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The Bellingham Promise in Action: Promise highlights for Oct. 24, 2025

In this edition, we are proud to share some of our recent stories from our district and schools:

 

Transporting students across generations, bus driver says “Every week is Bus Safety Week!”

This week Oct. 20 to 24 is National School Bus Safety Week! This year’s theme is Safety-First-Safety Always!

Our transportation staff in Bellingham Public Schools does amazing work every single school day to drive our students to and from school safely and efficiently. They are the first staff that students see in the morning and the last staff they see at the end of the school day. It’s no surprise then that bus drivers are much loved and appreciated by students and families alike.

Kudos was recently shared by Wade King Elementary School parent Hillary Vaughn for long-time BPS bus driver Stacie Michaelson. She emailed Wade King principal Courtney Ross Webb writing:

“It feels like pure serendipity that my childhood bus driver Stacie Michaelson is now my son’s bus driver. I heard from a neighbor that my son would be riding Bus 31 and how much he’d love it because the driver was so wonderful. When I heard the driver’s name was Stacie, I couldn’t help but think, what are the chances it’s the same Stacie who drove me to school all those years ago? Sure enough, it was!

Stacie still takes the time to get to know every student, their younger siblings, and even the family pets at each stop. Her kindness shines through in everything she does, whether it’s greeting the kids each morning or stopping to say hello when you see her around town."

Read the full story here.

 

U.S. Navy pilot and Squalicum alumnus Commander Chris “Wildcat” Pratt visits Bellingham Public Schools

U.S. Navy Commander Chris “Wildcat” Pratt connected with students at Squalicum, Bellingham and Options high schools as well as the Bellingham Public Schools executive team in a mutually beneficial experience over a two-day span in September. 

The trip was a return home for CDR Pratt, who attended Larrabee Elementary School, Fairhaven Middle School and Bellingham High School before graduating from Squalicum High School in 2001. 

He has had an illustrious career as a naval aviator and currently serves as the CNAF LEGACY (Leadership, Education, Growth, Advocacy, Culture, Youth outreach) Director, leading leadership development and youth outreach efforts across naval aviation. 

While walking school halls and meeting with students and staff, he shared positive memories of his own education experience and marveled at the wisdom of present-day high school students and course offerings. 

Read the story about his visit...

 

Sehome teacher earns 2025 State Language Teacher of the Year award

Congratulations are in order! – or, rather, ¡Felicidades bien merecidas! for Sehome High School teacher Mary Hooker.

Ms. Hooker has been awarded the 2025 State Language Teacher of the Year by the Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT). WAFLT president Catherine Ousselin surprised Ms. Hooker at a Sehome back-to-school training in August, and the award was formalized at the organization’s fall conference on Oct. 18.

Mary teaches Spanish and Teacher Academy at Sehome, and has taught in Bellingham Public Schools since 2004, teaching at Whatcom Middle School, Bellingham High School and Sehome High School.

“Mary is an incredible collaborator, innovator, leader and nationally-board-certified colleague,” colleague Ashleigh Bobovski said in her nomination for Ms. Hooker. 

Read more on the WAFLT award...

 

Tackling safety: One mom at a time

Sehome football moms brought together with coaches and their sons for safety and connection

For the third year running, the Sehome High School football program invited the moms of players to come together at the start of the season for Mom Clinic, a time and place to learn about technique, safety and even some strategy. The idea of a “football mom clinic” has taken off in recent years across the nation. It takes moms off the sidelines onto the field alongside their sons to learn the game more deeply and understand the critical steps taken in the name of safety.

“The Mom Clinic is all about inviting our football moms, stepmoms, grandmothers, aunts and sisters, safely into the world of football,” says Sehome head football coach Brian Young. “The goal is to expose moms to the game and show them through hands on participation how we keep their sons safe and healthy while playing the great game of football,”

Full Mom Clinic story here...

 

Parkview students sort cafeteria waste with care and purpose

At the end of their meals in the school cafeteria, students at Parkview Elementary School take a few extra steps to sort their trash according to the clear signage overhead. Nearby staff support the students in the sorting and help them with any questions. These steps are part of an effort to reduce landfill waste and costs through effective waste systems and receptacles; these steps also are an opportunity to teach environmental stewardship in all areas of our schools and to celebrate sustainability and positive habits and behaviour.

Thanks in part to a grant from the Washington State Department of Ecology, locally based RE Sources has been helping students and staff in six elementary schools in Bellingham Public Schools become efficient and effective sorters. The consistent and bold signage and the tangential environmental impact education is an effort to reduce the waste stream out of our schools. The project dovetails with the district’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) published in 2023.

Learn more here...

 

ICYMI: New Community Transitions building  to go up at WCC

Students, families, staff and community members attended the celebratory groundbreaking for the new Community Transitions (CT) building in June 2025. CT is a Special Education program in Bellingham Public Schools serving students through the end of the school year in which they turn 22. The program provides a continuum of services preparing students with mild to complex disabilities for a successful transition to independent living, employment and/or post-secondary training.

RAM Construction will be the general contractor on the project and Zervas Architects designed the building. The building is funded through the voter-approved 2022 bond. Construction work begins this fall on the campus of Whatcom Community College, across the street from the Cordata WTA station.

The 20,000 square foot building incorporates sustainability features, including exposed mass timber throughout the building and solar panels.

View photo album from the groundbreaking ceremony...

 

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