Superintendent’s Blog: Gratitude for the BSD Community
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Superintendent’s Blog: Gratitude for the BSD Community
Dear BSD Community,
What a week we’ve had. The Bomb Cyclone of 2024 is going to be something we remember for a very long time. Missing 3+ days of school and it’s not even December in a La Niña year…this is going to be an interesting school year for sure.
As we come out of last week’s weather craziness and head into the holiday weekend, I, like many of you, have a renewed sense of gratitude. I’m grateful not just for heat, lights, and internet or the fact that all our schools are finally back and operational(!), but for family, friends, colleagues, neighbors, and community. Why is it that in our most challenging of times, the one thing we often (re)discover is a deep sense of thankfulness for the most important things in life?
Gratitude for BSD Operations Staff
One group of people I’m particularly grateful for this year are the operations staff in our district — nutrition services, warehouse, maintenance and facilities, technology and facilities, custodial, communications, and transportation. All of these folks who support our kids and community behind the scenes were working day and night the past seven days to get schools up as quickly as possible. Together, they cleared downed trees, moved approximately 50,000 servings of food between freezers and fridges, restored networks and HVAC systems, repaired fiber cable, refueled generators, coordinated with city and community partners, and kept our community informed throughout. Thank you to our incredible operations staff.
Gratitude for Families and Staff
I also want to express deep gratitude for all our families and staff. First off, thank you for your patience and understanding during this long outage. I know this past week has been hard on everyone, and through the hardship you extended such grace toward us as we worked to bring schools back online. With cold houses, powerless devices, blocked roads, and uncertainty in your schedules, you were heroes in caring for your children, caring for the children of your neighbors and friends, finding ways to coordinate childcare while working, finding ways to provide food for your families, and so much more. I have such respect and admiration for all of you.
Looking Ahead – A New Last Day of School
With the missed school days, our last day of school is now Monday, June 23. Make sure you plan accordingly. And, with what could be a very wintery winter, I would highly recommend staff and families plan for potential additional make-up days that week in June.
For schools that missed more than three days this past week, we are going to apply for a waiver from the state so that you don’t have to make up those additional days. Stay tuned. We’ll keep you updated on that. I’m also keeping an eye on the 175-day requirement for our graduating seniors (which is why we decided somewhat last minute to run Sammamish High School yesterday). We need to be sure we get in 175 school days before our seniors graduate this June.
My Hope for You This Holiday Weekend
As we head into the long weekend, my hope for all of you is to stay warm, eat something delicious, spend some time with families, maybe see a good movie, and continue to look after one another. I am thankful for this community. See you on Monday.
Sincerely,
Dr. Aramaki
- District News
- Superintendent