Sammamish Senior High School

Sammamish is special with a broad diversity of students and needs. The school responds with programs such as Jumpstart and AVID to a plethora of AP classes plus College at High School and Running Start. Additionally, school spirit is very strong with the State's biggest high school fundraiser, Walk for Aidan. The principal is working tirelessly to improve the school, its teachers and its offerings.
--Submitted by a parent

Sammamish High School was rated #48 in the nation by Newsweek magazine for the 2008 school year. My daughter has flourished there and I couldn't be happier with our home neighborhood high school. By the way, all of the six high schools in Bellevue made the top 100 list in Newsweek and five of them were in the top 50.
--Submitted by a parent

As a parent of a student at SHS, I have found this school as having brought a well-rounded and strong academic experience for our child and future Totem. As a leader in the fine arts, math, and science depts., my kids will have a step up in their future academia world of college. The teachers actually care about their students and they hold the kids accountable for their actions. Tom Duenwald, current principal, works tirelessly in his efforts to hold the standards level high for the staff and the kids. The school spirit is much higher than other Bellevue high schools. SHS represents the real world of high school life.
--Submitted by a parent

School is quite safe, nice teachers except some mean councelors, who don't pay enough attention to the student's needs. Great classes and advance curriculum. Great after school programs, from sports to art to music. And the theater department is one of the best; the new theater just opened with the best teacher ever, Ms. Mordford. School had very good students a couple of years ago but the new incomming students seem to care less and less about academics. Parents are always involved in all aspects of the school, helping out at the PTA or whenever the school organizes fundraisers to help raise money for the school. The students are all very nice, although like I said, they were nicer. But all get along very well. Very low drug and alcohol use.
--Submitted by a student

Sammamish has the reputation of being inferior to 3 of the other high schools in town -- but if you look at the demographics, the school holds it's own. The teachers are more caring, the schedule is more flexible, and you can take as many APs as the other schools, more than anywhere else in the state. The principal and counselors are caring, too.
--Submitted by a parent

After originally picking an Eastside private prep school, we made an active choice to enroll our high schoolers in the public schools after meeting with SHS staff 5 years ago. Given the fact that Sammamish has successfully addressed the key issues of maintaining challenging studies within real world diversity, we couldn't be more pleased.
--Submitted by a parent