Anyone with experience of Wilson High School (SW Portland) (Lake Oswego: 2015, house)

[dent_arthur_dent]

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone on here has sent their kids to Wilson High in SW Portland. It gets a good Greatschools rating but then the majority of the comments are pretty negative. Was wondering if anyone on here could add their own thought. What does the school do well? What does it do badly?

[oldtintype]

Wilson's reputation is that it's a good school. Apart from Lincoln it's the only other PPS west side high school.
I've never heard any specific complaints about Wilson but I'd take Great Schools feedback with a grain of salt anyway.
I'm sure there's a Wilson Facebook page for parents or at least a PTA one. I'd look for it and read the postings.

[Yankeemama]

I gave heard from parents throughout Portland that Wilson us a great school. The Hillsdale neighborhood is beautiful so you should drive around and since most neighborhood kids go to Wilson, that says more to me than a website with a few reviews. Wilson has a website you can access through PPS and you can read what class offerings the school has, student clubs and PPS provides demographic info.

[Nell Plotts]

While waiting at an Ainsworth school bus stop today parents were discussing the fact that west side schools are at capacity, that the District will need to adjust boundaries to assure that student needs are met. Basically all of the Lincoln enrollment area feeder schools are full up and some enrollment areas will need to be moved to the Wilson enrollment area. No one was hyper-ventilating.

West Sylvan middle school is swamped even though Skyline was made a K-8 (because of the amount of time it takes to transport them to Sylvan MS) a couple years ago.

Heck, I attended Lincoln as Wilson was under construction. Some of my freshman fellow students moved to Wilson and were none the worse for wear. In fact Wilson had more and better facilities than Lincoln.

Keep in mind the fact that demanding parents ***** a lot and often do not have agendas that effect the student body in general. That is not to say that there cannot be individual teachers and staff who are inadequate.

[oldtintype]

Chapman principal sent out emails asking if any Chapman students wanted to transfer to Ainsworth, Skyline or Forest Park because Chapman is bursting at the seams. Looking forward to seeing the new boundary adjustments due out soon for the district. PSU has already completed the study apparently and by fall it will be out and become permanent for the 2015/2016 school year. The entire district is changing, not just west side.

[Nell Plotts]

I was at Wallace Park yesterday with my grandchildren. One of their friends lives across the street from Chapman but is in Ainsworth's Spanish emersion program. There is huge demand for that program from Ainsworth's parents but the district doesn't have enough Spanish fluent teachers.

Chapman parents who belong to the MAC are likely to consider a move. A school bus stops at the north end of Vista, a decent walk to the MAC.

The problem with Skyline is that it is so remote however there is (or was as I haven't checked lately) a in the NW corner where attending Skyline would be practical. As a parent (OK, grandparent) I would be concerned about the fact that Skyline students stay there through the 8th grade, are they receiving a comparable education.... That school is small and there isn't a lot of land to expand it.

[eabcan]

My son will be going to Wilson in the fall. He is currently at Jackson Middle School. We live in the Arnold Creek area close to the Lake Oswego border and we checked out Lake Oswego HS as well. My son absolutely preferred Wilson (most of his friends and classmates are going there so that may have affected his decision). I have heard good things from parents at Jackson who have kids at Wilson now. They got a new principal a couple years ago and apparently things have improved under him.

The school facilities themselves seem to be showing their age but the programs are current. We talked to various staff members and were happy with what we heard.

We attended an open house and have also been following the school online. We get the newsletter and email updates about things that are happening there. We were impressed at the open house by the number and variety of courses (including AP courses). There are also many clubs to suit every interest. Wilson offers a great computer science program and internships in collaboration with many local companies.

My son is a very good student who wants to pursue a career in chemistry/engineering and he is happy with the opportunities at Wilson.

We don't have first hand experience yet but based on what we've learned about the school we are happy with our decision.

[someportlandian]

I graduated from WHS 10 years ago

IIRC, programs were getting cut as time went on. It's a pretty average school, but if you want your kids to do well, they're going to have to show initiative (ECs, AP courses...etc). Benson might be a better school for them, they have lots of interesting programs but its geared towards STEM related stuff and STEM isn't exactly equivalent with employment these days...