Orcas High School Wins Bronze Award in National Report

Orcas Island High School was again named as one of the country’s top High Schools in US New and World report.  The public high school received a bronze award this year.

From the Report, “U.S. News ranks America’s Best High Schools for third consecutive year”

One major challenge all of the nation’s best public high schools are facing is how to continue to challenge students despite budget pressures. Although the federal stimulus money has helped many school districts retain teachers who otherwise would have been laid off, many schools are finding it difficult to renovate—or even maintain—their older buildings. At Marting Luther King Academic Magnet High School in Nashville, No. 30 on the list, students and faculty have found ways to achieve in a 1930s-era building in which the roof leaks, kids eat lunch in the hallways because the cafeteria is too small, and rats sometimes raid the vending machines. “All of Nashville should be concerned that we are educating the best and brightest in a broken-down building,” says Shunn Turner, principal of MLK high school.

That hasn’t stopped the students from learning or getting into Ivy League schools such as Harvard. “With all the amazing teachers, students, counselors, and staff, there was no need to focus on why the lockers didn’t open half the time or why the soccer team changed outside,” says Jake Rudin, an ’09 MLK graduate who currently is a freshman at Cornell University.

The full report may be accessed online at
https://www.usnews.com/sections/education/high-schools/index.html
“We are the only school in San Juan County to be recognized at all,” says Orcas Island School District Board President Janet Brownell. “Congrats all around to staff and students!”

(The methodology used for determining the rankings is explained at usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2009/12/09/methodology-americas-best-high-schools.html)