Superintendent’s Blog: Legislative Session Impact on BSD and Celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week

Dear Bellevue Community,

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week, BSD! Thank you to the amazing teachers and staff in our schools and district office who help make Bellevue a world-class school district. We have the most incredible educators who work day in and day out to make sure our children are thriving. This week and through the end of the school year, let’s show up for them and share our collective appreciation for the amazing work they do.

Legislative Session Wrap-Up and Impacts

Since state funding for education (or the lack thereof) has such a huge impact on the incredible staff in our system and since the 2025 Washington state legislative session just finished up, I wanted to give a quick update to our community on the impact of this legislative session on our district.

Despite facing massive budget deficits in the state budget, lawmakers were able to find a way to make some incremental enhancements to K-12 education — increasing funding for special education as well as giving a slight increase for materials, supplies, and operating costs (MSOC). Although it’s not enough to bridge the budget gaps in Bellevue, we are thankful for the support this session.

One bill that passed that has the potential to really help Bellevue is Senate Bill 5412. This bill gives districts in binding conditions the authority to sell surplus property and put the proceeds in the general fund (which is typically not allowed). This is an important tool for restoring a district’s fund balance or cash on hand. If Bellevue goes into binding conditions at the end of this year, we would be able to take advantage of this bill.

I want to recognize Representative Lisa Callan (5th Legislative District), who sponsored the amendment to make this possible for districts like Bellevue to benefit, as well as our very own School Board Director, Jane Aras, for her advocacy in ensuring the amendment made it into the bill.

Left: Representative Lisa Callan, 5th Legislative District; Right: BSD School Board Director Jane Aras, District 5

Another bill that will be helpful for us is House Bill 2049 , the levy lift bill. This bill allows districts to collect $500 more per student from their local education levy starting in 2026. Bellevue voters have already approved the collection of this amount in our current levy, so this bill would allow us to collect the additional funds approved by our voters which will provide much relief given our financial challenges. That said, in my work collaborating with superintendents around the state, it’s important that we as a community also recognize that not all districts have the capacity to raise local funds like we do in Bellevue. As such, it is our moral obligation to advocate for greater state investments in Local Effort Assistance (LEA) for districts that don’t have the same levy capacity to ensure all Washington students have access to high-quality education, regardless of zip code. The state was able to find a way to include modest increases in LEA for this upcoming year, but we need to collectively advocate for more this coming year.

Recognizing Collective Advocacy for Education

Over the last few weeks, I spent probably way too much time watching the legislative committees and late-night floor debates. One takeaway for me from watching our legislators is just how hard they work on behalf of Washington kids.

I want to thank our local legislators for their leadership and unrelenting advocacy for our district (Sen. Wellman, Sen. Slatter, Rep. Thai, Rep. Zahn, Rep. Walen, Rep. Salahuddin). I also want to thank everyone who so tirelessly supported our legislative goals, including: our School Board (with Jane Aras as our legislative representative), the Bellevue PTSA Council (with Kristi Schwesinger as advocacy director), the Bellevue Education Association (led by President Jill Rock and Vice President Regen Lorden), and our students from Woodridge to Tillicum to Sammamish to Evergreen Transition who have been making their voices heard in Olympia.

Listen to the Superintendent Update from the May 1 School Board Meeting and follow BSD on Facebook and Instagram to learn more about student and staff advocacy this legislative session.

All this advocacy is hard work but worth every minute because it means supporting our amazing teachers, principals, bus drivers, counselors — the whole BSD staff who make a difference for our kids and community. Again, please join me in appreciating the BSD team for all they do.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week.

With gratitude,

Dr. Aramaki