Squalicum music teacher celebrated at Foundation Gala with 2025 Promising Futures Award as a teacher who inspires far beyond the classroom

Squalicum High School band teacher Kay Reilly earned the 2025 Promising Futures Award from the Bellingham Public SchoolsFoundation. The award recognizes staff in Bellingham Public Schools who make a "joyful, welcoming and supportive place" for students.

Reilly was celebrated during the Foundation's second annual Promising Futures Gala on Oct. 17. 

Remarks honoring her mentioned her ability to be "soft-spoken" but still "command a room," and as a teacher "whose quiet strength creates extraordinary outcomes" lifting up students to excel.

"Kay’s quiet strength and unwavering dedication embody what this award is all about," the Foundation shared.

"Her work reminds us that the most powerful kind of leadership doesn’t always happen in the spotlight. Sometimes, it’s found in the person who makes sure everyone else gets to shine."

Reilly has taught in Bellingham Public Schools at Squalicum HIgh School since August 2006. In addition to classroom teaching, she and her students participate in drum lines at athletic games, in special performances throughout the community, and in the school's musical theatre productions.

We asked for her reaction to receiving the Foundation’s Promising Future Award and she shared some reflections.

How do you see your work as a music teacher and band leader leading to promising futures?  What do you hope for most by bringing the kids together making music?

Kay Reilly wrote: "I’m deeply honored to be nominated by my students for this award. When I think of the future in our often uncertain and scary world, hope isn’t always easy to access. But even facing that uncertainty, I’m grateful that I get to work in a place where my students come in every day and create music together in real-time with hard work, reflection and a deep sense of camaraderie. They learn to take good care of each other through humor, disagreements, taking risks and having each others’ backs.

My colleague and friend told me the other day that he loves watching our Jazz Band because the power of live music is something truly special, and I couldn’t agree more. There’s nothing quite like it, both the rehearsal process as well as the final performance. And as we face threats in the world like fracturing conflict and AI, what I see in the phrase “promising futures” is simply the humans. The humans include our students being goofballs and making someone’s day better, or when they cheer on a peer when they finish a solo in a jazz piece.  They are our students in an English classroom sharing their writing with each other and truly listening as the other reads; they are the team in a huddle after the tough loss of a game played through the pouring rain or students decorating our school with pride for our upcoming annual Hispanic Heritage Night. Humans are all of the adults who get to be there, with and for our kids through it all.

Amidst hard, draining days and uncertainty in all sorts of ways, my colleagues and I get to see inspiring evidence of hope and promising futures every single day. And it’s the students I love working with —they are what get me back through the door every day. And, honestly,  I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else."

The Bellingham Public Schools Foundation helps to bridge the gap between basic education funding provided by the state of Washington and what is needed to meet district goals of academic excellence as laid out in The Bellingham Promise. Learn more about BPSF online.

The Foundation Promising Futures Award includes a $500 cash prize and classroom award sponsored by WECU.