Sandy High School

37400 Bell Street

School District

Oregon Trail 46
Grade

9-12
Teacher/Student Ratio

1:22
Type

public

School Map for Oregon Trail School District 46

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 September 01, 2023

I have nothing but great things to say about Sandy High School and its staff. They genuinely care about the students and the community.
Submitted by other on June 01, 2023

Senior at the school. In my experience the only way that this school manages to get any child engagement is by throwing overtly extravagant assemblies. There is little to no support in almost any department (funding-wise) except for the sports section. There is NO support or proper discipline against blatantly obvious hate acts, such as homophobia. Within the Junior year of my term here, during pride month, a kid came in with a confederate flag tied around his shoulders. This act forced LGBTQ kids, who made sure they had approval to wear their flags, to take them off. The kid with the Confed flag was not sent home. The LGBTQ kid was. Confederate flags are banned in the dress code, but now so are all flags. Not to mention even today, for a spirit week day, a kid was walking around wearing a paper that said 'I Support LGBTQ'. Mind you, this spirit week day is about white lies, which meant that this paper was a lie, an act of homophobia. I did not see him disciplined. Not to mention this school set off a false school shooting alarm once while I was present this school year, turning all of the kids into a panic. We ran to the Mt. Hood Gym until we were called back, as per our instructions. I was sat on a staircase trying to call my mother to get checked out and one of the teachers yelled at me to go back to class. Later when I was walking down the main hall to leave the school, the same teacher came out and yelled at me for not going back. We had to engage in a screaming match in the hall. He stated that I should listen to him and that I had no right or the personal position to be talking back to him. I have every right to leave, and I did. The entire false alarm was covered up, even avoiding the news, despite a huge parental outrage. Finally, the entire school sucks. Too big to get around, its hard for disabled kids to navigate (even abled kids to navigate), the lunchroom isn't big enough, and every year they cut down more of our freedom. Now I see kids getting written up for being even a minute late to class and kids with frequent absences are given lunch detention, regardless of their situation (including me, who has almost no way to get to school and back home most days), and there is no alternative course for these low-income kids such as myself who cannot access the school or its resources as freely. I strongly recommend moving your kid to any other possible school. Plus, there's repeated incidents of mold in our food, for years now.
Submitted by student on March 10, 2023

Not a good school, would not recommend
Submitted by student on September 16, 2022

the lunch rooms are cramped that could be solved by having open campus for seniors. Traffic jams before and after school that go for about a mile. Most classes now have 30-40 students for 1 teacher. big focus on sports and cte compared to band and clubs. Math dept is lackluster, Tech is nowhere near where it should. Coaches need to realise that puting people in a position that they do not know and then yelling at them isnt the way to get better. enginuity sucks. huge drug and alcohol problem with students.
Submitted by student on November 30, 2020

The schools are very nice. The teaching staff is really nice, and the clubs seem very organized. The only problem is that they don't have any experience with dealing with the racial issues that occur. Overall it is a very nice school. Would recommend.
Submitted by other on December 10, 2015

This school is awful! i could spend hours discussing why but i'm just going to touch on a few things. First, the math department is mediocre at best. There is only one good teacher i have had in my 4 years here. The clubs here get no attention because the school focuses on their sports all the time. And the administration is terrible. They attempt to run this school like a business rather than a place for education. i once watched the principle sit int eh commons and shame and heckle the kids who were a few minutes late to getting to school. They are more focused on getting a good attendance (so that they can get more funding) than actually teaching. Would not recommend at all!
Submitted by other on December 03, 2015

My child attends this terrible school. The students are not the priority, the staff not accountable. The Athletic department is a "good old boys club"...quick to circle the wagons when when complaints or concerns are brought to their attention. Please consider all options before sending your child to this school.
Submitted by student on September 03, 2015

Sandy High School is a joke.! I've been here for 4 years now (senior year) and the building is amazingly huge but the teachers here are not. Some of them just sit around give non-helpful notes and give the students huge amounts of homework that aren't even the from the notes.! The food here sucks.! There are reports of people finding mold on their burgers and how about they block off the hall so no students can leave (there's not that many seats!) How about on the first and second day of school we had a drug bust already.! Sandy high isn't my choice of school.
Submitted by student on October 21, 2014

Where do i begin. Lets start with the math department. From distracted teachers to painful communication gaps the math department covers everything on the spectrum of ineptitude. Whats the point of having a state of the art school crammed full of incredible technology if none of the administration knows how to use it. The fact that the students understand more about how the schools features work than the tech department is sad. Many of my friends and i have been offered positions to TA for the tech department because we know how to run it and they don't! I have been in many classes where we could not complete assignments, or the teacher could not show us a presentation because the software was not correctly installed. We also have huge issues with hooking up projectors. I could understand these issues if they were every now and than but it is a constant recurring problem. Thank goodness we are still able to get an internet connection here, which is quite surprising considering how terrible the tech department is. It's a shame that the school has so many amazing clubs that don't get any support from the school and don't even get recognized for their achievements.
Submitted by teacher on September 10, 2014

The community was suckered into "investing " in their schools just prior to the great recession. This new edifice in our community is so lavish and extravagant that it put the school district to shame. It is filled with dead wood educators. The majority of the math department can not effectively teach math. They have great credentials but can not teach. There are so many poor educators at the high school you can not dodge around them to provide a quality educaton to the students. There is a very strong union in this district and they basically run the show. I believe if you removed most of the educators in this building and put them at the elementary level you would be doing the high school students a great favor.
Submitted by student on August 21, 2014

Find a better school! Class sizes range in the 25:1 student-teacher ratio. Much of the homework we receive is in fact busy work that does not aid in the exercise or understanding of new concepts. A few of the teachers are very openly biased concerning their political and moral beliefs. There is a wide variety for lunch options, but the quality of the food is unsatisfactory. There are also records of finding mold on cheese served to students (myself being one of them). During lunch, students are herded into the lunch room and the 3 wings are closed at the main hall causing students to group and gather in a confined area that could result in a Fire Code violation. In short, Save your children from going to this school. Find a private school or homeschool them.
Submitted by teacher on June 15, 2014

I am a staff member, not a teacher. This is a great new building with all the technological capabilities that could be wished for. Unfortunately, the quality of the education offered here is not up to par with the building. If you have a special education student, the ed. assistants are the ones teaching, not the teachers. I spent a year in a Study Skills class a couple years ago and the teacher spent the class planning her wedding on the internet while I helped the kids with their work. Now a lot of movies are shown in the special ed. classes, often just because the teacher needs a "break" or catch up on their paperwork. (One sp. ed. teacher showed most of the entire James Bond series during his English class. Lots of learning going on there.) Special ed. students aren't challenged here or encouraged to succeed, just go for the modified diploma and take 2 P.E. classes and an art class per term, you're good to go. The modified diploma is highly promoted at this school, even with students who can handle the regular diploma. Take it from someone on the inside who sees this first hand. I've worked in a lot of sp. ed. classrooms here.
Submitted by student on February 17, 2014

This school is not the best, all of the math teachers i have had are really bad! Most of the other teachers are not much better, with the exception of a couple excellent ones. The councilors are really not much help at all! I also find that students here are rude, and have terrible language, along with a huge drug and alcohol epidemic. the curriculum is also not challenging enough i think the teachers just settle and give up, giving us the basics and no more. So personally I am not a fan of Sandy high school, and from my perspective the school building is beautiful and grand but the teachers and students do not deserve it. -from a students perspective.
Submitted by student on November 23, 2013

Awesome school, with quality teachers and nice courses. The building is brand new, with a fantastic athletic complex.
Submitted by teacher on October 27, 2013

Sandy High School is undergoing some radical changes this year. We have new administration that uses a "hands on" approach to digging in and making necessary changes to the way things have been done for years. It's no secret that big changes mean big upheavals in current practices but I think the changes will help students gain specific skills in reading, writing, math and science. The skills based approach will mean students must focus on acquiring skills needed to demonstrate competency rather than just "jumping through hoops" of competing assignments or just showing up to class. I'm looking forward to fine tuning the processes we've begun this year and incorporating real, progressive change at our school. Staff members are spending more time developing usable techniques and lesson plans that address skill based learning. We're being asked to collaborate and help each other more often. Overall, I feel that even though we're making big changes, they will benefit our students!
Submitted by parent on August 03, 2013

Sandy High School. The Oregon Trail School District has built a state-of-the art new school. Take a look at the photos posted online. The athletic fields have just been refinished. The new school is a technological amazement. Included in the new programs offered now is a much improved autos program and Ag program. Sandy High has room to grow. Builders included a fully functional TV studio. It's a much better facility today.