How would you rank the Vancouver area high schools? (Salmon Creek: real estate, teaching jobs)

[texasdiver]

My wife and I are at the beginning stages of contemplating a relocation from Texas back to the Northwest and we are looking mostly at the Vancouver area due to my wife's career. We would have two girls entering 5th and 8th grades and so finding the right schools is pretty important as they will be uprooted from schools and friends that they like. Both are fairly academic and musical, one is trending towards soccer and choir, the other towards swimming and band.

So for those of you who live in the area and have gone down this path, how would you rank the high schools in the area? We haven't actually made any visits yet so based entirely on what I have read it seems like all the schools seem reasonably viable. There are no horrible unacceptable options like we have here in inner city Texas or even across the river in Portland. But there does seem to be a fairly clear ranking that seems based primarily on socioeconomics rather than anything else. Based on Niche and Great Schools reviews, the preference seems to be Camas HS first and then the rest of the Vancouver schools are clustered a bit below. Based on the combination of both school rating sites I see them ranked more or less as follows:

• Camas HS (Niche = A, Great Schools = 10)
  
• Union HS (Niche = A- Great Schools = 7)
• Columbia River HS (Niche = A- Great Schools = 7)
• Skyview HS (Niche = B- Great Schools = 7)
  
• Mountain View HS (Niche = B+ Great Schools = 6)
• Heritage HS (Niche = B- Great Schools = 4)
• Evergreen HS (Niche = C+, Great Schools = 6)
  
• Fort Vancouver (Niche = C Great Schools = 3)
• Hudson's Bay (Niche = C Great Schools = 3)

I understand that there is far more to a school than numerical rankings but absent being able to visit at this time it sort of looks like Camas stands out as the highest ranked school in the area.

Then Union, Columbia River and Skyview follow in a fairly close group. All three seem to be in clusters of fairly newish upscale neighborhoods Felida, Salmon Creek, and East Vancouver/Camas.

Then Mountain View, Heritage, and Evergreen follow up in a fairly similar group of Evergreen ISD schools in what seems to be the older and more established part of East Vancouver.

Finally Fort Vancouver and Hudson's Bay are the lowest ranked schools in the area and cover the oldest parts of central and west Vancouver.

Is that how the rest of you would rank these schools. Are there certain schools that one basically rules out when looking to relocate? Our housing budget will probably be in the $500,000 range, give or take. More if we absolutely have to, less if we can get away with it. So I'm assuming we can relocate into any of these school zones if we wanted, it will come down to a question of commuting I think. My wife is looking at job prospects in both the Salmon Creek area and the area near Peace Health Hospital so we don't exactly have that pinned down yet.

[hml1976]

This seems pretty accurate to me. Hockinson and Ridgefield also have good if smaller high schools. Also if you can get in VSAA (magnet school) is ranked as the best high school in the area.

you should be able to find something in your budget wherever you look in the area. I would personally rule out the bottom three on your list but that's me. Remember that Camas, Columbia River and Skyview all have well respected magnet programs as well. The others may also I'm just not familiar with them. Best of luck.

Eta school digger also has good school info.

[JonathanLB]

My GF went to Mountain View and she really liked it. One of her friends got 2 years of college out of the way there and was able to enter college as a junior. I thought that was pretty awesome!

[siliconimplant]

One thing to keep in mind about Camas: it is a one high school town, but is rapidly growing. Many people in Camas want to remain a one-high-school town, but at some point I think they will have to seriously consider adding a 2nd. I'm from a small town and I know how people feel about supporting THE high school, but I'm also an educator and I know that a mega-school is not what I want for my children.

I don't think you'd go wrong in Camas, just be aware that there may be some growing pains.

I focused mainly on elementary schools in our search. We ended up choosing Vancouver because of the options (magnets, good "regular" high schools). My children will go to Columbia River, but I'd have been happy for them to attend Skyview or Camas as well. I didn't look too closely at schools in the Evergreen district (Union), mainly because I ran out of time.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by siliconimplant

One thing to keep in mind about Camas: it is a one high school town, but is rapidly growing. Many people in Camas want to remain a one-high-school town, but at some point I think they will have to seriously consider adding a 2nd. I'm from a small town and I know how people feel about supporting THE high school, but I'm also an educator and I know that a mega-school is not what I want for my children.

I don't think you'd go wrong in Camas, just be aware that there may be some growing pains.

I focused mainly on elementary schools in our search. We ended up choosing Vancouver because of the options (magnets, good "regular" high schools). My children will go to Columbia River, but I'd have been happy for them to attend Skyview or Camas as well. I didn't look too closely at schools in the Evergreen district (Union), mainly because I ran out of time.

Same thing happens a lot here in TX with one HS districts in fast growing suburbs. Recently the trend has been to build a second "senior" campus for the 11th and 12th grade and have a mid-High for the 9th and 10th grade so they can still have one football team, marching band, etc. But then some of them get so large there are more than 1000 students per class. Hopefully that trend hasn't taken hold in Washington yet. I grew up in Oregon and Medford was playing that game back in the 80s but eventually growth overtook even that attempt to maintain one school and they had to build more.

I'm also an educator. I teach HS science and I tend to think the ideal school size is between 1000 and 2000 for the majority of students. Big enough to have diverse course offerings and eclectic clubs and activities but not so big as to overwhelm and limit opportunities. For example, if you want to play basketball at a 4000 student HS you had better be exceedingly talented because there will only be about 3-4 students per grade level making the varsity.

I also know that school ratings are hardly the whole story and more a reflection of socioeconomic conditions than anything else. But unfortunately perception often becomes reality with these sorts of things, especially here in TX where the suburbs are so fluid. Schools that are perceived to be good tend to attract the most engaged parents, and those same parents tend to avoid schools perceived to be low performing. So it creates a vicious cycle that is difficult to break and affects everything from development patterns to real estate values. Towns in the Northwest are slower growing and less racially stratified than in the south so my perception is that it isn't as big of a problem than in say Texas where schools and districts can completely change character in a decade due to development or flight.

Neither of our girls are particularly thrilled about the idea of moving so we'll probably engage them as much as possible in the decision making about neighborhoods and schools and hopefully they will take ownership in it and adjust quicker. We haven't really pinned down a specific location yet because my wife is interviewing at a variety of places around the area. I'll be looking for teaching jobs most likely so I'll get what I get regardless of where we end up living.

[hml1976]

Camas is going to have to face the 1 vs 2 highschool thing eventually but at 5th and 8th grade I think your kids will be safely through before it becomes a major issue. My youngest is in 3rd grade and I think he'll be cutting it closer.

I lived in Plano as a child and remember the way their schools exploded. Camas is no Plano.

[siliconimplant]

I remember going to a debate tournament at Plano and thinking it was like a college campus (coming from my tiny high school of 400). I grew up in Oklahoma.

I agree with texasdiver--somewhere between 1000 and 2000 is the "sweet spot" for high schools. I think the research says 1800? But that might have been 20 years ago. . .

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by siliconimplant

I remember going to a debate tournament at Plano and thinking it was like a college campus (coming from my tiny high school of 400). I grew up in Oklahoma.

I agree with texasdiver--somewhere between 1000 and 2000 is the "sweet spot" for high schools. I think the research says 1800? But that might have been 20 years ago. . .

Yeah, and Plano isn't even the worst offender anymore. That would be Allen, the newer suburb north of Plano where they have nearly 6000 students in 9-12 and just built a $60 million football stadium Eagle Stadium (Allen, Texas) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that may be the most expensive HS stadium in the country...or at least the most expensive one that is only used by a single school and not a whole school district.