Blakely Newsletter -November 9, 2026

Hello Bulldogs, 

What a beautiful fall weekend! The sun and crisp air held for a wonderful Veterans Day gathering this morning. Students shared what they've learned about Veterans, why we have Wednesday off and sang a song showing our gratitude to a few Veterans in attendance. This has always been one of my favorite traditions at Blakely and I am so proud of our students and our community.  

As we enter this week, I'd like to thank all our families for all your continued support through Jog-A-Thon, half day conferences and more. Thank you for reading the below.  

Annual School Improvement Plan: 

Each year we identify a few areas to focus on for our school improvement plan as specified by BISD policies. I shared our goals this past week with our school board and would like to share them with you as well for your awareness. These goals evolved after our staff spent time looking at a wide range of data and discussing trends that line up with what we see anecdotally during the day. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions, feedback, etc. 

To keep our playground safe and well-maintained, we have worked intentionally over the past eight weeks teaching our 3B's at recess. This helps establish consistent expectations during the school day. However, I have noticed that students using the playground directly after dismissal are not always following these expectations. I love the community that our playground brings and what a gathering space it is after school, but to help us maintain consistency and reinforce these habits, we ask that parents and guardians actively support and supervise these basic rules if your children play on school grounds after school:

Thank you again for your partnership and support! 

Sam Cameron, Principal

 

Please join us for our November PTO Meeting this Friday, 11/13 at 8am.  All are welcome.  Come find out about upcoming events and get involved.

Share your yearbook photos! The Blakely Yearbook team needs your photos from Blakely events, field trips, class parties, theme days, jog-a-thon, etc. Upload any photos you'd like to share to our Google Drive folder, which is organized by grade. Thanks for helping make the yearbook special!

Winter on Bainbridge Island is undeniably beautiful, but it definitely keeps us on our toes. Because of our unique microclimates and rolling hills, one school bus might be navigating icy switchbacks while another is driving under clear blue skies.

When it comes to making the tricky early-morning call for a “snow day” (or, more often, an “ice day”), student and staff safety is always our compass. Here is what our team carefully evaluates:

We weigh all of these factors heavily—and often wish we had a crystal ball! Thank you for your continued grace and patience as we do our absolute best to keep everyone safe, warm, and informed.

Make Sure You Get the Call (or Text!) If you receive this newsletter, you are already registered in ParentSquare for our emergency alerts. The system will notify you based on your communication preferences, but it is also “smart” enough to trigger an automated phone call if your preferred method fails.

If you haven't fully set up your account yet, you will only receive alerts via email. To customize your notifications, please review our Parents/Guardians Instructions for Activating ParentSquare.

For a deeper dive into our winter protocols, visit our Inclement Weather Info & FAQs at bisd303.org/weatherupdates.

Looking for things to do around town? Visit our Community Events page for local happenings, classes, and family activities—updated regularly.