Bellingham Public Schools is proud to share these highlights of our students, staff and community living The Bellingham Promise.

Shuksan student artists inspired by the work of Alma Thomas

Shuksan Middle School art students learned about the legendary American artist Alma Thomas and used her artwork as inspiration for their colorful animal paintings.Shuksan art teacher Carolyn Heywood shared that she timed this art project to coincide with Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March, thereby highlighting the impressive career and life of this trailblazing art teacher and artist. “I chose Alma Thomas not only for the beauty of her work, but for the amazing artistic life she led,” Heywood shared. 

Reading Pals Volunteer Program needs you!

Reading Pals is a new BPS volunteer program that originated in the fall with a program at Happy Valley Elementary created by literacy specialist Sheila Clark in partnership with community partner Hillcrest Church. Members there wanted to volunteer at Happy Valley, and Clark decided a reading buddy program would be the most beneficial to students. Following that program’s inception, BPS volunteer coordinator Jennifer Gaer decided it should go districtwide, so she kicked off the wider program in January.

Multilingual student wins merit award in countywide poetry contest

Since 2006, the Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest honors adult and student poets across Whatcom County. According to Joan Packer, a poetry contest volunteer, every year the contest receives hundreds of submissions and judges determine a mere 20 winners. Among this year’s winners is Ashly Mencía Martínez, a Cordata Elementary School fifth grader, making her one of a small handful of elementary school poets selected in the county for the honor. She submitted a poem that she had written the previous school year in Ms. Stephanie Lowin’s fourth grade classroom at Happy Valley. Ashly’s poem is remarkable for the simple reason that it was written in her second language. She recently moved to Bellingham with her family from Honduras in 2021 and currently receives services in the Multilingual Learners Program in Bellingham Public Schools.

Washington State Poet Laureate Rena Priest visits Happy Valley

Happy Valley fifth grade student unfurled a sheet of paper holding the poem he had authored, carefully announced the title to the class, and closed an introduction with the words “…inspired by Rena Priest.”  Unique to this particular sharing of the poem was that Rena Priest, Washington State Poet Laureate, was in the classroom for a guest speaker visit to Happy Valley Elementary. The visit provided a special opportunity to talk about poetry, share examples of Priest’s work and listen to students share work they had produced. Priest became the sixth Washington State Poet Laureate in April 2021 and is the first Indigenous poet to serve. Priest, a member of the Lhaq’temish (Lummi) Nation, served a two-year term that concluded at the end of April 2023.