Superintendent’s Blog: BSD’s Beloved Community

Dear BSD Community,

Four weeks into the school year, we are off to a great start. Fall athletics and activities have kicked off. Homecoming dances are underway. And schools are hosting fall curriculum nights. Kudos to the Interlake staff for a great curriculum night this week! I got to attend as a dad and loved meeting the teachers, getting to know other parents, and hearing about the exciting learning ahead this year.

Of the many strengths of our district, one of our greatest strengths is the diversity of our community. I definitely witnessed that at Interlake’s curriculum night. Across all of our schools, there are 104 different home languages spoken and 117 different countries of birth. We have kids and families of so many different cultural backgrounds and from all over the world. This month and next, we’re uplifting many in our community as we celebrate monthly recognitions such as National Hispanic Heritage Month, Filipino American History Month, Learning Disability Awareness Month, and Dyslexia Awareness Month.

Beloved Community: Jewish High Holy Days and Combatting Antisemitism

One thing that is coming up in October are the Jewish High Holy Days — some of the most important holidays for our Jewish community, such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Rabbi Daniel Weiner, Senior Rabbi of Temple De Hirsch Sinai and someone I consider a friend, shared this with me about the upcoming High Holy Days and their significance to the Jewish community:

The essence of Rosh Hashanah/The New Year and Yom Kippur/The Day of Atonement is teshuvah — repentance, or a return to the right path and to our best selves. But this is a challenging process, requiring self-awareness of our mistakes and limitations, honesty in confronting our faults, a conviction to improve ourselves, and a commitment to make the right choice when confronted with the opportunity to err. In these troubling and tumultuous times, this kind of deep reflection, probing assessment, and dedication to improving ourselves, and thus improving the world, could hold the key to reconciling the deep divides that plague our culture and our nation.

As our Jewish students, families, staff and neighbors celebrate these holidays, they are at the same time burdened by the increase in antisemitism across our country. In our district, we saw an increase in incidents of antisemitism this past year compared to previous years. (Note: BSD uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, which has also been adopted by the City of Bellevue and other federal and state agencies as well as federal civil rights laws that govern the Bellevue School District.) There is simply no place for hate of any kind in our schools and workplace.

As a Beloved Community in the Bellevue School District, we are charting a different course where we, in our great diversity, learn to appreciate one another, seek to understand the perspectives of others, and call each other into community even when (especially when) times are tough. It is our commitment to a Beloved Community that compels us as a community to build friendships across differences and address issues of hunger, poverty and hatred.

Over the past year, I’ve engaged in my own learning about antisemitism and how to combat it, including taking my superintendent cabinet to the Holocaust Center for Humanity in Seattle, attending a training put on by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, and visiting the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington D.C. It’s important that I, as the superintendent, understand the lived experiences of our children and families and understand the challenges our families might face so that I can best support their thriving. I encourage everyone in our community to join me in deepening our understanding of contemporary forms of antisemitism and collectively combat antisemitism here in our district.

Beloved Community: Addressing Anxiety and Depression and the Issue of Cell Phones and Social Media

While I was walking from class to class at the Interlake curriculum night, I saw “cell phone pocket charts” in every classroom. Every Interlake teacher is asking kids to put their phones in a numbered pocket chart during class so they can focus on their learning. With this school-wide practice, a number of teachers reported a positive shift in student focus and community building.

The issue of cell phones and social media is a hot topic for families (including mine) right now. According to Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, cell phones and social media are a key driver behind the concerning rise in mental health issues, anxiety and depression in our youth. To help us learn more as a community about this, the Bellevue Schools Foundation (BSF) — a longtime partner in supporting student mental health — is collaborating with the Bellevue PTSA Council and ParentMap to host a webinar with Jonathan Haidt for BSD families this October. In addition, BSF and Bellevue PTSA are partnering with me to host a two-session book study on The Anxious Generation to dialogue as a community about this issue and how we can work together to address this. Stay tuned for more information coming soon.

To learn more about the Bellevue Schools Foundation, I invite you to join me at the BSF Annual Block Party on Saturday, September 28, at Downtown Bellevue Park from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Our Future is in Good Hands

That’s it for this blog post. I’m proud of what I’m seeing with our students so far this year. On top of the amazing news about our National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists for 2025, our students across our schools are impressing me with their hard work, their multitude of talents, and especially their care for people and for our planet. I can say with confidence that our future is in good hands.

For Our Future World,