The Bellingham School District is committed to a collaborative planning, problem solving, and decision making process for achieving school improvement. Site councils have been formed at every school to achieve this goal. Site councils are advisory councils consisting of parents, teachers, and classified staff members. The primary goal of the site council is school improvement.
Legally, local school boards cannot delegate hiring, discharge, probation, salaries, evaluation, instructional material, budgets and various other tasks to site councils. However, site councils may be significantly involved in decision making as long as the role of the site council remains advisory. The principal and school board have the ultimate responsibility for implementing programs.