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Bellevue schools present streamlined SIPs: focused goals, equity drives instruction

Bellevue School Board of Directors · November 14, 2025
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Summary

Newport Heights and Chinook Middle School showed the board how narrowed SIP focus goals and routines (including 20‑minute "wind" blocks and Character Strong practices) aim to boost proficiency and engagement for students on the margins.

District leaders and school teams presented the 2026 School Improvement Plans (SIPs) and told the board the plans have been redesigned to align with the annual and strategic plans and to focus each school on one instructional 'focus' goal and one 'foundation' goal.

Newport Heights Principal Chris Hagen described a targeted model that uses a 20‑minute "wind" block four times a week to form small groups by skill gap and to deploy the most skilled educators and multilingual‑learner (MLL) facilitators to accelerate reading and math growth for students with IEPs, new‑to‑country learners and economically disadvantaged students. "Each grade level has 20 minute, 20 minute wind block built into the schedule 4 times a week," Hagen said.

Chinook Middle School Principal James Peterson said the school will focus on increasing favorable student engagement on the Panorama survey from 31% to 41% by 2026 through consistent tier‑1 instructional practices, quarterly student feedback and use of Danielson‑based instructional tools and Character Strong routines.

Board members welcomed the clearer structure and the inclusion of last year’s progress data; they asked staff to monitor how staffing shortages and larger class sizes might affect implementation and to consider student voice and sustainability goals in ongoing SIP monitoring.