As the 2025-2026 school year winds down at Bellingham Public Schools, the Bellingham Public Schools Foundation is inviting families, students, and community members to recognize the educators and staff who made a difference. The foundation's Gold Star Awards program gives anyone the chance to formally nominate a teacher, paraeducator, bus driver, or other school employee for outstanding service to students.
The Bellingham Public Schools Foundation is an independent nonprofit that supports Bellingham's 22 schools and nearly 12,000 students across the district. Through grants, programs, and donor-funded initiatives, the BPSF fills gaps between what the state provides and what students actually need. The Gold Star Awards are one of the foundation's signature programs for community engagement, designed to ensure that the unsung contributors to student success get acknowledged by name.
Nominations through the BPSF Gold Star Award program are open to anyone who wants to recognize a Bellingham School District employee. That includes classroom teachers, of course, but also paraeducators who support students with disabilities, bus drivers who build relationships with kids on their routes every day, administrative staff, custodians, and cafeteria workers. The awards are meant to capture the full range of people who make a school function and a student feel seen.
The process for submitting a nomination is straightforward. Community members fill out a short form on the BPSF website describing what the nominee did and why it mattered. The foundation reviews submissions and reaches out to recognized employees to let them know someone took the time to acknowledge their work. For many staff members, this kind of direct recognition from families carries significant weight at a time of year when burnout is real and appreciation is easy to overlook.
Bellingham Public Schools serves students across a wide range of neighborhoods, from Sehome and Shuksan in the central part of the city to schools in Sudden Valley and the district's outer edges. The district employs hundreds of classified staff alongside its teaching corps, and the Gold Star Awards program is one of the few mechanisms that specifically highlights classified roles rather than focusing exclusively on classroom instruction.
The foundation also uses this end-of-year message to invite tax-deductible donations in support of its broader programs. Contributions to the BPSF fund things like school garden projects, after-school programs, classroom supplies in high-need schools, and academic enrichment. Donors can direct gifts to specific schools or contribute to the general fund. More information on giving is available at bellinghamschoolsfoundation.org.
With school buildings closing for the summer in the coming days, this is the last stretch of the academic year when staff are still actively visible in the community. The foundation notes that Gold Star nominations can be submitted year-round, but the end-of-year period tends to bring the strongest response as families reflect on the year and think about who made a real difference for their children.
If a teacher, paraeducator, driver, or support staff member at any Bellingham Public Schools campus made your family's year better, now is the time to say so in writing. The nomination form takes only a few minutes and goes directly to the foundation for follow-through. Full details are available through the Bellingham School District website and the BPSF.
