The top reported proficiency rate is 70% in Science. The lowest is 46% in Math.
Original Research by School Decision on Olympic Peninsula Academy
Olympic Peninsula Academy is an alternative school serving kindergarten through twelfth grade within the Sequim School District. It occupies a distinct space in the district’s offerings, functioning as a separate educational option from the district’s traditional elementary, middle, and high schools. The school’s small enrollment and its alternative designation are central to understanding what it provides: a less conventional, likely more individualized academic setting than a standard comprehensive school. The student body is predominantly White, reflecting the broader demographics of the Sequim area, with a substantial share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch.
For families comparing it to other schools in Clallam County, the available testing data places Olympic Peninsula Academy’s overall proficiency across tested subjects and grades in the top quartile relative to other districts in the county. That said, the picture is uneven when you look grade by grade. On state English language arts assessments, the school showed a pattern of increasing proficiency in the upper elementary and middle school grades, with a majority of students meeting the bar at several grade levels. Math results were more mixed; proficiency in math was lower in the middle elementary years and improved somewhat in the middle school grades, though it remained below the English language arts levels. Science results, available for two grades, showed a wide range, with a strong majority of students scoring proficient at the eighth-grade level. Because the school covers a wide grade span and has a small total enrollment, the number of students tested in any single grade is very small, which means year-to-year fluctuations can be large and comparisons to larger schools should be made with caution. A graduation rate was not available in the data, likely because the high school grades at this school have a very small number of students, making a rate statistically unreliable or not calculated by the state.
The school sits in Sequim, a small city in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains. A publicly reported description calls Sequim “Sunny Sequim” for its relatively low annual rainfall, a trait that has helped drive its growth as a retirement destination over the past two decades. It was historically a dairy farming area and has more recently become known for lavender farms and an annual lavender festival. The downtown core is walkable, while the broader city is low-density and car-dependent, with the Olympic Discovery Trail providing a non-motorized route through the area. The local economy is supported by healthcare, retail, education, and agritourism, along with enterprises run by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Housing values in the area sit near the statewide benchmark, and rents are substantial relative to national averages, reflecting the pressure of in-migration. The city has seen steady population growth, much of it from retirees, and new residential development has followed the US highway corridor.
For a family considering this school, the main question is whether the alternative structure fits a student who needs or prefers a setting different from the district’s main schools. Academic results are available for the elementary and middle school grades and point to a school that, in aggregate across subjects, performs well relative to other county districts. The small scale means individual attention may be easier to come by, but it also means fewer course offerings than a large high school would provide. A parent with a teen approaching high school would want to learn directly from the school what coursework and graduation pathways look like for the handful of students enrolled in the upper grades. Because the district brief showed little lasting impact from recent changes, there is no indication of a major disruption or shift in direction for the district that would reshape the school’s context. The plain take is that this is a small alternative school in a growing small city, with academic strengths in English and science at certain grades, a weaker math showing in the middle of the grade span, and a very thin high school program that any prospective family would need to investigate directly.
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