EL-3%20Monitoring%20Report%20Feb.%202025.pdf

Parent document: Regular Board Meeting and Study Session-04-17-2025.pdf

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Bellingham
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a collective commitment

MEMORANDUM
TO: Board of Directors
FROM: Dr. Greg Baker, Superintendent
DATE: Feb. 7, 2025
RE: Monitoring Report for EL- 3, Treatment and Communication with Public,

Parents and Students

| certify that the following is accurate as of Feb 7, 2025. The reporting period is from Dec. 1,
2023, through Nov. 30, 2024.

Policy Type: Executive Limitation
Policy: EL-3 Treatment and Communication with Public, Parents and
Students

“The superintendent shall not fail to ensure that non-employee
stakeholders are treated with respect and dignity throughout
the organization and are provided with communications
regarding district events, plans, and actions.”

Adopted: Sept. 10, 2009
Revised: Jan. 19, 2020
Interpretation of items: None in question.

Description of Evidence of Compliance:

EL-3 directs the superintendent to treat non-employee stakeholders with respect and dignity
throughout the organization, and appropriately communicate district events, actions and
plans. Specifically,

1. The superintendent shall not fail to take all reasonable and prudent actions with
respect to non-employee stakeholder interactions and communications that are
typical for similar and highly effective organizations.

Before making districtwide decisions or implementing large-scale change, our standard
practice is to engage our stakeholders in being part of the decision or solution. In this report,


Monitoring Report for EL-3

we highlight several examples of stakeholder engagement, significant communications
and/or change management around the following topics and/or initiatives:

Levy elections in February 2024

Ahead of our levy elections in early 2024, we shared facts and information with staff and our
community about why and how levies provide essential funding for programs not fully
funded by our state. Both our operations and technology levy were on the special election
ballot on Feb. 13, 2024. These levies replaced two voter approved levies from 2020 that
expired at the end of 2024. We shared general information as well as specific numbers and
figures in the form of webpages, videos, printed fliers, FAQs and several messages in email
communication, at in-person meetings with staff and parent groups (with the help of a levy
toolkit) and on social media. Our levies were approved by voters by approximately 66%. We
followed up with staff, families, students and community members with a thank you
message from our superintendent.

Capital projects
We regularly share information and look for ways to engage with our community around
construction and capital projects.

Projects that were of special importance during this reporting period include the heating
issues at the Family Partnership Program, flooding of the old District Office, temporarily
relocating staff and programs in our schools and buildings across our district, and opening
of the new District Office; publicly sharing that we are pausing construction of the 15"
elementary school and collaborating with the city to try to relocate Carl Cozier Elementary
School; construction of the new Kulshan Middle School turf field; educational
specifications/designing advisory committees for the following projects: Community
Transitions, Cozier and Roosevelt; and opening of the new tennis courts at Bellingham High
School.

Milestones of these projects are shared with photos and opportunities for feedback from
staff, families, students, other stakeholders and neighbors. A variety of public meetings
(e.g., Roosevelt) and feedback forms are used throughout the timeline of a project, from
brainstorming and dreams and wishes to offering input on layout and logistics.

We believe it is important to share these updates with our community to say thank you to
voters who have supported our bond measures and help taxpayers understand how bond
funds are being spent.

Looking ahead to the next reporting period, we look forward to sharing progress on our work
with the city to find land to relocate Carl Cozier, breaking ground on the new CT building on
the Whatcom Community College campus and exploring running a capital maintenance

levy.


Sustainability

CLIMATE Wil
i COMMITMENT
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Monitoring Report for EL-3

The Sustainability Standing Committee continues to meet to support the CAP and report on
the progress of goals within the five-year plan. Sustainability progress can be followed on
the district website which now includes a dynamic Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and Carbon
Benchmarking dashboard.

Safety concerns and usage of safety protocols

Our team helps support safety-related concerns and incidents at our schools throughout
the year. Some of the incidents during this reporting period include Kulshan going into a
secure due to a nearby burglary; Sehome going into a lockdown briefly due to a swatting
incident/false alarm; and a middle school student being the target of a racist attack during a
walking field trip.

In fall 2024, a Bellingham High student reported they were attacked off campus, which
garnered inquiries from local media and Seattle television stations. The BHS principal
posted and shared a message with BHS students, staff and families. The district responded
to all media inquiries and shared our statement (which is on our website) to help clarify the
facts, as some misinformation was reported by media. BHS and district staff worked closely
with police on their investigation and on timing and clarity of messaging with the public.

Our district continues to follow the standard response protocols and similar templated
messaging from the “I Love U Guys” Foundation. Almost always, our principals send a
follow-up message to staff, students and families with more context and information about
what occurred and why the school used the protocol. There are times when the scope
necessitates a message from the superintendent. Also related to student safety, the
superintendent sent and posted the following messages about safety concerns at Wade
King Elementary and a follow up on the charges against three high school administrators.

We continue to look for opportunities to proactively share updated policies and staff and
student rights related to sex discrimination and sex-based harassment, bias or hate speech
incidents, and student discipline. These include messages, annual handbook, posters,
lessons and trainings.

Budget planning

We regularly send messages related to the district’s budget planning process, and we
followed our practice during this reporting period. Our message for budget planning for the
2024-25 school year was a “hold steady” year. We shared messaging and information widely
in May 2024, March 2024 and January 2024, in addition to numerous presentations to staff,
leaders and community groups. We use a webpage as a key resource to track our budget
messages and tools, including our Final Budget (which is often referred to as the ”budget
book”), and Priorities for Progress, which helps identify our key investments.

Our budget messages include indications that we will likely be facing challenges for the
2025-26 school year, along with many, if not all, districts, in our state. In October 2024, we
shared a video and message with students, staff, families and community about budget



Monitoring Report for EL-3

planning for 2025-26. We received positive feedback and appreciation for the information
included and the accessible format of the video.

Looking ahead to the next reporting period: We are anticipating additional messages and
videos regarding the budget. In December 2024, we shared a message about the school
boards recent actions, including an open letter to legislators and a resolution. In January
2025, the superintendents of Whatcom County sent a joint letter to the editor, which was
published by Cascadia Daily News, the Bellingham Herald, the Salish Current and other
local publications.

Public Records

Communications fulfilled more than 100 records requests during the reporting period,
compared to about 100 and around 75 during the previous two reporting periods,
respectively.

Requests included those requested under the state Public Records Act (PRA), requests
furnished to students and/or their guardians under the Family Educational Records and
Privacy Act (FERPA), and requests that include elements of both. Additionally, the records
officer supported the records components of Title IX investigations, for many legal
proceedings, and with agencies such as the Office of Civil Rights, each of which must be
handled with care, efficiency and accuracy.

The scope of each request ranged from a single piece of information about our district to
thousands of responsive records requiring extensive review and redaction.

The quantity of requests stayed more static during this reporting period than the growth
trend seen over the previous six years; however, we continue to observe individual requests
being complex and broad, e.g., “any and all communications” regarding a topic or an
individual. This trend is common across public agencies in our state and is not unique to
BPS.

Video requests for our district security camera footage continue to represent a sizeable
portion of this work, as predicted in our past two EL-3s. Communications works closely with
our district educational technology team, director of safety and security, and legal counsel,
if needed, to fulfill video requests and make redactions. Communications and the director
of safety and security also provide guidance for administrators for saving, furnishing and
using security footage as a tool for communication and, sometimes, student discipline.

Video requests range from short videos of parking lot fender benders to multi-view videos of
student behavior to multi-day footage of safety/security incidents. Our safety director and
records officer work closely with law enforcement to ensure that video requests involving
public safety needs are fulfilled efficiently and accurately. As awareness grows of the
capabilities of our security cameras, we anticipate video requests will continue to represent
a sizeable portion of our public records and/or FERPA requests.


Technology helps expand family engagement



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Monitoring Report for EL-3

Graduations

For the class of 2024, we continued our recent tradition of hosting graduation ceremonies at
one location and providing online streaming access. For the fourth consecutive year, the
district hosted all four high school graduation ceremonies at Civic Stadium. A small change
for 2024 was moving the Options High School graduation to Friday evening, followed by
graduations for Squalicum, Bellingham and Sehome on Saturday. The Community
Transitions program graduation was held at Depot Market Square on the Thursday before the
four high school weekend ceremonies.

Considerable time was spent planning, listening to stakeholder feedback and messaging
seniors, staff and families with details and expectations of the day and event. BPS staff and
students streamed all five ceremonies to the BPS YouTube channel, which totaled nearly
3,800 collective views, including live streams and on demand replays.

New in 2024, BPS Communications was the primary photographer team for all graduation
ceremonies. Previously, the district had contracted with a third-party photo company for
photos. We made this decision as a cost-saving step and an enhancement to photo
turnaround time. We appreciate both a better product and having more control of the
process.

The communications technician specialist was the sole primary photographer for the
Community Transitions (CT) program graduation and the Options High School graduation,
due to the smaller number of graduates requiring only one photographer. At the CT event,
portrait photos were taken of each graduate along with other group scenes.

The communications technician specialist and one contracted photographer (a former BPS
employee) collaborated to cover the Squalicum, Bellingham and Sehome graduations on
Saturday.

In total, over 5,900 downloadable graduation photos taken by BPS Communications were
published to Flickr by Tuesday morning of the week following the conclusion of the
graduation events. The photos generated over 19,500 views on the platform. The team
shared subsets of each collection shared to social media in well-performing posts (CT, BHS,
SHS, SQHS, OHS plus a post of crowdsourced photos of seniors visiting elementary schools
in graduation caps and gowns and a post summarizing graduation season) for a combined
accounts-reached total of over 35,000 across all social mediums (Facebook, Instagram, X,
LinkedIn), not including the 19,500 views on Flickr.

(photos, next page)




Program

— Please rise and remain standing during the processional. —

Processional. sucess

.un"Pomp and Circumstance” by Edward Elgar
Schome Band, Director Lourdes Aguilar

National Anthem. Gabrielle Brandon, Vocal Soloist

Haven Alex, Adria Clines,

ASL Interpretation o
Lindsey MeConaughy, Spdney Wolfson

Land Acknowledgement. .»Preston Navarrone Coyot Luna

Welcome, ASB President
Arabella Chen

Student Speaker, selected by the senior class. _.Adria Lilliana Clines

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
Arr: Paul Langford
Schome Chamber Choir, Director Vanessa Katz

Choral Performance.

Faculty Speaker, selected by the senior class. Lauren Tucker

Orchestral Performance - “Taylor Swift Medley”

Arr: Sehome Orchestra Students
Sehome Senior Orchestra, Director Kirstin Doud

Presentation of Class... Sonia Cole, Principal

Acceptance of Class, Dr. Greg Baker, Superintendent of Schools

Presentation of Diplomas... Sonia Cole, Principal

Dr. Greg Baker, Superintendent
Scott Ritchey, School Board Member

LOSI sec senensnsessemene ante ete ..Sonia Cole, Principal

‘Turning of the Tassel ASB Senior Representatives

Haven Alex, Mara Brogan, Skye Davishahl, Sawyer Fleming

Recessional.... Anchors Aweigh” by United States Navy Band
Schome Band, Director Lourdes Aguilar

— Please remain at your seats during the recessional. —

er), Early
(i } Dismissal

1st/Sth 8:30 - 9:40
2nd/6th | 9:45 - 10:55

Sehome Staff 2023-24

John Aguilar Jared Greenwood
Lourdes Aguilar Robin Green
Frank Alvear Derek Hahn
Natalie Angaiak Amy Hankinson Kami Quessenberry
Susan Auld Tyler Hannigan Gulzar Rahman
Bethany Barrett Donald Helling Kyle Ringo

‘Michael Bechlowiak Phillip Henoch Anna Rittmueller
Ashleigh Bobovski Marta Herrera-Carreon Catherine Roosma
Robert Burgess Lester Herting Julie Ross-Buckmaster
Tan Caldwell Julie Hiett Kevin Ryan
Christina Campbell Magdalena Hite Bronwyn Sambrook
Kevin Candela Amy Hielt Chuck Schelle
Mariette Capps Eric Hofstedt Stephanie Schroeder
Shannon Casey Lucas Holtgeerts Heidi Schroyer
Kristin Cerenzia Mary Hooker Scott Schroyer
Jordan Chal fant Alyssa Johnson Hana Schutz
Shari Clarke Kai Kane-Ronning Kelli Sheehan

Kerri Clary Vanessa Katz Kendra Simpson
Sonia Cole Kacy Keck Sarah Spitzer Jaguay
Monica Contreras MacKenzie Kesling Sasha Strane

Nicky Cook-Desler Colleen King Jennifer Styer
Mike Couto Kimberly Kirk Steven Terreri
Jennifer Cowan oll Jennifer Thornton
Lillian Craker Malory Lahti Lauren Tucker
Randelle Crawford Alex Lara Kristy Van Egdom
Colin Cushman Renee Larsen John VanderMolen
Valerie Defehr Kari Lee Anmol Verma
Steven DeMoney Todd Leita Nick Viera

Angela Desler Tara Luna. Chezarie Villarreal
Damian Di Nitto Carter Maden Bennet Vis

Nancy Dixon Phillip Marx Alexandra Walbeck
Kandace McGowan Shawn Walker
Lauralise McGowan Michelle Wilhelm
Bridget McGuinness ‘Theresa Wines
Catherine Moran Edward Wissing
Sonya Morrison Jeffrey Wood
Shannon Eubank Patricia Neary Jane Yaude

Peggy Fogarty Gwen Nyman Brian Young

Erin Furda Dana Pattison Martha Zender
‘Mary Gouran Cindy Pearson Maxwell Zentner

Katarina Peatross
Lindsey Post
Brian Powell

Shawn Doan
Becky Donnina
Kirstin Doud
Kristin Dungan
Emmery Enga

School Board
Douglas Benjamin, Camille Diaz Hackler,
Jenn Mason, Scott Ritchey, Katie Rose

Superintendent: Dr. Greg Baker

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High school weekly advisory schedule

‘tee! Schedule

COMMENCEMENT CEREMONY
Saturday, June 15, 2024

A/B Day +
Hawk Hour
Monday & Friday

1st/Sth | 8:30 - 9:55
10:05 - 11:30

10:05 - 11:30

grain | ns stear

arn | roves

SO - 3:15 | ath/sth

| 3rd/7th | 12:15-1:45

Ist/Sth | 8:30 - 9:45

Hawk Hour | 9:50 - 10:30

2nd/6th 10:35 - 11:50

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4th/8th | 2:00 - 3:15



Monitoring Report for EL-3

Inclusive practices and multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS)

Our district’s work to increase training for and implementation of inclusive practices and
multi-tiered systems of support continued during this reporting period. Communications
supported this work with attention to the needs and questions of internal and external
stakeholders.

Communications continued to support Department of Teaching and Learning (DTL)
leadership with messages to staff clarifying the scope and intention of our inclusion work.
The assistant director of communications sat as an ex officio member on the Inclusionary
Instructional Strategies Standing Committee during the 2023-24 school year, and continued
this involvement when that committee was re-envisioned as the Multi-tiered Systems of
Support (MTSS) Standing Committee for the 2024-25 school year.

Professional Development

To accomplish communications work that is “typical for similar and highly effective
organizations” as defined in the EL, we look nationally and regionally to identify and
implement best practices from other school districts. For professional development in the
last reporting period, team members participated in the following learning opportunities:

e InJuly 2024, the executive director of communications, assistant director,
communications specialist and communications technician specialist attended the
National School Public Relations Association conference in Bellevue, WA.

e The Communications Department attended a one-day team retreat in August 2024.
During this time, the team shared reflections on the NSPRA conference, discussed
how to apply learnings from the “How to Write Short” book study completed over the
summer and reviewed/refined team norms and matrix responsibilities. DTL director
Janis Velasquez Farmer presented a professional development session on equity,
diversity and inclusion. The team also set goals and brainstormed future strategic
work for the 2024-25 weekly meetings.

e The assistant director of communications attended several conferences and
webinars related to public records to support her continued proficiency as district
records officer.

o PRABootcamp on Jan. 23 and 24, 2024

o Public records training: March 11 and 12, 2024.

o WAPRO Spring conference May 15 and 16, 2024.

o Public Records Association training Aug. 28, 2024.

e The executive director and communications technician specialist attended the
Washington School Public Relations Association Conference October 27 — 29, 2024.

e The executive director of communications attended the Summit on Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and People Nov. 20, 2024.

e The executive director and communications technician specialist regularly attend the
Northwest Educational Service District 189 meetings held for communications
professionals once to twice per month (typically on Zoom) to share ideas, plans, new
laws and/or crises management.

11


Monitoring Report for EL-3

e The executive director of communications and assistant director of communications
continue to regularly attend local/regional public information officer meetings (PIOs)
and have participated in panel discussions. This group provides training, speakers
and opportunities for collaboration with communications colleagues from school
districts, cities, counties, fire, police, libraries, transit, public works and other public
and private agencies. We were excited to host this group in the new District Office in
October 2024.

e The communications technician specialist participated the following professional
development opportunities:

o Monthly meetings as part of the BPS aspiring administrator cohort throughout
the 2023-24 academic year

o Monthly “What’s New Review” sessions with ParentSquare for product
development updates

o ParentSquare webinar about chronic absenteeism (Sept. 18)

o Washington School Public Relations Association (WSPRA) virtual PD event
about school funding issues (Sept. 16)

o Summer book club regarding book titled, Social Media for Schools (June and
early July 2024)

o Countywide reunification exercise at Meridian High School June 27)

o Washington state Qualtrics school districts meeting in Seattle for a Lunch and
Learn about software use cases

o Generative Ai in K12 Education: Practical Considerations webinar hosted by
Finalsite (December 2023)

2. The superintendent shall not fail to:
a. Use multiple media resources including, but not limited to:
i. Community and school newsletter(s):

A) InsideSchools

In this reporting period, the Department of Communications and Community Relations
produced three community newsletters called InsideSchools. For each edition, 56,000 are
printed and mailed to saturate the entirety of postal routes within School District 501,
including both businesses and residences. These newsletters inform stakeholders about
our schools and engage them in the collective work of The Bellingham Promise.
InsideSchools is also published online and shared via email and our website. Stories
highlight major initiatives and areas of focus; other articles recognize staff, students and
community partnerships. Most editions include updates from facilities, the school board
and the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation.

12


Schools

BELLINGHAM PUBLIG SCHOOLS NEWSLETTER | WINTER 2024

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BELLINGHAM PUSLIG SCHOULS NEWSLETIER | SPRING 2024

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New District Office opens 5
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Monitoring Report for EL-3

in the platform. Though well regarded as an easy-to-learn tool, the comprehensive aspects
of the new tool have called for continued support and education for best use cases.

Our Communications team assists staff and parents/guardians daily via phone and email
with account settings and permissions to optimize usage.

Much of this support is resolved with the expertise of our team, but we also routinely reach
out to ParentSquare’s support team to better understand the tool and suggest feature
enhancements, based on feedback from our community. For example, the communications
technician specialist had 109 ticket conversations with ParentSquare support during the
reporting period.

A particular focus during fall 2024 has been helping schools create newsletter templates in
the new Studio Editor to ease the transition from other tools, such as Smore. Studio Editor
assists in ease of viewing for recipients, composition for authors and enhances accessibility
related to translation and screen readers.

Our team has also orchestrated several group trainings during the back-to-school season,
though fewer than in years prior based on needs of our school communities.

Expanded usage:
We continue to receive a positive response to ParentSquare’s role as a communication tool
in our community.

Here are a few examples: easy-to-use attendance notifications and excuse notes, language
translation in two-way digital conversations when translators are not available, and offering
large-scale messaging to grades or classes along with one-to-one direct messaging allin
one platform.

We leveraged a new feature for the first time during this reporting period, using the Secure
Document delivery feature to send report cards and progress reports. This feature matches
ID numbers to recipients via a mass PDF upload and digitally distributes report cards and
progress reports for ease in family access.

Using Secure Document Delivery for report cards saves immense time and funds formerly
spent on preparing and mailing documents and includes delivery reports to confirm which
guardians engaged with the report card. In the cases of undeliverable documents, we can
quickly pull the list and find other ways to contact those folks.

During the most recent reporting period, our team has also supported numerous staff in
creating custom groups for communication that extend beyond class rosters. Examples
include middle school choir clubs, caseloads of students for special education staff and

15


Monitoring Report for EL-3

multi-class groups such as all classes at a specific teaching team or grade level that need to
communicate about content unique to this group. For example, Parkview Elementary
requested we create a singular group that combines all rostered kindergarten classes for
easy communication applicable to all kindergarten families at once.

ParentSquare analytics numbers support the expanded usage of the tool in its third full year
in our school district.

During the reporting period, BPS staff used ParentSquare to send 11,491 posts (district,
school or class group messages), 152,024 direct messages (one-to-one or small group
back-and-forth messaging — similar to texting), 461 smart alerts (higher priority messages
related to school schedules changes due to weather, school safety etc.), 3,991 auto
notices* (e.g. attendance) and 42 Secure Documents*

*Auto notice and Secure Documents totals are calculated by how many times a mail
merge style template is used to do a mass send, not the number of individuals
sending count/recipients.

From a districtwide perspective, the tool usage continues to expand with an average of
13,316 emails, 3,611 texts, 7.393 app notifications and 132 voice calls per weekday.

Data snapshots: ParentSquare:

posts DIRECT MESSAGES ALERTS auto nonices @ SECURE DOCUMENTS @
11,491 152,024 461 3,991 42

Provides a snapshot of notifications overall usage (districtwide) over the reporting period.

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AVG. EMAILS
13,316 / Week Day

AVG. TEXT MESSAGES AVG. APP NOTIFICATIONS AVG. VOICE CALLS
3,611 / Week Day 7,393 | Week Day 132 / Week Day

Provides a snapshot of notifications per weekday (districtwide) over the reporting period.
16


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PLACE MATTERS FOR STUDENT LEARNING

Safe, functional and efficient learning environments

A gallery of our new or rebuilt schools since 2000 thanks to community support of construction bonds

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Schools opened or
rebuilt before 2000

High School

COURSE CATALOG
2024-2025

Oe llingh:
Bel a



Kindergarten registration
for fall 2024!

childhood immunization schedt
our elementary schools directly.

NOTE: If your child is 4 years old before Sept. 1, you may be
eligible for Promise K (transitional kindergarten.) To learn more
about Promi , plea ll our Early C

Pr }

-
&

Bellingham
4 MA Publics heals

a collective commitme

Looking for
4 year olds

FOR 2024-25
PROMISE KINDERGARTEN

w For application

’ ae And to determine eligibility

CALL 360-676-6488
OR 360-676-6456
OR VISIT

BELLINGHAMSCHOOLS.ORG/PROGRAM/
PROMISE-KINDERGARTEN/

Bellingham
Public Schools



2024-25 School Year

Register for
Kindergarten!

Kindergarten registration for the 2024-25

school year is open. All children who are 5 by
Sept. 1, 2024 are eligible.

Register with the school district you live in:

Bellingham Public Schools

1306 Dupont Street
= Bellingham, WA 98225
x 360-676-6400
wer _bellinghamschools.org

Blaine Schoo! District
mee 765 H Street
eS glaine, WA 98230
aa

anos 300-392-5061
am www_blainesd.org

Ferndale School District

Sqfease? 6041 Vista Drive
==; Ferndale WA 98248

= : 360-383-9200

BS www femdalesd.org

milan School District
ims 316 Main Street
= Lynden, WA 98264
360-334-4443
www. lynden.wednetedu

Meridian School District

meee 2A W. Laurel Road
SSS Bellingham, WA 98226
Ser 360-398-7111

eo www.meridian.wednet.edu

Mount Baker School District
4956 Deming Road
Deming, WA 9B244
360-333-2000
www. mtbaker.wednetedu

Nooksack Valley School District
3326 E. Badger Road
Everson, WA 98247
360-988-4754
weew.ow.k12.wa.us

Visit your school district
website to learn more.



YOUTH EMPLOYMENT AND
LOCAL COLLEGE FAIR 2024

470 5:30 P.M. THURSDAY, APRIL 18
HOSTED AT BELLINGHAM HIGH

ALL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN BELLINGHAM PUBLIC SCHOOLS WELCOME!

Ext \\ Bellingh am
co § Public Schools

2024
COLLEGE

FAIR

6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024
Hosted at Squalicum High School

* Open toall juniors and seniors
* Meetrepresentatives from public and
private colleges and universities in

Washington State and beyond
* Scholarship and financial aid fa»

SOPTIO!
sessions offered at 6:15 and 7:15 p.m. g AY

* Contact your career center for more
info

REGISTER AHEAD

SHS
FOR MORE INFO!

GO TO WWW.STRIVEFAIR.COM
NAP OR SCAN



SAVE THE DATE

BLOCK PARTY

10 a.m.to1lp.m. Saturday, Aug. 24, 2024
— High School

Bellingham
cy A N Public Schools

a ctive

D) Investing in strategic partnerships on behalf of students and families



I’m Rosie Santos

our Family Liaison,

families that:

Rosie. Santos@BellinghamSchools.org



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Monitoring Report for EL-3

E) Website and Social Media

Website
During this reporting period, the district website had 1,642,533 views.

Peak website traffic occurred during possible weather events with snow falling and during
the first day of school or semester. Web traffic was considerably higher compared to other
days.

Highest web traffic days:

Jan. 17, 2024 - 18,077 pageviews (all schools closed due to snow, on Jan. 17, 18 and 19)
Jan. 18, 2024 - 13,690 pageviews (all schools closed due to snow, on Jan. 17, 18 and 19)
Aug. 27, 2024 —- 16,200 pageviews (two days before the first day of school year)

Aug. 28, 2024 - 12,083 pageviews (one day before the first day of school year)

Jan. 12, 2024 - 11,500 pageviews (extremely cold weather and chance of snow)

The top 5 most visited district webpages during this reporting period (excluding the
homepage):

Calendars — 110,638 pageviews

Human Resources- 102,570 pageviews

Menus and Food Services- 84,581 pageviews

Contact (Staff Directory) —- 55,385 pageviews

School Index — 51,019 pageviews

High School and Beyond Plan- 27,477 pageviews

New websites planning:
During the reporting period, we began the process of evaluating the future of our websites
and exploring a new web vendor partner.

The three main factors for our website change: (1) age - our websites haven’t been
redesigned since 2016; (2) accessibility — more than 50 percent of web traffic is from mobile
devices and our sites lack mobile responsivity; and (3) structural concerns - our current
website support team recommended we explore a new vendor as soon as possible given
some underlying website health and longevity concerns.

The communications technician specialist convened a website vendor work group in spring
2024. The group had representation from principals, office staff, library media specialists, a
parent and select district office staff.

Together the work group shared input and feedback, developing a set of values for our next
family of websites.

After listening to vendor pitches from three finalists, the work group feedback informed the
selection of Finalsite, a leading K-12 website vendor used by over 1/3 of all Washington state
school districts.

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

The end of the reporting period included discovery phase work between the
Communications team and Finalsite. Finalsite will be custom designing a district website
theme and school website theme.

The discovery phase presented the opportunities for our staff and Finalsite staff to connect
about website values, goals and vision. It included identifying a sitemap (page organization
structure), branding and photos assets, stakeholder input, a current website assessment
and assessment of competitor websites.

The design phase begins just after the reporting period in December 2024. We anticipate
launching new websites in August 2025.

General web inquiries:

Our district website has a general web inquiry inbox, which visitors can access via the
contact webpage. The inbox is monitored by our reception staff. When able, reception staff
respond directly to the inquiry with the answer. When additional information is required,
reception staff will forward the inquiry to the appropriate staff member for followup.

During this reporting period the inbox received 541 inquiries from staff, families, students
and community members. The total was close to the number from the last reporting period
(559).

Social Media
During this reporting period, the district social media presence continued to grow overall.

X, formerly known as Twitter: Lost 50 followers, giving us 2,513 followers*.

*X is our least-followed/engaged platform. The trend follows the tool’s usage as
ownership/rule changes on the platform have some folks deleting accounts or
moving to an alternative such as Threads or Bluesky.

LinkedIn: This reporting period was our third reporting period actively posting content to
LinkedIn as an active social media outlet. LinkedIn has an audience of both current and
prospective employees. We continue to explore ways to uniquely use this medium.

We have 1,760 followers, gaining 231 followers during the reporting period.

Facebook: Our analytics reported an increase of 229 followers during the reporting period.
We have 6,817 followers. A particular interesting note about our Facebook following is that it

is 84 percent female and 16 percent male.

Below are the top five most popular posts on Facebook for this reporting period in
chronological order (based on Reach):

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

During this reporting period (July 11- Aug. 9, 2024), we promoted kindergarten enrollment
through digital ads on Facebook, Google Search and YouTube (pre-roll).

We learned Facebook and Good Search delivered strong, above-average results.
e Facebook click-through-rates were 3.88%, which is three times higher than the .90%
benchmark.
e Google Search click-through-rates finished just above 18%, which is significantly
higher than benchmark averages of 3.17%.
e Pre-rollon YouTube delivered strong awareness with over 11,000 total views.

In total:
e Ads served 210,282 impressions across all platforms
e Ads led to 5,353 clicks to the website
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While it’s challenging to attribute a social media impression or click-through directly to the
enrollment of a student, we believe the high number of impressions, clicks and above-
average engagement rates helped achieve our campaign goal to increase knowledge and
awareness of BPS kindergarten among prospective families in our district.

F) Digital Forms

Qualtrics
Qualtrics continues to be a well-used tool within the Communications team and beyond
during the reporting period.

The communications technician specialist provides all initial training and troubleshooting
for Qualtrics.

Our uses for Qualtrics are close to endless, and we continue to work to find operating and
upkeep capacities to develop and maintain new projects in the system.

We continue to explore opportunities to empower other departments with a “train the
trainer” mode, to share capacities and empower continued use of the product.

The largest and most robust annual Qualtrics project continues to be our climate survey.
The project has specific audience questions for staff, families and students. All data is
connected to a summary dashboard that can be viewed by district and school leadership.
During the reporting period, we had 6,086 total responses to climate surveys.

Other examples of heavily used Qualtrics projects used on recurring basis include:
districtwide transfer requests, student athletics, activities and clubs interest survey, post-
occupancy evaluation surveys for new buildings in our district and Promise Kindergarten
applications.

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

Qualtrics is also supported by Communications and used for many one-time surveys such
as vaccine clinic scheduling, advisory committees and budget planning feedback.

Forms used during this reporting period included:
e Family, student and staff climate surveys (6,086 responses)
e Request for Student Attendance Area Transfer (5,591 responses since 2019)
e Bellingham Virtual Learning (BVL) and Lab Registration Application (705 responses)
e Promise K 24-25 school year applications (314 responses)
e High School Credit Requirements Waiver and Alternatives (2,044 responses since
2019)
e Verbal Offer Confirmation for HR job offers (1,716 responses since 2022)
e FERPA Agreement Form (333 responses since 2020)
e Promise Awards scoring form 2024 (178 responses)

G) Digital Signage

External reader boards
The Communications team continues to support the use of external school reader board
signs, funded by the 2018 bond.

We now have eight schools with external digital reader boards in our district: Alderwood,
Cordata, Parkview, Silver Beach and Sunnyland elementaries, Shuksan middle, and
Bellingham and Squalicum high schools. One (Squalicum) was physically installed during
the reporting period.

The signs provide a strong public presence to share messages such as school specific
events and districtwide calendar reminders. Staff can add any combination of content
slides (a single slide or as many as desired) that will rotate and play during sign “on” hours.

The communications technician specialist provides all training and support to school
leadership and staff who update the reader boards The Communications team also provides
templates and visual resources to support the content design process.

Initial training includes access and overview of the web-based sign updating software,
which controls sign content. During the reporting period, the communications technician
specialist provided training refreshers and scheduled plans to train Squalicum staff on its
new reader board (installed late November 2024, ready for use early December 2024).

The communication staff also provides content monitoring support of the signs. This

includes adding districtwide reminders to signs (ex. early dismissal days) so that school
staff can focus efforts on messaging unique to their respective schools. The

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TruDigital internal displays

TruDigital is a digital signage software used by a portion of our schools to share content
within school buildings on TV displays. Content shared through the software is typically
specific to internal student audiences.

The communications technician specialist supports training and troubleshooting requests
for identified school staff tasked with updating their school displays. The Communications
team also supports the sharing and sizing of graphics for display, upon request, and can
push content remotely to signs.

Across the district, 10 TruDigital display systems were active during the reporting period.
Additional internal displays

The move to the new District Office presented opportunities for additional interior signage,
which operates on software systems different from our external and internal signage
systems at our schools.

One is the vision board located on the main level of the District Office near the reception
welcome area on the wall behind the coffee shop.

The communications technician specialist updates the vision board with a combination of
videos (ex. Promise Awards recipients, overview of The Bellingham Promise, Class of 2024),
photos (recent event highlights) and graphics (ex. human resources graphics, ParentSquare
graphics). The videos run at a very low volume with closed captions for ongoing viewing and
the screen is scheduled to go on and off automatically based on a set schedule each day.

Our Communications team also worked with educational technology to design and set up a
new system for displaying daily calendar events via a vertical-positioned screen above the
reception computer. This screen is intended to be a quick stop check for arriving visitors to
know meeting locations during the day. The calendar is updated daily by the reception team.

A digital history wall is located on the upper level of the District Office. During this reporting
period, a “then and now” slide deck was created as the building opened to the public for the
first time in April 2024. It displays photos of our schools and students from the past and
present. Coming in 2025, the history wall will evolve into a new content management system
with a touchscreen display with an enhanced scope.

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

H) Media Coverage and Relations

The Communications team continues our commitment to timely and excellent customer
service with traditional and new media outlets in our community. The assistant director of
communications is the media liaison and typically responds in one working day to any
media request, often more quickly, depending upon the reporter’s deadline or other
circumstances, and working to arrange interviews with district staff, families and/or
students as appropriate.

Communications cultivates positive and responsive working relationships with our local
media, the goal of which is a high level of trust and mutual respect. During this reporting
period, the executive director and assistant director met in person with editors and reporters
from the Bellingham Herald, Cascadia Daily News, and KGMI (Cascade Radio Group) to
make intentional personal connections, share district initiatives, and learn more about local
media trends and community interest. The assistant director also connects monthly with
the education reporter from the Cascadia Daily.

Cultivating a regular schedule of conversations with our media partners builds trust and an
ability to proactively work to connect them with stories about district initiatives and
programs. As the Cascadia Daily and Bellingham Herald continue to hire and welcome new
reporters to our community, often from other parts of the country, we also proactively work
to connect with them to help build their understanding of public education in our
community.

Communications also provides support and media coaching/orientations to staff members
concerned or nervous about being interviewed and works to connect reporters with a wide
range of subject matter experts from across the district, both geographically and by level.

Our messages to families and our community serve as de facto press releases and often
result in media inquiries; however, the Communications team has also increased our
proactive press releases and direct pitches to local outlets. Each local outlet continues to
express the wish to expand coverage of education topics and local events and/or how
national or state-wide initiatives affect the Bellingham community.

Professional press inquiries continue at a steady pace, in most part due to increased focus
on local or localized coverage from our outlets. However, as reported in last year’s EL-3,
requests from student reporters from our local college publications continue to be minimal,
and tend to be written as class assignments, not for publication. It appears collegiate
reporters have returned to a more typical practice of reporting on issues and events relevant
to their campus community. When received, however, Communications works with
collegiate journalists following the same protocols as the professional press, with additional
care and attention as they learn their craft.

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

Media relations by the numbers

Direct inquiries received in this reporting period: around 100, about the same as the
previous reporting period. This represents an average of 2-3 inquiries per week, with
some topics/issues bringing multiple inquiries from multiple outlets or requiring
multiple follow-ups. Staff spent roughly 225 hours directly devoted to media
responses and activities this reporting period.

o Around 70 inquiries resulted in published stories and/or broadcast coverage

=" Estimated staff time spent on published stories: approx. 170 hours for
responding, researching, providing statements, facilitating site visits,
and/or participating in interviews.

o Around 20 inquiries resulted in unpublished stories (e.g., for a collegiate class)

=" Staff time spent on unpublished stories: approx. 40 hours spent
responding, researching, providing statements, and/or participating in
interviews.

o The balance of inquiries represented a variety of scenarios, such as a check-in
onscanner activity or the validity of a community tip, a story that may have
been dropped due to the editorial process at a publication, or a story that had
to be postponed due to scheduling conflicts.

=" Staff time spent responding to these inquiries: approx. 20 hours.
Coverage varied widely. During this reporting period our media reported on a variety
of topics and events related to BPS, including:

o 2024 levy ballot measures, a bear sighting near Squalicum and Northern
Heights, hate and bias incidents that intersected with our schools or students,
cell phone policies, facilities and sustainability projects at Cordata and
Options, the opening of the new District Office and the ELC, student events
such as the Ebony Gala at Sehome, the farm-to-school food access program,
impacts of existing or potential homeless encampments near Cordata and
Shuksan, homeschooling in Whatcom County, criminal activity near Carl
Cozier, a profile of one of our ML specialists, school seismic data maintained
in Olympia, safety at Shuksan Middle School, and education budget

challenges.
The most reported-on topics were ongoing plans for the Civic Athletic Complex and
the rebuild of Carl Cozier, a racially-motivated assault on a Whatcom Middle School
student while on a walking field trip in June and an alleged anti-LGBTQ assault ona
BHS student in October.
COVID-19 and its impact on education is no longer a central topic of interest to our
local outlets, although some have reported on student mental health, attendance,
and other educational topics affected by the pandemic.
This data does not include reporting on public events such as plays, concerts and
prep sports, which are coordinated primarily through our high school coaches and
athletics & activities coordinators, with support from our media liaison as needed.
Numerous student-athletes, coaches, and fine arts events were covered and the

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

time for that media activity is not noted here, although our media liaison is available
for staff support if requested for coverage of extracurriculars / public events.

Notable media trends or activities:

e Letters to the editor: During this reporting period, we sent two letters to the editors of
multiple local outlets on behalf of the Whatcom County Superintendents, the first
regarding February levy elections and the second regarding school budgets.

e The Bayhawk Bearer, BHS’s student newspaper, reported on the District Office flood
and subsequent relocation of DO staff. Communications was honored to participate
in this act of student journalism, particularly because Communications was placed
at BHS for the duration of the flood relocation and very much appreciated the
hospitality at the home of the Bayhawks.

e Cascadia Daily had initiated a practice in fall 2022 for each prep sports season,
featuring two student-athletes from each local school in a special edition. However,
this practice changed in fall 2023, with a new sports reporter/editor at CDN, and CDN
now focuses more on profiling student-athletes throughout the season rather thana
preview edition. 2024 was the second annual spring senior/graduation spotlight
edition that featured two graduates from each local high school. A print “Senior
Spotlight” edition was released and delivered to schools, and each senior profile had
a video and social media component as well. High school administrators help to
coordinate this coverage with support from our media liaison.

o Spring sports 2024 —- prep sports previews, CDN
o Senior Spotlight & Graduation 2024

In order of volume of inquiries, the most common media inquiries came from: The
Bellingham Herald (21, reduced from last year’s more than 30), Cascadia Daily (around 40,
increased from the last reporting period), KGMI (5), WWIU reporters (4) and the Salish
Current (3).

BPS was also covered by Seattle TV stations King 5, KIRO and KOMO, plus local radio station
KMRE; The Washington State Standard from Olympia; and additional media outlets such as
The Daily Beast, Seattle Gay News, and The Independent.

2a ii) School board meetings and materials

During the reporting period, the school board met in-person for its meetings at Options High
School, then starting in April 2024, at the new District Office on Barkley Boulevard. Our
board meeting materials are on the website and available before each meeting. Printed
materials are available for those attending in-person.

During this reporting period, per a new state law, we began recording audio from each board
meeting. Recordings are typically available by request the day after the meeting.

2b) communicate short-term and long-term district and school strategic plans
describing initiatives and programs to achieve board ends policies

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

We communicate and share short-term and long-term district and school strategic plans,
initiatives and programs to achieve board ends policies, which are part of The Bellingham
Promise, in several ways.

Here are some examples:

e Linkages, student roundtables and school visits: The school board regularly shares
that they enjoy in-person events such as school visits, linkages and student
roundtables. These visits allow board members and executive team the chance to
hear firsthand from students and staff about experiences, reflections and special
programs. Photos and reflections from these visits are shared on social media.

e During this reporting period, the board visited several schools, including Northern
Heights, Kulshan, Lowell, Squalicum, Alderwood, Wade King and Happy Valley.

e The board also hosted student roundtables at Bellingham High regarding cell phones
in school and at Whatcom Middle School with students who participate in the GSA
club. The board hosted community linkages with staff, students, parents and
community partners connected to our Career and Technical program and staff and
parents of the Bellingham Family Partnership.

e Promise website: Our strategic plan, The Bellingham Promise, is referenced in many
of our communications. During this reporting period, we have published 43 Promise
stories. We continue to share these stories to staff and families via email regularly
and post them on social media. In fall 2024, the Communications team began using a
new approach to writing Promise stories, inspired by asession attended at the
NSPRA conference in July 2024. The “becoming a backpack journalist” session
included tips on how to 1) create more content, 2) create better content, and 3) work
more efficiently (quickly). The presenter shared that given short attention spans
(thank you, social media), content that is short and sweet is more likely to be read vs.
longform stories.

e Superintendent reports at board meetings: At the beginning of each board meeting,
the superintendent shares a slideshow of a variety of photos, events, celebrations,
initiatives and updates from across our district.

e Priorities for Progress, which is organized by The Bellingham Promise’s key
strategies. This annual publication includes priorities under each strategy to support
the board ends.

e Committees and advisory groups: much of the work accomplished in Bellingham
Public Schools is the result of committees and task forces. Membership consists of
representatives from stakeholder groups. All do specific work at the direction of the
superintendent. Please see section 2d) ii (below) for a comprehensive list.

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

2c) provide the public, parents and students relevant information on student progress
toward achieving board ends policies

With continued support from our community for our tech levy, our district provides
professional development to staff to support understanding and use of technology tools.
Staff use a variety of communications tools and channels with families to report on student
progress, including in-person strategies (in-person meetings and teacher/parent
conferences) and web tools (Skyward, Zoom, SeeSaw, email, social media and
ParentSquare) for family and student engagement.

Our staff consistently engage with families about student progress, including progress
reports, report cards, graduation requirements and state assessments. As mentioned
earlier, June 2024 was the first time we were able to deliver report cards to families and
guardians through the secure document feature of ParentSquare. We will continue to
deliver student progress reports and report cards via ParentSquare.

Our family engagement team plays a significant role in connecting families with our schools
and staff not only regarding student progress but also sharing resources, news, important
dates and emergency notification.

The Department of Communications and Community Relations includes and highlights the
17 outcomes in The Bellingham Promise in much of what it communicates to staff, families
and our community, including the Promise site, our storytelling tool, and general
communications (press releases) from the superintendent, the Department of Teaching and
Learning and our schools.

We continue to use The Bellingham Promise website and social media to share stories
about The Bellingham Promise in action in our schools and community.

Collectively, our Promise web pages had 20,320 pageviews during the reporting period.
Below are the top five most viewed Promise stories for this reporting period:

1. Commemorating Treaty Day through collaboration, listening and learning (2,227
pageviews)

2. What makes Options High School different? (880 pageviews)

3. Understanding work-based and worksite learning opportunities for high schoolers
(787 pageviews)

4. Six BPS student-athletes recognized with WIAA sportsmanship awards (721
pageview)

5. Latinos in Action class wins Gold Award (457 pageviews)

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

Also from EL-3:

2d) provide an affirmative (or negative) statement that the following actions have been
taken:
i. aprocess is in place to address student, parent, and stakeholder concerns ina
timely manner;

Affirmative. The process is outlined in our Family Handbook, and there are many other
avenues for stakeholders to share concerns, including our general inquiry form on our
website, emails directly to the superintendent, visits or calls to the District Office or
schools, and even on social media.

Members of the executive team, principals and other leaders and staff communicate and
meet with parents and others who have concerns. Parents or community members who
email or call the District Office with concerns or questions typically receive a phone call,
email or an offer to meet with an executive team member or staff member, often within a
few hours after they sent their question or concern. Staff in our schools follow a similar
protocol. Our staff do not shy away from resolving conflict and strive to model the tenets of
The Bellingham Promise to act as respectful and compassionate humans.

During this reporting period, 24 audience members spoke during the public comment period
of the board meeting. 23 comments were submitted to the Listening Post. Listening Post
submissions contain complaints, concerns and/or general comments for the board.

ii. the district engages with appropriate community advisory groups on important
questions.

Affirmative. The Department of Communications and Community Relations helps develop
the committee processes with district and school leaders, then publicizes the call for
applicants, attends the group’s meetings and assists with strategic communications for
internal and external audiences.

The following groups were active during this reporting period:

Facilities
e Carl Cozier Elementary Educational Specifications/Design Advisory Committee
e Roosevelt Elementary Educational Specifications/Design Advisory Committee
« Community Transitions Educational Specifications/Design Advisory Committee
e Kulshan Middle School Field Ad Hoc Committee

Parent Advisory Committees
e Parent Advisory Committee to the Superintendent

Teaching and Learning
e CTE General Advisory Council

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Monitoring Report for EL-3

e Inclusionary Instruction Strategies Standing Committee (revamped as MISS Standing

Committee in fall 2024)
e Instructional Materials Committee
e Professional Development Study Joint Committee with BEA
e Student Conduct Join Committee with BEA
e Title VI Native American Family Committee

Superintendent
e Student Advisory Committee to the Superintendent

Other
e Occupational Health & Safety Committee
e Promise Awards Advisory Group
e Sustainability Standing Committee

Statement of Compliance: The superintendent is in compliance with EL-3.

47