2985 NW Essex Ave
Albany, OR 97321

We love this school family and feel grateful our kids go here.

This school was revamped a couple years ago and has a new staff and updated classrooms. The staff is always helpful and willing to work with the kids. Education is priority one. The smaller classes really help with learning. And it's not all recess here. There are good guidelines they try to meet and help with development

Awful. Bullying, theft, overcrowded classrooms and several inadequate teachers. The counselor is wonderful, but the handful of terrible teachers, who might have potential if they were provided adequate resources, really ruined our experience there. Some classrooms clock in at nearly 40 students, with only 1 teacher to manage it.

All that glitters is not gold. Folks in Albany know about West, but posting this for parents, like us, who are moving here from outside the area and don't know the score. The test scores and graduation rates of this school are incredibly misleading. The way they achieve them is by forcing out any kids who have attendance problems or are doing poorly. Instead of trying to help them, they push them out to the other high school, to the alternative school (no AP or advanced classes or extra curriculars and unlike other districts, diploma is from the alternative school, not West), to their online school, to other districts and to charter online schools. Bullying is rampant and largely unaddressed. Students having mental health problems as a result are seen as the problem, not the students bullying them. The actual quality of instruction is no better than average for Oregon, which isn't saying much. There are good individuals here, but the administration here cares nothing about your child's education or well being. The way they see it your child's job is to perform well, regardless, to keep up the graduation and test score stats. This is all related to property values and local politics - anything that threatens their 'high performing' high school and star principal, including a bullied or struggling student, is a problem to be gotten rid of. We strongly recommend the Corvallis high schools as an alternative - the test scores are similar, but they are much better resourced and achieve those schools by actually helping struggling students succeed.