Original Research by School Decision on Olympic High School
Olympic High School is one of several comprehensive high schools serving Central Kitsap School District, located in Bremerton on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton itself is a city shaped by its deep ties to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Naval Base Kitsap, which remain the dominant local employers. The downtown harborside area has seen a notable revival over the past decade, with new apartments, restored buildings, breweries, and arts venues, while the broader city remains largely car-dependent outside that core. Olympic High School sits in the northwestern part of the city, well away from the ferry terminal and waterfront.
Olympic is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve. It is not a charter, magnet, or alternative school, and its Title I status was not reported. The enrollment is substantial for a high school, and the student body draws from a wide cross-section of the community. Just over half of students identify as white. Around a fifth identify with two or more races, and a substantial share identifies as Hispanic. Smaller shares identify as Asian, Black, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and American Indian or Alaska Native. More than two in five students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a measure that signals a school serving many families with lower household incomes. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available, so a parent may want to ask the school directly about those support structures.
On state assessments, Olympic’s results present a mixed picture. In English language arts, a solid majority of students met the proficiency standard, a result that is in the stronger range for a comprehensive high school. In science, roughly half of students were proficient. In math, however, proficiency was markedly lower, with less than a third of students meeting the bar. This kind of gap between ELA and math achievement is common in many schools, but the math figure here is a soft spot that a parent considering Olympic would want to explore further, particularly how the school supports students who are below standard and whether advanced math pathways are available. Only a single year of testing data was provided, so there is no way to see whether these results reflect a trend or a single snapshot. No graduation rate was reported in the available data, which is a significant gap for a high school. A parent should confirm the four-year graduation rate directly with the school or district.
The district itself is in the middle of a major facilities upgrade. Voters approved a capital bond in late 2023 to modernize Central Kitsap High School and Central Kitsap Middle School, along with district-wide safety improvements. Construction on the high school modernization began in summer 2024 and is expected to be complete by 2026, bringing updated science labs, a new performing arts center, and improved athletic facilities. Olympic High School is not part of that bond project. The district also adopted a new elementary literacy curriculum aligned with the science of reading in the 2022-2023 school year, a shift in how reading is taught at the lower grades, though this does not directly affect Olympic’s high school programming.
Housing in the area is expensive relative to national benchmarks. The typical home value in the school’s ZIP code is well above the national median, and the estimated monthly mortgage payment for a median-priced home with a standard down payment is a significant sum. Rents are also high, though renting is still notably cheaper than buying at current mortgage rates. For families moving into the area, the housing market is a real factor.
Overall, Olympic High School is a large, regular public high school in a district undergoing some facilities renewal. Its academic picture is strongest in English language arts and weakest in math, and the absence of a reported graduation rate and other outcome data leaves several important questions unanswered. Families looking at Olympic should seek that missing information directly from the school and take a close look at how the school addresses math achievement and college and career readiness for all its students.
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