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COMMUNITY | Girl Scout garners Gold Award, writes gardening book [6] CRIME ALERT | Redmond Police Blotter [3] SPORTS | LWSD implements program aimed at reducing and managing concussions. [9]
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
A DIVISION OF SOUND PUBLISHING
REI moving back to Bellevue in fall 2016 SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
In about a year, REI will be relocating its Redmond Town Center (RTC) store back to Bellevue, the speciality outdoor retailer announced this week on its website. In fall of 2016, the Seattle-based company and consumer cooperative will move its Redmond location “to better inspire, educate and outfit over 126,000 active REI members in the Bellevue area,” according to the press release. REI Bellevue will occupy the second level of the Bel-
Five staff members from Redmond-based Medical Teams International (MTI) joined 14 evanta.com employees from Portland, Ore. on a recent trip to Sehatix, Guatemala. There, they visited 50 indigenous families and focused on maternal and childhood health, and helped build disease-reducing latrines and hand-washing stations. The weeklong installation was a collaborative effort with the villagers, who are among Guatemala’s poorest people. Courtesy of MTI Guatemala staff, Gladis Juc
Students keep journalism ablaze at RHS SAMANTHA PAK spak@redmond-reporter.com
Since the 1960s, The Blaze has been a source of news for all things Redmond High School (RHS). But putting out the paper is not easy. It takes a lot of time and — more importantly — money. It is the latter (or lack thereof) that has members of the student publication working to figure out a way to
SAMANTHA PAK
keep the paper going as it no longer receives funding from the school. This is the second year in a row the Blaze has not been funded and RHS senior Claire Perry, the Blaze’s editor in chief, said due to their lack of funding, they had to go without the first two issues of the newspaper last year — their fall and winter issues. The Blaze comes out four times a year.
spak@redmond-reporter.com
UNSTABLE STRUCTURE
In addition to the lack of funding, the Blaze has also faced some structural inconsistencies as it has gone back and forth from being a class students can receive credit for and be graded on, to an after-school [ more BLAZE page 5 ]
LWSD task force makes recommendations for growing enrollment
Maddy Bennett (left) and Claire Perry with issues of The Blaze. SAMANTHA PAK, Redmond Reporter
The Lake Washington School District’s (LWSD) Long-Term Facilities Task Force recently came out with a number of recommendations for the district regarding its growing enrollment. According to a district press release, districtwide enrollment is estimated to increase to more than 30,000 students by 2021-22. That is more than 5,000 more students than district schools were built to serve, the release states. There is little space left in current school buildings, some of which
need replacing due to their age and building conditions. “The district continues to experience significant growth and it’s critical that we develop a long-term facility strategy to address both our growth and our aging facilities,” said LWSD Superintendent Dr. Traci Pierce. This was the challenge the task force faced as it began its work last December. A smaller working subcommittee of the task force dug into the details of the district’s overall needs, use of space, funding for school buildings, ways to reduce costs and other issues. The task force [ more LWSD page 3]
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Medical Teams International members lend a hand in Guatemala
levue Central Shopping Center at the northeast corner of 116th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 4th Street and will feature more than 40,000 square feet of space, including bike and snow shops. Although REI is part of RTC, Courtney Klein, property manager for RTC, said the town center does not own the property. “As far as their location here in Redmond, the land/ building that REI is on is owned by REI – not RTC,” she said. Mike Ferris, a spokesperson for REI, said the current Redmond location is slightly [ more REI page 5 ]