I hope students, families, and staff have an opportunity to unplug and rejuvenate before we head into an exciting and event-filled final stretch of our school year!
National Assistant Principals Week
We are still celebrating National Assistant Principals Week! Please join me in taking a minute to send a note of thanks to the amazing assistant principals we have across the district. Our assistant principals do everything from cheering kids on at sports events, attending musicals, chaperoning dances, working alongside teachers, keeping our schools safe, and finding every way to support our students, families, and staff.
Celebrating Breaking Out of the Margins – BOOM, 2024
On March 28, 400 students from across our middle and high schools came together on the Bellevue College Campus for an incredible BOOM event. Shomari Jones, Director of Equity and Strategic Engagement for the Bellevue School District, describes BOOM as “a Black, Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) focused opportunity for secondary students to engage in meaningful, facilitated conversations that center issues that are most important to them. BOOM events are intended to inspire, build community, and provide opportunity for students to connect with leaders of color so that each and every student can reach their full potential.” While this event is historically designed to center African, Black, Hispanic, Latinx, Native American, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander students, the event is open to all students in grades 7-12. Thank you to the Bellevue Schools Foundation, Amazon, Microsoft, BJ’s Restaurants, and Molina Healthcare for sponsoring this event! Thank you to President Dr. David May and Bellevue College for hosting, and the many workshop presenters and volunteers who partnered with us to support our students and our community!
Beloved Community: Improving Our Ability to Address Discrimination
Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In our commitment to build a beloved community in Bellevue, we are actively working to improve our ability to address and track incidences of discrimination in our schools and district buildings. This fall, we will be launching a new software called Guardian which will help us track both formal and informal complaints related to discrimination (race, disability, religion, etc.); harassment, intimidation, and bullying (HIB); and other safety incidents. This platform will allow us to analyze what is happening in our buildings, look for patterns across the district, and assess improvement over time. From there, we will then be able to set goals and measure improvement with the goal of eliminating any form of discrimination, racism, sexism, etc. in our buildings. In June 2023, our district’s Equity Accountability and Advocacy Collaborative (EAAC) recommended a central data-tracking system. Our students, including at our recent BOOM event, have also been asking that we improve our tracking of incidences of discrimination and HIB to better address them. And, with the rise of Antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, racism and xenophobia, across our country, it’s critical that we have a system to track not only formal but informal incidences related to all forms of discrimination.
Bellevue Schools Foundation Spring for Schools Event
Thank you to everyone who attended last weekend’s Spring for Schools Garden Party Event! We had an amazing time and got to see our incredible students and staff get highlighted throughout the evening. Kudos to the beautiful musical performances by the Bellevue High School Bellairs, Emerald Pipa Players, Interlake String Quartet, Tillicum Jazz, Odle Orchestra, and Newport Cello-Woodwind Ensemble! Shout out also to all our BSD robotics teams, including Bellevue High’s Logan Dang who gave an incredible speech about how BSF through Wolverine Robotics has impacted his life. If you missed the event, you can still help us reach our goal of $500,000 by donating here or by visiting or visiting BSF’s website. All donations no matter the size support key priorities not funded by the state, including student mental health, National Board Certification for our teachers, fentanyl awareness, computer science for elementary students, access to preschool, STEM innovation like robotics, music and art enrichment, and more. Thank you to the BSD community for your ongoing support of our students.
Have a wonderful spring break.
Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Superintendent