Silver Beach Elementary School

Silver Beach Elementary School is a mid-sized primary school in Bellingham, Washington, run under Bellingham School District. The school teaches 357 students in grades pre-K through 5.

Bellingham School District comprises 25 schools with combined enrollment of 11,337 students; Silver Beach Elementary School is among them.

In terms of who attends, Silver Beach Elementary School lists that the largest single group is White, at 75% of enrollment. The remainder is composed of 12% Hispanic, 9% multiracial. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

On the income-and-resources front, Staff filings list 18 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 20.3:1 students per teacher. That figure is higher than the state norm's 17.3:1 average. An estimated 24% of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a number frequently used as a low-income enrollment indicator. Set against Whatcom County (around 47%), the school's rate is meaningfully below typical.

On a residual basis (actual vs predicted given the student mix), Silver Beach Elementary School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 64.2% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 68.9%.

Across the wider county, Whatcom County reports that median household earnings sit near $81,784, about 39% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. In all, Whatcom County runs 78 public schools (combined enrollment of about 27,779 students), of which Silver Beach Elementary School is one.

Squalicum High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.1 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Silver Beach Elementary School ranks 1st on composite proficiency, above the local average of 48.6%.

Geographically, the school is in a metropolitan area.

Looking at the recent track record. Silver Beach Elementary School's enrollment has shrank 25% since 2018, when it stood at 475 (now 357). Over the same period, the Hispanic share climbed from 7% to 12%.

On this page, recent activity here tends to focus on science fair prep, picture-day reminders, and bus-route questions. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.