The Bellevue Schools Foundation recently announced the Sherry Ladd Endowment for Teacher Development. This generous gift of $500,000 from a family Foundation, managed by Ladds’s husband and two brothers, will be used to encourage and support National Board Certification for teachers in the Bellevue School District by paying for certification costs not covered by BSD or BSF.
Ladd became a board member of the Bellevue Schools Foundation and then its Executive Director in 1995. She helped BSF raise over $17 million, making it one of the largest public school foundations in the state, before retiring in 2010. Her support of education for students and teachers will live on in her legacy of learning.
BSD currently employs over 400 National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) and they are making a difference in classrooms at all 29 schools in the district. According to the National Board, Bellevue ranks 20th out of all public school districts nationwide for the total number of NBCTs who have earned this distinction. The National Board recently recognized BSD as one of three districts in which more than 40% of its staff has earned certification since the inception of the National Board process.