Salmon Bay School

Posted: November 17, 2025

All the teachers are fine but the history teacher assigns so much work that even the best students in my grade are drowning in work. I get panic attacks and horrible stress issues because of her, she grades and assigns like a high school teacher. She acts kind and understanding until week 3 of her class, and suddenly you realize she's assigned 3 high school level assignments before your first month of 7th grade. All the other teachers are fine.

Posted: November 17, 2025

Posted: November 17, 2025

Posted: November 17, 2025

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Posted: November 17, 2025

Posted: November 17, 2025

Posted: November 1, 2024

I have already commented but would want to mention the fact that this school often prevents students from taking math lessons at their math level trying to simply not teach them until they are average and it is an ongoing fight to keep HC student in math classes at their skill level rather than their grade level.

Posted: November 1, 2024

Posted: November 1, 2024

Posted: November 1, 2024

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Posted: December 18, 2023

Generally great school. Teacher likes to talk to parents.

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: December 18, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

This is an absolute amazing school my kids love it

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: August 2, 2023

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Posted: May 7, 2019

Wonderful teachers and atmosphere. Great in building team work

Posted: August 24, 2017

I have not heard of my children or their friends having any concerns about bullying.

Posted: August 24, 2017

This is an option school that has been through many changes in recent years. We had the option to change schools but my children love this school. I give it three stars but my children give it five stars. We value the social justice, values and character development afforded elementary students. It is generally a caring and helpful community and safe environment. Our biggest challenge has been trying to figure out where our children stand academically and getting them the support they may or may not need as teachers either do not effectively track progress closely throughout the year or do not feel the need to communicate with parents. We do not even get tests, papers or assignments returned home until end of year. Tests scores and grades are inconsistent and grading methodology from teacher to teacher also vary at least K-4 as 5-8 unknown from personal experience.

Posted: August 24, 2017

This school supports current research regarding homework. Students are expected to read everyday for at least 20 minutes in K-5. There is very little if any homework in lower grades and a slight increase in homework until 7th -8th grade when work increases substantially. Lack of homework Leaves time to learn through play and engage in numerous after school opportunities from drama to coding.

Posted: August 24, 2017

Teacher abilities vary widely from best in field to adequate. This has less impact since school has moved away from looped grades where student would have same teacher for two years. Now one grade one teacher. The great teachers are truely wonderful and provide amazing learning both inside and outside classroom.

Posted: August 24, 2017

The focus of K-5 has been on developing social and emotional skills over even academic concerns. This may change with new teachers in lower grades.

Posted: August 24, 2017

This school has gone through several administrative upheavals in the past six years including a spectacularly bad principal The newest leadership are an interesting pair. The principal inherited a crumbling, trash strewn building and has worked really hard to improve the infrastructure of the school including technology, safety (fire and earthquake) as well as keeping grounds clean, improving environment. It is an old building with a long way to go. He is definitely behind the scenes. The VP knows everyone and every knows him. He is the public face. They struggle with transperancy and valuing parental concerns. The School culture and values feel in flux so waiting to determine if leadership successful overall.

Posted: August 24, 2017

I disagree with previous comments. This school does not supported either struggling OR gifted students. In recent years, there have been improvements in reading supports for struggling readers K-3. No effective math supports in K-5,some math support for 6 and upper grades do offer Algebra and Geometry. Many families have outside tutors. The K-5 resource room has lost key personnel every year for the past five years some mid year and some amidst mass exodus and rumors of lawsuits. The inconsistency of services makes these services ineffective. Worse the inconsistency has kept school from identifying at risk students and remediating especially with math. The kids at this school can not spell.
For these reasons, the K-5 works best for average to above average student. It does not work well for a child who is struggling, has a disability, is highly capable/ gifted or a combination contrary to previous reviews. Despite the personal expense, resources outside school (especially extensive tutoring) are necessary for these students to be successful at this school. Four day (reduced from five day) a week PE is one of the only notable strategies to help with boys and many other children with learning differences as there is research linking physical coordination/development with brain development and learning.

Posted: March 13, 2017

The school is hyper-focused on social development and being nice to everyone all the time.

Posted: March 13, 2017

The school has a very large number of emotionally, behaviorally, and learning challenged students, and it focuses its resources on them very strongly, to the significant detriment of average and gifted students.

Posted: March 13, 2017

The school's leaders have changed several times in the last few years, and it's hard to figure out where the school is going. There is a strong history in the teachers and parents that is so nonconformist that it is sometimes malcontent and unnecessarily anti-establishment, and the leadership has a tough job trying to make it a place of healthy academic learning rather than a place of indoctrination into the protest everything culture. We'll see how it goes but meanwhile my kid is getting a weak academic experience at school.

Posted: March 13, 2017

The school focuses its energies in developing character rather than academics. As a result the kids in this school are really nice kids for the most part. It's a much kinder environment than I went to school in, and this is good for now, but later I worry about the naivete this creates and the harsh realities of the real people out in the world that they will encounter some day.

Posted: March 13, 2017

We've had one good teacher after three years, but even this teacher is greatly hampered by the abysmal 26:1 student teacher ratio and the extremely widely varying abilities of the children in class.

Posted: March 13, 2017

No homework yet at grade 2, and slow math program partly as a result of this. Fair level of reading.

Posted: March 13, 2017

My 7-year-old has attended Salmon Bay School for 3 years. Salmon Bay has strengths and weaknesses. Whether its unique strengths fit depends on your child's needs.

If your child is emotionally, behaviorally, or learning challenged, this is the school. If your child is academically gifted, it is not. Unless you're lucky enough to get one of the scarce spaces in the Spectrum program, you don't really have a much better option in the area. The Seattle School District puts its funding into priorities other than academic excellence, and it's a good place to be a teacher or administrator but not to be a student.

Here are my perceptions of strengths and weaknesses:
STRONG
1. High priority and resources on emotionally, behaviorally, and learning challenged kids. Every effort is made to keep them embedded with the rest of the kids, and that is good for the challenged ones, and both good and bad for the rest.
2. Relatively strong commitment to PE. Was 5 days a week, now 4. Better than many.
3. If this is your thing, they have a relatively strong bias toward cultural activities and progressive/liberal/anti-establishment political awareness at school. If it's not your thing, this strong bias is a weakness and the indoctrination of your children will annoy you.

WEAK
1. Very poor student teacher ratios. My daughter has had 26:1 for 3 years, K-2 grade. Outrageous. Unfortunately it's not that much worse than other schools in the district, though.
2. Because of the very poor student:teacher ratio, teaching is focused on bringing the lowest achievers up to minimum standards. Especially in the elementary grades (it is a K-8 school), average and gifted students are mostly on their own, and challenging expectations and opportunities are scarce and nonexistent.
3. The historically alternative and touchy-feely nature of the school has attracted parents and created a parent culture that is more malcontent and anti-test, anti-establishment than it is progressive and enriching. There are so many people opting out of testing here that the school's test statistics are not very meaningful, and there are a very high number of people here that don't immunize their children.
4. The school is old and has dust, water/drainage, and I would guess as a result, also mold problems. Another result of the district's funding priorities.

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

Posted: January 25, 2017

My two children go to this school. There is no other school in the NW part of Seattle that has such a caring and focused approach. Salmon Bay does not paint your child like a robot, they respect each individual. Many parents want the study and test method for k-5, Salmon Bay focuses on preparing the student for junior high and high school both emotionally and socially. They are very strong with educating the student at the highest level.

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Posted: January 18, 2017

Some of the teachers are very qualified and really care about the students. The vice principal seems to care about the kids including those with special needs and who come from special circumstances. However, the principal is rarely seen and demonstrates close to disdain for children who do not fit the mold.
He rarely if ever acknowledges parents and it seems like he wants as little as possible to do with middle-schoolers. These issues negatively impact the overall school climate.

Posted: December 8, 2015

Posted: December 8, 2015

All students receive regular art, physical education, and music classes from trained specialists. It is a K-8 school with a strong sense of community building from all of the teachers and staff except the principal. I have volunteered my time once a week for two years and the man has never bothered to introduce himself or acknowledge my contribution in anyway. The vice principal, however, is wonderful and contributes greatly to the school climate. All of the kindergartners know his name and like him. In contrast, very few if any of the kindergartners or first graders know who he is. His lack of social skills is appauling, and he has no business working in any school.

Posted: December 8, 2015

Posted: December 8, 2015

Posted: February 10, 2015

The school is on its third principal in under five years. It's not only at the district level that people get shuffled in and out. So say there's a bit of identity crisis going on. Is it alternative? What is alternative? Let's grab on to "project-based learning" like everyone else. The elementary schools loops students for two years with the same teacher. Terrific if you have a good teacher, terrible if you don't. Tell yourself that you're sending your son or daughter here because it's a K-8 school, you'll manage the topsy-turvyness of it all just fine.

Posted: August 19, 2014

My kids love this school. They have developed an amazing love of learning at Salmon Bay. They are challenged to think critically, to think outside the box, and to be able to present their ideas in a multitude of formats. That is the kind of education I want for my kids.

Posted: August 18, 2014

The description on the school website about this school is how the school wants to be seen, not how it is. This school has great pe, music and art (which is parent funded so it could dry up) but it stops there. There is a long history the predates our child's attendance where teachers avoid parents, don't proactively reach out to parents and raise academic concerns or check homework. Parents can go a whole year and have no knowledge of issues until the state test and teacher report cards aren't congruent with state assessment results. Many parents pay for outside tutoring and other mitigation. Against Parent's wishes, Elementary parent teacher conferences are young kids doing ineffective presentations and real concerns don't get discussed. A handful of behavior problem kids impact the ecology of the K-5 school and Admin has ignored bathroom safety problem. It gets worse as you go up each floor of a 3 story building and you should insist that your child go to the bathroom in twos or threes. 5+ key support staff left and a few teachers as well have left. There is a definite elite parent group that gets better access to staff and resources.

Posted: June 4, 2014

There are positive aspects of this school. They strive to create "whole" child learning. Lots of field trips, camp ect but there is a yearly fee to cover these. The parent group raises money that does/have paid for partial salary of staff..only works if parents continue to pay. If your child is advanced or has challenges services poor and teachers do not support integrated classrooms. If your child doesn't qualify for special service, run from this school. No tutors, no differentiation in classroom, Admin talk a good game but no follow thru. During short time here, we know of 7 kids and their families that have felt driven out because their child didn't fit into the average mold.The building is run down, the bathrooms are inexcusable, the building doesn't even meet minimum earthquake safety let alone recommended. There is a growing discontent between new admin and teachers. New principal is not available and does not respond to any emails, does not answer phone, guarded by admin staff unless you are the "in" group. Some parents have never seen principal despite picking their kids up everyday.

Posted: August 27, 2013

A new principal and vice principal are working hard to make positive changes. Elementary: Works best for self motivated learners who enjoy project based learning and varied routines as even K-1 leave the classroom up to 3 to 5 times a day for a variety of activities.(pro for 1 of ours) It can be difficult for students that need routine and memorization to learn well. Few/poor resources for struggling or advanced students.(con for 1 of ours) What we have found is that the primary grades are focused strongly on developing social skills and community. There is PE everyday, library and art once a week, music(instrumental and vocal), drama, dance, 4 to 5+ parent driven field trips to enhance academics and yearly camping trips even for the littlest ones. Science and social studies are strong. The project based science programs are impressive. Reading is average. Math and writing are weak though effort is being made to improve these areas (as is most grades still fall above or around average for state). Impressive given the amount of time focused on developing the whole student which can not be evaluated by tests and overall seems successful. Improving every year.

Posted: January 20, 2013

Wow. Reading thru these reviews is interesting, especially the ones regarding non-inclusion. They are seeing something else entirely. I find this school amazing. While the diversity is average for a north-end school (give current neighborhood districting) with Asians predominant and a lower rates of African Americans and middle-eastern kids. The teachers work their butts off providing extras such as the winter enrichment program, fall and spring camp, dances, and field trips. Lots of hands on activities in science and social studies - inclusion and the school as a joint learning community are emphasized. Very active, supportive, and helpful parent group - ask any teacher and they will say they could not do it with out this support. Good test scores.

Posted: March 22, 2012

Salmon Bay School has high academic expectation but enhances this with art, drama, music, and everyday PE. Students and teachers respect each other (everyone at the school calls each other by first names-- even the principal). Kids are taught to work out differences. Families are expected to be involved in the school. It is a good place and the faculty work hard and really care. It is also a K-8 and I like the smaller middle school experience.