Superintendent’s Blog: Honoring Staff Who Inspire and Innovate – BSD's Inaugural T.E.A.C.H. Awards

Dear Bellevue School District Community, 

I’m writing this blog post just hours before the Mariners play ALCS Game 7. So, once you read this, we’ll already know if we’re in the World Series or just celebrating how amazing this season was for our incredible home team! Although the Ms make the heartrate monitor on my watch go off every time with their big wins and heartbreaking losses, this superintendent update is all joy.  

The Inaugural T.E.A.C.H. Awards 

At the October 16, 2025, School Board Meeting, the Board of Directors gave out staff awards recognizing some amazing people who work in the Bellevue School District. Building on the inspiration from the Apollo 13 mission, the BSD T.E.A.C.H. Awards recognize staff who (1) leverage the power of TEAMWORK, (2) create the conditions to elevate EACH AND EVERY student, (3) capitalize on ACCELERATING FORCES toward our goals, (4) model COMMITMENT to our shared mission, and (5) demonstrate HUMAN INGENUITY in the field of education. Here are the inaugural recipients! 

Safety Net Team (Sarah Casey in Special Education and Michelle Cao in Business Services) – For their cross-departmental teamwork to increase our safety net collection in 2024-2025 to $10.5M, which is $2.5M more than we budgeted that year and $4M over the previous year. Sarah and Michelle started working together last December with the task of recouping more special education costs in safety net reimbursements. They worked collaboratively, looking through IEPs, attending support sessions at OSPI, and coordinating with teachers and special education directors. As a result, Sarah and Michelle are a big reason our ending fund balance is improving from an anticipated -$4.9 million to -$700,000 — putting us 1.5 years ahead of schedule in meeting our binding conditions. 

Freedom Johnson – For her commitment and leadership in elevating each and every student. Freedom stepped up last year and this year to lead our district’s equity planning and visioning. In addition to her regular work to support BIPOC educators in BSD as the Coordinator of the Engagement Specialists for BIPOC Educators (ESBE) program, Freedom has been the lead facilitator for district-wide equity trainings, which has improved learning and working conditions across schools and district departments. 

Teresa Nguyen – For her human ingenuity and leveraging of accelerating forces to accelerate our financial recovery through legislative action. An accountant in our finance department, Teresa is the staff member who was reading through the bills that were going through the 2025 Legislature and discovered the bill that would eventually allow us (districts in binding conditions) to sell property to restore our fund balance and take out interfund loans without interest.  

Karen Chubb – For her genuine commitment to our mission to affirm and inspire each and every student as creators of their future world. Karen is the Attendance Specialist at Sammamish High School. A recent graduate — now a freshman at Central Washington University — recognized Karen as one of the most important, supportive, caring adults at Sammamish who helped him to graduate. While giving out tardy slips, Karen takes time to get to know students’ names, stories, and situations. For many students, she is the first adult they see in the morning, and these students report that Karen makes them feel genuinely cared for.  

BSD Preschool Staff – For their contribution as an accelerating force in promoting kindergarten readiness and closing opportunity gaps. In my walkthrough of kindergarten classes the first week of school, kindergarten teachers were raving about the students who were coming from BSD preschools. We know preschool is one of the most important gap-closing strategies in education. But the impact was particularly evident this year as BSD preschool staff have been engaging in deep curriculum and instruction to work around science of reading, social/emotional learning, English language development, and promoting multilingualism. 

Please help me in congratulating these amazing award recipients! We’re proud of these BSD team members and are excited for the next group of award recipients who represent the amazing staff across our entire district. 

Happy Trunk-or-Treats, Elementary Parent-Teacher Conferences, and all things fall! 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Kelly Aramaki 
Superintendent

P.S. Be sure to read this week’s update from our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer. In their update, you’ll find some exciting information about our growing enrollment, our accelerated progress towards financial stability, and an important update on the middle school consolidation conversations we’ve had in recent years (preview: we’re not going to close a middle school).