Towards the end of the Fifth Grade Lottery, one of the volunteers slipped up while reading a number. She called out “Four zero eight” instead of 480. If it had been a few hundred numbers earlier, it might have mattered. Luckily, it didn’t.

Bellevue’s International School took the first step toward its next crop of students at their Feb. 16 Fifth Grade Lottery. The lottery narrowed down a record 591 applicants to a fortunate 81.

The International School accepts that same number of students every year, and over the course of the school’s program, these students will go together through the same teachers, classes, and events in grades six through 12. International’s curriculum requires students to go through a set progression of courses, decided in their first year and continued until their last.

Students “take seven classes for seven years,” said Jennifer Rose, International’s first-year principal. “It keeps the focus fairly narrow.”

At the same time, though, the school teaches them to turn their gaze to the world; one of those seven courses is in International Citizenship, and each student is required to learn a foreign language.

That adds up to a substantial amount of work, said one student. “But at the same time, you know its worth it.”

Out of the 81 allotted spots, 35 went to the siblings of present students; the Bellevue School District’s policy is to keep families together wherever possible, said Jacqueline Cohen, the BSD’s Director of Communications.

International’s small class size is one of its most attractive features, and it was one of the selling points for several parents who attended the lottery. At the same time, though, it means turning down hundreds of students.

One parent remarked “It’s okay, it’s a lottery, we kind of expected it,” about her son’s rejection. For others, though, rejection wasn’t as easy to swallow.

Several parents called rejection “disappointing,” while another said that not getting in was “pretty miserable.”

The lottery itself, though, “is as fair as we could make it,” said the school’s registrar, one of several officials who administered the lottery.

Many of the individuals attending the lottery didn’t know their numbers. For them, for those who didn’t attend, and for the community in general, the lottery’s results are available at International’s website.

Derek Tsang is an intern at the Bellevue Reporter. He attends Interlake High School.