Original Research by School Decision on Open Doors
Open Doors is an alternative high school within the Anacortes School District, serving grades nine through twelve on Fidalgo Island. Its enrollment is very small, and the student body is predominantly white, with a small share of students identifying as two or more races. No data on economic disadvantage, special education, or English learner status is available in the records used here, nor are there figures on discipline, staffing, attendance, or course access.
What matters most about Open Doors is what the data cannot show. State testing results are absent, and the four-year graduation rate is not reported. That absence is not unusual for an alternative school. Alternative programs often serve students who have struggled in a traditional setting, and standard accountability metrics may not capture or apply to the work they do. A parent or resident looking for conventional proficiency or graduation-rate benchmarks will need to go directly to the school or district for a fuller picture of student outcomes and program completion.
The school sits inside the Anacortes School District, which covers a coastal community that blends small-town character with heavy industry. Anacortes is home to two oil refineries, a marina, ferry service to the San Juan Islands, and a working waterfront. The downtown has a walkable core of shops and restaurants, and the city operates its own fiber optic internet utility. Outside the downtown, much of daily life requires a car. Major civic anchors include Washington Park, the Anacortes Community Forest Lands with extensive trails, and nearby Deception Pass State Park, the most visited park in the state system. The housing market reflects the area’s desirability: home values are above national typical levels, and rents have been rising. The local economy is anchored by refining, marine manufacturing, tourism, and the ferry system.
Open Doors itself shares none of these details directly, but the community context matters for families considering this school. Anacortes offers outdoor recreation, a modest ferry-linked island lifestyle, and a mix of industrial employment and coastal tourism. The school district appears stable, with no major recent changes publicly reported in the materials reviewed here.
For a family evaluating Open Doors, the key takeaway is that this is a very small alternative high school serving a specific population, likely students who are not thriving in a larger comprehensive setting. There is no publicly available data here on academic performance, discipline, staffing, or graduation outcomes. That does not mean the school is ineffective, only that the standard metrics that inform most school comparisons do not apply or were not available. Any serious evaluation would require a direct conversation with the school about its mission, its students’ pathways, and how it measures success. The setting is a picturesque but economically mixed island town with a strong industrial base, a walkable downtown, and easy access to the San Juan Islands and Seattle-area ferry routes.
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