Bellevue School District is currently experiencing budget shortfalls and has proposed Middle School consolidation as a possible partial solution.  Our PTA Board has worked together to issue the following statements. These opinions are reflective of the current Board of Directors and not our full Puesta del Sol PTA Membership.

• We support the Bellevue PTSA Council resolution adopted on 12/4/23 “to declare that Bellevue School District Budget reduction process be collaborative with the community and focused on reducing impacts to the academic and extra-curricular opportunities of all students K-12.”
• We acknowledge that the current Middle School Consolidation discussion is challenging and concerning. We encourage everyone to engage in discussions and actions with respect and kindness. As a PTA Board, we will focus our efforts on collaborating with other PTAs in our District to come up with solutions that serve all of our students.
• We call on our community to advocate for Washington State to fully fund public education: specifically to fund special education at the level required by law and to adjust the regionalization of our local levy caps. If both advocacy items succeed, our school district would have an additional 20-40 million dollars annually, which would alleviate the budget crisis.

Some Ways to Get Involved:

• Attend Bellevue School District Board meetings. Our superintendent, Dr. Kelly Aramaki, has said that new information and feedback from the listening sessions will be released this month. You can attend in person or virtually. More information here: https://bsd405.org/about/school-board/meetings/
• Full text of the Bellevue PTSA Council Resolution can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=657784949848140&set=pcb.657784029848232
• To assist with Washington State advocacy efforts, please contact: advocacy@bellevueptsacouncil.org
  BSD has updated their Middle School Consolidation webpage. Please find it here: https://bsd405.org/departments/finance/middle-school-enrollment-consolidation-study/
• Many of our Puesta del Sol families have students at Tillicum Middle School, but they are not the only school who could be affected by consolidation. Please look for more information at each of the BSD Middle School PTAs here: Chinook PTA, Highland PTA ,Odle PTA, Tillicum PTA, and Tyee PTA .