Superintendent’s Blog: The First Week of School in the BSD

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year, BSD community! I'm pleased to report that this start to the year has been one of the smoothest, joy-filled starts in a long time. We launched new and exciting programs. We saw a stabilization of our enrollment, exceeding this year’s projection (see details below). And, we saw kids, staff, and families laughing, smiling and building new friendships.

Here are a few highlights from week one of the 2024-2025 school year!

What’s That, Mom? It's a School Bus!

After a hard first half of last year, due to a bus driver shortage that led to cancelled bus routes, we are thrilled to announce that we are fully staffed! Thank you to every bus driver who answered the call to drive our kids to and from school. We love you! A special shout-out to Bus Driver, Extraordinaire Wendy, who drove me around on the first day of school!

Bellevue Launches Korean and Hindi Language Programs

Building on the excellence of our language programs including our Arabic Language Program, which started in 2024 at Ardmore, last week we launched Washington state's first elementary Korean Language Program at Newport Heights and Washington state's first elementary Hindi Language Program at Ardmore. In addition, students in any of our comprehensive middle schools can now take Hindi or Korean through Bellevue Digital Discovery in addition to the other languages offered at their schools. Our goal is for every student in Bellevue to have the opportunity to become multilingual.

International Spanish Academy (ISA) Expands from Four Schools to Eight

Joining the longstanding tradition of ISA at Puesta del Sol, Tillicum, Newport, and Sammamish, our dual language programs at Sherwood Forest, Stevenson, Lake Hills, and Highland have now also been designated by the Ministry of Education of Spain as ISA schools! That means that students who participate in any of our Spanish dual immersion programs will now quality for the ISA diploma at graduation.

Maritime Welding Joins Our Career and Technical Education Course Offerings

Bellevue continues to expand our offerings in the world of Career and Technical Education. Students from any high school who love the ocean and love building and fixing things can now take Maritime Welding as a 3-period course at Interlake High School. Students who graduate from this class can go straight from high school into a high paid career, or they can continue their education if they choose.

Bellevue STEAMnasium Grand Opening This Saturday, September 14

Thanks to the advocacy of robotics students from all of our high schools (The Bellevue Alliance) plus their hard work over the past months in preparation, we will be hosting a grand opening of the Bellevue STEAMnasium, a full-size First Robotics field plus collaboration space located at the former Puesta del Sol (3810 132^nd SE Bellevue, WA 98006), on Saturday, September 14 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The STEAMnasium will be a place of crazy robotics “coopertition” between our robotics teams, plus a place of learning and mentorship of younger robotics fanatics! Come check out the fun and innovation of robotics in Bellevue. Big thanks to Bellevue Schools Foundation for their $10K seed funds for the STEAMnasium!

Inclusion, Accessibility and Our New Evergreen Transition Program Building

Our new strategic plan includes a focus on supporting the thriving of Bellevue students with disabilities. To kick that off, we opened an “Inclusive Education Exploration Learning Lab” at the district office where we showcase assistive technology and universal design. Our goal is that students of all abilities and learning needs thrive in their classrooms with the support of cutting-edge technology and universal design features. In addition, we are so proud to have opened the doors to our brand-new Evergreen Transition Program building (next to Highland Middle School). Serving BSD students with disabilities from age 18-22, this facility has a cutting-edge culinary kitchen designed for wheelchair accessibility, as well as a climbing wall, bright classrooms, mood lighting, and more. The next phase of the project is to build an outdoor learning space.

Excellence + Innovation = Programs that Families Want = More Kids

Last year, when we decided to pause the middle school consolidation process, the school board tasked the superintendent (that's me) with building on the excellence of the Bellevue School District by creating innovative programs that BSD families are excited about and that will continue to draw new families. As you can see from some of the examples above, we have worked hard to do just that. And…as a result, our enrollment is expected to exceed projection this year. We have 300 more out-of-district students compared to last year, many of whom are at the elementary level. We also have more in-district students driven primarily by affordable housing. As a result, our elementary enrollment seems to be stabilizing — with the majority of our elementary schools in the sweet spot of 400-550 students. This all makes for promising news for the future stability of our middle schools. There will be a study session after the regular board meeting on October 17 where we will share more in-depth information about enrollment with the school board and community.

Safety and Security is of Paramount Importance in the BSD

Finally, amidst the smiles and new friends, we were also reminded last week of the very real threat of gun violence in schools particularly here in the United States. Like you, I am devastated by the news of the school shooting that took place at Apalachee High School in Georgia. When I was just finishing my teaching degree in 1999 and about to embark on a career in education, my classmates and I watched with horror the students running out of Columbine high school on the news during our lunch break. It was devastating then, and it's devastating now to think of how much worse things seem to have gotten.

The Bellevue School District community grieves alongside the students, families, and staff in the Barrow County School District. Schools should be a place of joy, learning, community — and, without exception, a place of safety for our kids and staff. Whenever something tragic like this happens in a school, no matter where in the world it happens, it shakes the sense of safety and security across every school community. And it raises the question among every parent, "is my child safe at school?" 

Safety and Security is of paramount importance in the BSD. And I want you to know that as we build out programs and services that will help your children thrive, we will first ensure that we are delivering the gold standard in safety and security. At the September 19 school board meeting, Doug James, BSD’s Director of Safety and Security, will be presenting how we approach safety and security and the prevention of school violence and tragedy.

Thank You (for Reading This Far and for Your Support)

In closing, we couldn't have had this amazing of a start without all of you. Thank you to the staff for bringing the joy and fun this first week of school. Thank you to the PTSAs and parents and families for your support of our schools. And, thank you to the amazing kids who have shown up each day and have given us meaning and purpose for why we do the work we do. We love this community and are honored to serve it. Let's have our best year yet.

For Our Future World,

Dr. Aramaki