Information and Guidance for Eastgate Community Members

Community Planning Meeting Follow-Up
​ How We Can Move Forward Together:

  • Please attend the next BSD Board Meeting if your schedule allows, 2/9 @4:30 PM at WISC. There will be time for  two minute public statements from attendees.  Submit your request to speak by 2/8 at 12 PM if you would like to speak on behalf of Eastgate or the school closures.  The board will be making their final recommendations at this meeting, and it would show a lot of support for our school if we can show up in our Eastgate gear!  
An enormous thank you to everyone who has shown up virtually and in person to participate in our feedback to the school district regarding the proposed elementary school closures. We know we have an amazing, inclusive, welcoming, and thriving community here at Eastgate and want to demonstrate to Bellevue School District leadership why we would be a wonderful candidate for investing in long term growth and expansion. 

TALKING POINTS: To demonstrate that we are a united, engaged community we have prepared talking points that can be used with BSD leadership on Monday or in any conversations with the broader community. Feel free to modify these to fit your own message. You do not have to stick to these, please voice your support of Eastgate however you see fit.
  • We have built a strong COMMUNITY within Bellevue, we are one of the most diverse elementary schools in the district with committed and engaged families, we want to see continued growth of our thriving environment
  • EQUITY should be driving the decision-making process to minimize harmful impacts to children, families, teachers, and staff
  • We want the district to be SUCCESSFUL and be financially able to best serve students both now and in the future and we want to participate in this decision making process for the health and sustainability of all Bellevue communities
  • Because we know there will be impacts to middle and possibly high schools, we feel it would be least disruptive to look at BSD HOLISTICALLY, redraw boundaries if necessary, and make decisions that can help to absorb unknowns beyond existing projections
  • We deserve increased TRANSPARENCY about what other alternatives were considered and why they were not chosen
GET ENGAGED, TAKE ACTION!
  1. Email feedback directly to the school board: board@bsd405.org 
  2. Send feedback directly to the district: bsd405.org, click on “Let’s Talk – Contact Us” on left side of page
  3. Engage the community, this impacts both current and future students, so get out the word and mobilize others to support Eastgate.
  4. Sign the petitions going around asking the school board to slow the process:
    1. Petition · Slow the Process to Close BSD Schools! · Change.org
    2. Petition · Save Eastgate Elementary School! · Change.org
  5. Support our staff and teachers at Eastgate! This change has enormous impact on our amazing, wonderful team – show them your love. Wear Eastgate gear, write a letter to teachers, bring snacks, tell them how much you appreciate them!​
MEETING SUMMARY:
Background: The Bellevue School District has been sharing over the course of many years that we are experiencing declining enrollment at our elementary schools. This declining enrollment results in buildings not being used to their full capacity, high overhead costs, and empty classrooms. Consequently, BSD is proposing to close 3 elementary schools with a plan to consolidate students into neighboring schools. At Eastgate, we recognize the challenge the school board faces and want to work collaboratively to support and grow our Eastgate community.
Meeting Objectives:
  1. Develop shared talking points that families can use at the upcoming BSD Open House to be held at Eastgate on Monday Jan 23rd 6 – 7pm.
  2. Develop proposed options to address low enrollment and budgetary constraints (e.g. develop some options beyond what the school district has proposed – reference page 6 of the document “BSD School Consolidation Plans and Community Response”)
  3. Identify and assign affiliated action plans to help address what needs to be done to further evaluate the proposed options.
Meeting Discussion:
We at Eastgate want to help support the decision-making process and showcase what a wonderful community we have at our school. We have the unique advantage of space, which provides us opportunity to bring in programs and kids from neighboring communities. We have some of the highest racial and socioeconomic diversity of the elementary schools in the district. We are Eastgate and we as a community will rally together to help show how welcoming, inclusive, and wonderful our school is and why the district should invest in the long-term growth of this thriving south-east Bellevue area.
Ideas generated:
  1. There are old school properties that BSD owns that have been sitting vacant for many years – can some of these locations be sold or leased to help shore up the budgetary deficit and give the district more time to address the issue holistically? (e.g. the old Puesta building, the old Ringdall elementary school)
  2. Can some of the AL programs be relocated (or split) to accommodate the need?
  3. Can the preschool program for Eastgate (which has a long wait list) be integrated into the school and use some of the empty classrooms?
  4. Can some of the empty classrooms be used for the Digital Discovery program?
  5. Can options for inter- and intra- district transfers be opened?
  6. Can school boundaries be revisited to ensure that a long-term solution is being executed? Rather than death by one thousand cuts (transition elementary schools this year, then middle schools, and then high schools) – can the zones be revisited to ensure we are making long-term sustainable solutions that don’t impact our children in such a negative way?
  7. Can we expand the Olympic program through recruitment?
Questions generated (to be asked of BSD leadership & school board):
  1. Is there a parent advisory group participating in the process? If so, do you have representatives from all schools on that board? And how equitably is participation distributed?
  2. Can we see all of the data being used to inform this decision making process? Are you using more measures than simply enrollment and capacity? What about demographic data? Transfer data? Parent and teacher engagement data?
  3. Was rezoning considered as an option?
  4. Can we slow down the process to evaluate a district-wide long term plan?
  5. What other options were considered in the process? And why was this option the one that is being presented? In essence, how did the district arrive at this decision as the best choice?
  6. Where does Eastgate’s Olympic program go?
  7. How much additional funding is being budgeted to help the children from these 3 schools transition to new schools?
  8. Can we get additional programs added to Eastgate?
  9. Can we still use some of the bond funds?
  10. Can BSD use this as an opportunity to lead by example? There are communities across the state and country that need to make similar decisions. Can BSD demonstrate it’s commitment to equity and to making the right decision for our communities by partnering with parents and stakeholders to assess what is best?

What We Know:

​Bellevue School District is consolidating elementary schools to help with declining enrollment that is projected to decline further in the next 10 years.  Additional information about the situation can be found in these videos from BSD:
If the decision to close Eastgate moves forward, the two options are as proposed:
1. Students would potentially all be moved to Spiritridge. This would cause Spiritridge to lose their Advanced Learning Program to Woodridge.
2. OR our school will be split between Spiritridge and Somerset.  This would still cause Spiritridge to lose their Advanced Learning to Woodridge. 

​The Decision Process:

  • The District’s Executive Team will be making a recommendation of which schools to consolidate, with the ultimate decision resting with the Superintendent.  The School Board will advise on the process, ensuring engagement of stakeholders throughout the process.  
  • BSD Leadership will present their decision at the School Board Meeting on February 9, unless there are unforeseen reasons for them to delay. 

What you can do:


  • Make sure your friends know what is going on!  The more people who are informing the decision makers about Eastgate's uniqueness and strengths, the better.
  • Sign and Share both Petitions. 1.  Keep Eastgate and 2. BSD- Slow the Process ​ 
  • Send a Letter to the Decision-Makers and let them know what it would mean to you if Eastgate Elementary was selected to close.  Write to the following people:

Letter Writing Guidance 

  • Writing from the heart is always a good place to start.  The District has plenty of Excel spreadsheets, numbers, forecasts and data.   What they don’t have is your story.  Write it!
  • Our job is not to tell them which schools to close, but to highlight why ours should remain open.  In the next section are some factors that we think the District should consider.  Which of these speak to you personally?  
  • How has your family benefitted from a program or situation that is specifically because of Eastgate?  Write about one of the items on the list below, or come up with your own (and tell us what that is so we can add it to the list!).  
  • What is it about Eastgate Elementary and the neighborhood that surrounds it that is unique and should remain?  The District believes that every student will get an excellent education no matter what building they are in.  Explain “Why Eastgate.”
  • Do not Copy/Paste.  They will be getting hundreds of letters in the next few weeks.  As soon as they realize they’ve “already received that letter from someone else” they’ll be on to the next one hoping to learn something new.  Make yours unique, and it will be read word for word.  
  • Empathy Is Key.  Our School Board is an unpaid group of people who have been elected by the city’s residents to represent ALL families in our community.  School District employees are having to make some very hard decisions, in very difficult circumstances.  Coming from a place of information and collaboration may be received better than letters filled with only negativity.
  • Avoid negative comparisons with other schools.  Our friends and neighbors work and study at these other schools, and although we don’t know for sure how it will shake out, we will be combining forces in some way with some of them next year.  Let’s make sure we stick with Eastgate’s core values of respect and inclusiveness.  Negativity is not a strategy for success.