As a grandparent of a 4th and 7th grader who have thrived in Bellevue School District Prism program, I was dismayed at the changes the district proposed for the program this fall.

My understanding is the changes are, at least in part, a response to parents of students in the district’s enrichment program who are dissatisfied with the part-time nature of that program. As a result, elementary Prism students will be combined with those in the enrichment program with the combined classes split into two different school paths. This seems like a poor solution for both the Prism and enrichment students.

I understand that the addition of the enrichment students would double or triple the number of students included. If so, surely there are enough enrichment students to justify full time classes at each school.

Combining the two groups also would seem to reduce the Prism program’s appeal to those from other school districts resulting in less revenue for the district. The costs involved in training teachers for the new enrichment program would be far less than training them for both enrichment and Prism-level students.

Bill Hirt, Bellevue