Sehome High School

2700 Bill McDonald Parkway

School District

Bellingham Public Schools
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:22
Type

public

School Map for Bellingham Public Schools

GreatSchools Rating

The school rating calculation is based on four ratings: the Student Progress Rating or Academic Progress Rating, College Readiness Rating, Equity Rating, and Test Score Rating each designed to show different facets of school success. Learn more about GreatSchools Ratings

Reviews

Submitted by parent on April 24, 2023

The teachers are extremely rude and don't offer the students emotional physical or mental support. My daughter has come home crying many times due to the teachers being so mean.
Submitted by student on December 16, 2021

Sehome High School cares only for it's outward appearance. The current principal (Sonia Cole) Has put no long lasting actions in place after 3 separate threats where put onto the school within the course of a week and a half. And when trying to "follow procedures", has caused more panic in students then calming everyone down. One of the threats put the school into a full blown lockdown and not one single person knew what was going on, nobody knew if somebody was in the school with a weapon, if somebody was outside with weapon, ETC. The whole year we've had one lockout drill and no lockdown drills. And while I understand when multiple threats are put onto your school it can be stressful and hard to go about it best but it doesn't excuse the how everything was done. Besides all of that, the school preaches about inclusivity but the teachers and staff do absolutely nothing when students use gay as an insult or when they use abelist slurs in the classroom but when someone says a simple curse word you get shouted at to not say it?? The only positive thing about Sehome is it's generally nice students; I'm in my freshman year and I've been generally well by my peers which has helped me through the year but that HASN'T helped me through the year is the assignment and grading system; in some of my classes I excel because the teachers know how to work with students and keep them engaged but in other classes when a student isn't doing well or turning in assignments the teachers do almost nothing to help or actually figure out what's wrong and though not doing isn't entirely the teachers fault it doesn't mean when they do turn in something and get one thing wrong you give them a zero and tell them to do it all over again. This school is an absolute mess and its beautiful outward appearance does not make up for all of it's inward mistakes.
Submitted by parent on April 02, 2021

I am echoing several of the negative reviews here. We started attending this school pre-pandemic in 2018. The student orientation left my student with little to no information to orient my two students. I had to return to the school and get the missing basic needs info like passwords so that my student could log onto the system and the schedule that was handed to him. (there were only 3 people there new to the school) had errors. Both my students on two different occasions told me the orientation was lead by a student who basically found a friend in a classroom and hung out with them. This happened 2 years in a row as one of my students started a year later. Even after I brought it to the attention of the staff the first year. Parent and student access to grades are a hit or miss. They often use a zero grade of F as a placeholder until a grade is put into the system. My kids have gotten lots of lectures from me for going from A students to F. To find out later the teachers were doing this. We have had several teachers not even give grading feedback to the students bringing up that the teacher knows how the kids are doing, or know they need to work on a concept before it snowballs? One teacher only posted grades, still not graded assignment feedback until the school required the grades. This was for an AP class. Another AP class was a split class where the teacher has both a study hall in the library and a class down the hall. I am not sure that was legal. Today I just received April a note from a teacher that he/she forgot to give the students a syllabus. Which that teacher is not the only one. When you get the syllabus it is more about civic behavior, morals, values rather than laying out the academic year and grading expectations for the semester. My student came to the school excelled. Was strongly discouraged from using the program that sends kids to the community college. Then my student was told to take a full load even though he only needed 2 classes his senior year since the state we came from allowed students to start high school classes in 8th grade. I have seen a significate drop in my student's performance from being very engaged in school to "what is the point". There are times I question assignments that are filler assignments and do not follow curriculum standards and objectives. There are times a student gets graded for how well they colored when it is not an art class but a math class, etc. The rare find, an excellent teacher.
Submitted by parent on July 25, 2018

Disappointing. Send your kids somewhere else...anywhere else!
Submitted by parent on November 16, 2017

Don't be fooled. Sehome HS is a sub-standard high school. The teachers are mediocre at best, there is minimal/no school spirit and the teachers have no control over students regardless of their outrageous behavior in class. If you have a poor or average student, Sehome won't help their academics because they will be surrounded by the same. If you have a good student, do them a favor and send them to Squalicum HS or Bellingham HS where they are more likely to get on the college path. The 5 star review below sounds suspiciously like it was written by a Sehome school administrator or teacher. Be wary.
Submitted by parent on December 07, 2016

I'm thoroughly impressed with the compassionate, competent, thoughtful teachers, administrators and counselors at Sehome. After coming from a private school experience and having children with both gifted and learning needs, I am overwhelmed by the quality and thoughtful education my children are receiving at Sehome. I'm so grateful for my children to have the opportunity to attend this school under the guidance of Mrs. Kuss-Cybula.
Submitted by parent on September 27, 2016

Typical public school - not stellar and not many great teachers. Principal cares mostly about her looks, not the 5 time/day arson on her campus or the educational accountability of her teachers. It works if you have low expectations of a the school in all regards.