Communications and Community Relations

Communications and Community Relations provides information to a variety of stakeholders, including students, staff, families, news media and community members.

We communicate accurate and timely news about schools, programs, achievements of students and staff, opportunities for input, decisions and district policies, programs, procedures, achievements, decisions, critical education issues and emergency/weather information.

Media Relations:

Reporters can contact Dana Smith, Assistant Director of Communications, via email or at 360-676-6520.

Family Handbook and Calendar

An annual publication of Bellingham Public Schools sent in the summer mailing ahead of the start of school every school year. The 2022-23 version is found online.

InsideSchools:

InsideSchools is our community newsletter. It is mailed to homes and businesses three to four times per year. See the latest editions below.

Recent Awards:

The following Communications projects received recognition from state and national communications organizations, shining light on the great people and work of Bellingham Public Schools:

Writing

We see you, which is a message we sent to staff and families after the horrific violence against Asian-Americans in March 2021 (WSPRA, 2022)
The 10^th year of Project Free Education Brings Steady Progress and Significant Wins (WSPRA, 2022)
High schools unite for post-high school planning lessons (WSPRA, 2022)

Video

Class of 2024: catching up with students we first started following through video when they were the first cohort to be in full-time kindergarten in Bellingham Public Schools. In this video, we caught up with them in their first year of high school, which happened during the pandemic. (WSPRA, 2022)

Special publication

Bellingham Public Schools playground flyer to reflect our ongoing work to install inclusive playgrounds across our elementary schools. (WSPRA, 2022)

Social Media

A campaign spotlighting both graduating seniors of the class of 2021 and staff retirements from the 2020-21 school year all on social media. You can see an example of the senior spotlight and one of our retiree posts here. (WSPRA, 2022)
“Fantastic Facilities Campaign Award” for the bond fact sheet, social media posts and videos ( CT, 15^th elementary and sustainability, accessibility) produced ahead of the February 2022 election. (SocialSchool4EDU, 2022)