THE BSD COMMUNITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN INVESTING HEAVILY IN PUBLIC EDUCATION AS WE BELIEVE OUR FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. DESPITE THE OVERWHELMING SUPPORT FROM THE COMMUNITY, THE 2020-2021 SCHOOL YEAR HAS BEEN A DISASTER. DISTRICTS ACROSS THE STATE AND THE NATION HAVE DONE FAR BETTER IN SERVING STUDENTS THAN BSD.
BSD's whooping 18% enrollment drop from pre-COVID level blows every other district out of the water. Is it a coincidence that BSD's enrollment drop is 3X that of LWSD? LWSD had near full-time in-person learning in the past spring while BSD made do with only 9 hours a week. We won't witness the full impact of the enrollment drop till next school year, the budget of which will be based on the enrollment numbers of this year.
Oct 2019 data from https://washingtonstatereportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/
Sep 2021 data from https://www.k12.wa.us/policy-funding/school-apportionment/safs-report-api
BSD ranks among the WORST in the State of Washington. Some districts in the state have been offering full-time in-person learning since September, 2020.
Over 60% of property taxes collected in Bellevue are used to fund public schools - 32% go to the general state school fund which is allocated to districts across the state largely based on enrollment; 30% go to local levies and bonds which support BSD directly.
https://bellevuewa.gov/city-government/departments/finance/bellevue-property-taxes
State of Washington ranks at the BOTTOM of the nation in terms of in-person learning opportunities provided to students during the pandemic.
Based on independent research site Burbio.com’s school reopening tracker as of Feb 24th, 2021, when
BSD only provided limited in-person learning for K-1 and some students with special needs.
BSD 2020-2021 Total Expenditures were $326,818,299 or $18K/student funded by solely by the public. Superintendent Duran's resigned when he recognized that the basic needs of thousands of students were not met for too long because of the severe lack of access to learning. Yet Mrs. Allison Snow, the president of the BEA, Bellevue's teachers union, blamed it all on "entrenched white supremacy" within the district and the Bellevue community characterized by “sense of urgency”.
At a time that BSD struggles to address the enormous learning gap and social emotional challenges of its students resulted from prolonged school closures, Mrs. Snow is demanding BSD board to delegate their legal obligation to pick the next Superintendent to a committee because, according to her, the board is not committed to equity. With 2/3 of BSD at-risk kids failing schools, the biggest inequity of the generation has been caused by denying students, including those from marginalized families and those whose parents have been on the frontline of the pandemic, access to school even after vaccines were made available to all educators at the beginning of March.
Regrettably under its misguiding leadership, BEA was the only collective bargaining group out of nine in BSD that held the district back from providing in-person learning and the only teachers union in the entire state of WA that went on illegal strike to stop students from returning to school. Has Mrs. Snow lost her moral compass along the way? Is this the kind of the leadership that the community wants to represent our educators? Is she ready to be held accountable for the physical and mental scars, permanent at times, that have been inflicted on the children?
BEA leadership has consistently downplayed the impact of school closure on our students. Here is the reality check and the learning loss is UNPRECEDENTED. We will update with latest Star Math test result once it becomes available.