Superintendent’s Blog: BSD’s Best Year Yet

Bellevue School District Community!  

Welcome to the 2026-2027 school year! I hope you had a wonderful summer. Sometimes summers can be amazing, and sometimes summers are just plain hard. Whatever type of summer you experienced, I hope you know that we are so excited to see you, welcome you, and walk alongside you as we embark on what I hope will be BSD’s best year yet. As we start this new year, I am feeling a renewed sense of optimism, hope, and excitement. Here are a few things to celebrate and look forward to as we kick off this new school year.

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The Best High Schools in the Nation 

Last year, we surveyed new families asking them why they chose to send their kids to the Bellevue School District. The number one response was our academic programs. In light of that, we are thrilled to share that for another year, U.S. News and World Report has recognized six of our high schools (comprehensive and choice) among the best in the nation, with four of them ranking in the top 10 in Washington state!

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A Beautiful New Building for Bellevue Big Picture

Bellevue Big Picture School (a 6-12 choice school) is one of our most innovative models in the district. With a focus on real-world learning and high school internships built into the school day, Bellevue Big Picture now has a state-of-the-art building, opening this fall. Located in the former Eastgate Elementary School building, the facility preserves artistic features that celebrate Eastgate’s legacy. It includes conference spaces for student-internship meetings, flexible areas for self-directed learning and presentations, and new science, robotics, and STEM classrooms. Remodeling the existing building saved taxpayers more than $60 million.

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Our Own “World Cup” Community Here in the BSD

Although World Cup fever in Seattle has subsided, many of us are still in awe of the remarkable sense of unity and friendship felt amongst people from different countries, cultures, and languages. In the BSD, we strive to build our own “World Cup” community. We are partnering with our PTSAs this year to focus on community building at every school. We are also continuing to build global language learning opportunities.  

This year, elementary students can study: 

• Mandarin at Jing Mei Elementary School 
• Spanish at Lake Hills, Puesta del Sol, Sherwood Forest and Stevenson Elementary Schools. 
• Arabic at Ardmore Elementary School 
• Korean at Newport Heights Elementary School 
• Japanese at Bennett Elementary School 

We are also excited to announce the development of a Modern Hebrew program, which is planned to launch in fall 2027. Bellevue School District not only welcomes the world; it prepares students to thrive in it.

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Cell Phones, Laptops, and Artificial Intelligence

Talk about cell phones and technology in the classrooms is happening everywhere. This fall, BSD is launching a community Educational Technology advisory to tackle the topic of cell phone bans (we already limit cell phone use during class time) and limiting the use of district laptops in classrooms and homes. The advisory will also explore how to prepare our kids to navigate a future with artificial intelligence while protecting them from its “deskilling” impacts on writing, research, and critical thinking. This past spring, applications were open to students, staff, and families. If you don’t have a chance to be on the advisory, keep an eye out for other opportunities available to you to engage in conversations about technology and our kids.

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Science of Reading Innovation at Sherwood Forest Elementary

Since 2020, BSD elementary teachers have been working tirelessly to upgrade our teaching-of-reading practices and science-of-reading curriculum. We are starting to see promising results from our earliest readers. However, we still have work to do before we can guarantee every family who chooses Bellevue School District that their child will learn to read. This year, Sherwood Forest Elementary is becoming a language and literacy lab school, piloting a pre-dyslexia approach to literacy instruction, using the Orton Gillingham curriculum. It is a gold standard that many dyslexia-focused private schools use to teach kids to read, because of its cutting-edge teaching practices.

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Homeschool and Family Partnership Program Begins a Second Year of Growth

Do you know neighbors who are interested in accessing resources, and support, while homeschooling kids? Our Discovery Family Partnership Program, connected to Bellevue Digital Discovery, had a successful first year last year and is quickly growing in its second year. Students learn at home with their parent(s) or guardian(s) while accessing our curriculum, assessments (as much as you want), catalog of 1000+ online classes through Digital Discovery, and in-person elementary specialists and STEM makerspace time.

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A New Café at the Welcome Center

Last year, we launched the BSD Welcome Center to provide a Nordstrom-like experience for our new families, where they can learn about our programs and schools, enroll, and access services such as Multilingual Learning, Special Education, Advanced Learning, Early Learning/Preschool assistance, and support for families experiencing housing insecurity. This fall, we’re taking it one step further. We will be opening a café in the Welcome Center staffed by our students in the Evergreen Transition Program (ETP) as part of their workplace training! We welcome families and the community to come by, get some great coffee, learn about our district, and support our ETP students in their workplace development. More information on the grand opening is coming soon!

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Improved Financial Stability

Lastly, we have made significant progress in restoring our financial health and are now in a much stronger position than two years ago. Through expert budgeting, disciplined spending, enhanced financial oversight by the School Board, strong partnership with our labor groups, and the collective efforts of staff across the district, we have moved from a period of serious financial strain to one of increased stability and sustainability. Just one year after going into binding conditions with OSPI, we are now projecting to end the year with an almost fully restored fund balance. This rapid recovery is possible because of factors including cutting $20 million of ongoing expenditures, restoring emergency contingencies in our budget (which we didn’t have to spend this year), increasing enrollment by creating innovative programs that families want, strengthening spending controls, working with legislators to increase school funding, and improving special education safety net collection. This rapid recovery shows us that anything is possible when we work together as a system to achieve it. And, we did this without having to rely on the Somerset II property sale; the proceeds from the property sale will now go into our capital fund to pay for building and capital improvements across the district.

Note: Despite these recent financial successes, we still face significant budget challenges including ongoing gaps in state funding and looming deficits at that level, the actual cost of special education, materials, supplies and operating costs (MSOC).

There’s so much more I could share but based on research, most people probably have already stopped reading, so I’ll save it for future blogs. In short, we are about to kick off an incredible year for our kids, our staff, our families, and our community. Thank YOU, Bellevue Community, for choosing us and for your tremendous support.

Sincerely,

Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Superintendent, Bellevue School District