Educational Partners

Bellevue School District

Our most significant partner is the Bellevue School District, with which we have nurtured a high trust relationship over our 30+ years. Formal connections between these two separate entities are accomplished through a district board member and its superintendent serving ex officio on the Foundation board and the latter’s executive committee meeting attendance. Our work benefits from the district’s in-kind donation of office space, furniture, technology infrastructure support, one of our staff colleagues, and some printing and supplies. But the heart of the partnership is the students to whom we are all committed.

The Foundation works hard to sustain an open dialog around our students’ needs and the innovative approaches our teachers and other educational leaders develop to address them which we might help fund. We rely on the district for accurate reports of the impact of our donors’ investments in their work. In the fall of 2011, a new tradition was begun of inviting district employees to make a tangible demonstration of their belief in the district’s students and their fellow employees’ abilities to serve those students by contributing through payroll deduction.

OUR KEY EDUCATIONAL PARTNERS INCLUDE:

• Bellevue School District

• Teachers and the Bellevue Education Association

• Bellevue PTSA Council and Bellevue PTSAs (Parent, Teacher, Student Associations)

• Principals and Other School Staff

• Bellevue Quality Schools

• PAGE (Parents’ Alliance for Gifted Education)

• Eastside Pathways

• City of Bellevue

• The George Lucas Educational Foundation

• Microsoft TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools)

Teachers and the Bellevue Education Association

Nearly unanimous research attests to the impact on student learning of the presence of high quality teaching in every classroom. The president of the Bellevue Education Association serves as an official liaison between district teachers and the Foundation, attending Foundation board meetings whenever possible and meeting monthly with the Foundation’s executive director.

The Foundation’s commitment to fostering the best possible teaching is most strongly evidenced by our multi-year, over $750,000 investment in supporting our teachers’ pursuit of National Board Certification. Today, Bellevue School District students are taught by the highest percentage of Nationally Board Certified teachers of any district in Washington State.

PTSAs (Parent Teacher Student Associations)

The necessity for the Foundation to understand and stay connected to the needs of individual schools and the families within them is served in part by our partnerships with school level PTSAs and with the council. We seek to have formal liaisons with each school’s PTSA through the volunteer role we call “Ambassadors, and one or more staff members attend the council’s monthly meetings. The Foundation continues to explore ways to work synergistically with PTSAs and the council.

Ardmore Elementary PTSA; Bellevue PTSA Council; Bellevue Big Picture PTSA; Bellevue High School PTSA; Bellevue Mandarin Dual Language PTSA; Bellevue Special Needs PTSA; Cherry Crest Elementary PTSA; Chinook Middle School PTSA; Eastgate Elementary PTSA; Enatai Elementary PTSA; Highland Middle School PTSA; Interlake High PTSA; International School PTSA; Lake Hills Elementary PTSA; Newport High School PTSA; Newport Heights Elementary PTSA; Odle Middle School PTSA; Phantom Lake Elementary PTSA; Puesta del sol Elementary PTSA; Sammamish High School PTSA; Sherwood Forest Elementary PTSA; Somerset Elementary PTSA; Spiritridge Elementary PTSA; Stevenson Elementary PTSA; Tillicum Middle School PTSA; Tyee Middle School PTSA; Woodridge Elementary PTSA