridge Center.
The school was an alternative learning experience (ALE) program or school. Some of the students who attended Russell Ridge are part time and some are full time.
Once the 2015-16 school year starts, those students will have to find another option for their education.
The closing of the school has been a hot topic in Maple Valley since a letter from Superintendent Rob Morrow was sent to Russell Ridge parents in March of this year, announcing the closure of the school.
School board President Tami Henkel said in a phone interview in March the board had been talking about closing Russell Ridge since October 2012.
In 2013, the board did a viability update on the center to evaluate whether to continue the program or not.
Kevin Patterson, spokesperson for the district, said the board members arrived at their decisions independently, with little group discussion. Each one gave a statement at the June 30 meeting with their response to the agenda action item, “Approve closure of Russell Ridge Center.”
Patterson said, “The board weighed this decision very seriously.”
Larry Baldwin, a parent of two Russell Ridge students, said in an email Monday he was “extremely frustrated” by the board’s decision.
Baldwin said, “…in my opinion, the board used their power to defend the district administration instead of seeing that keeping Russell Ridge open had no adverse effect on the district, but a close vote did.”
Patterson said the students who attended Russell Ridge have three options: attend their neighborhood school, go to a similar ALE program at another district or be home-schooled.
Baldwin said it is unlikely Russell Ridge students will attend their neighborhood schools.
“After all, roughly 75 (percent) of the Tahoma RR students came from a Tahoma school that wasn’t working for them. Thus, the district will not be receiving the funds that they were for those students,” he said.
He added, “Russell Ridge families are working together to create a co-op that will be better in the long run than district led education.”
The district is currently in the process of reviewing their elementary school programs now. Patterson said once that is done, which is expected to be in early 2016, they will look at doing a “comprehensive” review and design of an ALE program.
“Rather than focusing on a program that was already in place, we want to start from scratch and design an AL program that meets needs of students here and is in line with state AL standards,” Patterson said.
