$160 million bond restores Option High School student's and faculty's school pride

With the passage of the $160 million bond, a restoration of school pride emerges from students and faculty at Options High School.

“When I found out that it passed I started screaming in the office.  I even teared up a little,” said Lynn Cooper the secretary at Options High School.

The Bellingham School District bond was passed on Nov. 6 with a 64 percent from voters.

The new school is expected to be completed within two to three years, which will directly affect current freshman students.

“A renewal of self-worth and school pride will be a wonderful byproduct of this bond,” said Cooper.

Options was established 20 years ago and has since had no major renovations.

Within the last month however, boards have been nailed to the bottom of all seven portables to prevent the homeless, which included current Options students, from sleeping under them.

Options faculty is valuing the student’s input into the design of the future school, to allow those that will not be in the new building to still feel like they can participate and be a part of the project, said Cooper.

“We need to be cognizant of the feeling that this [current] school gives students and how it allows them to bridge their weaknesses,” said Chris Cochran the counselor at Options.

Options students have voiced that they would like: the school to remain unintimidating by keeping the school building at a comfortable size, an increased amount of insulation to keep the school warmer, and an increased amount of bathrooms.

The only bathroom at Options is located in the office portable and students feel uncomfortable using it, because they often times get teased by other students if they do anything besides urinate, said Cooper.

 “We’ve literally stuck these students in a corner and they deserve so much more than that,” said Chad Larsen the athletics coordinator at Bellingham High School.

Larsen said that he has been helping out at Options while the principal is away, and that the last time he was there, students were wrapped in blankets due to the cold weather, lack of heat and lack of insulation.

“We’re fortunate in Bellingham to have a long history and support of education,” said Larsen.

Each portable can adequately fit 20 students, but due to a lack of a lunch room, lunch is served in one of the portables, causing 80 of the students to sit outside during that half hour.

“We recently built picnic tables with the students so that they would have somewhere to sit… and we’re hoping to build a small covered area so that they have more protection from this treacherous fall weather,” said Cochran.

Options offers all the core classes needed in order to obtain a high school diploma, but does not have sufficient space or funding for lab sciences, P.E. classes or art supplies.

Every other day the students walk 20 minutes to get to the YMCA, rain or shine.

“I keep telling them that in three years they’ll get to come back and tell students ‘when I was a student here I had to walk uphill, both ways, in the rain to get to my P.E. class,’” said Steven Hoffman the history teacher at Options.

The school day begins at 8 a.m. and ends at 2:30 p.m.

Options does not have a school bus to transport students, so many students’ only means of transportation is the city bus.

Many Option students live in the cities of Ferndale, Mt. Baker and Blaine, which requires them to wake up at 5 a.m. to catch the city bus at 5:45 a.m.

“Some students must make as many as three to four bus changes to get here,” said Cochran.

Multiple students spend up to an hour and a half on busses each morning before arriving to the high school, which is locked until 8 a.m.

Although busses arrive near Options at both 7:30 a.m. and 8:10 a.m., students must arrive earlier, remain outside, and endure the weather to assure that they won’t be late.

The office staff has begun to arrive earlier than the school start time to give students shelter during the half hour before classes begin.

Options faculty is surprised by the sheer dedication that students display each morning by showing up on time, no matter the hardships, when they could be attending the public high schools in their own towns, said Cochran.

Students attend Options for various reasons; numerous students value the support and respect that they are given from their teachers, said Cochran.

If students are behind in credits, but still desire to graduate on schedule, they are able to work at a faster pace to make up the credits that they have lost through the “contract learning program” offered at Options.

Other students attend Options because “they come here and can kind of breathe because we give them a lot of support and understanding,” said Cochran.

Currently 100 students and seven teachers make up Options High School, a school compiled of seven portables.

On average, 25 new students enroll each year.

According to Cochran, the majority of the students are either couch surfing or living with friends.

One of Cochran’s duties is to connect students to service providers, which includes the homeless coordinators of Northwest Youth Services.

This year marks the first that Options has ever had a high school counselor.

“My goal is to provide a lot of support and to bring in different service providers each day during lunch time and connect them to students who need them,” said Cochran.

Options is located on the same property as Bellingham High School, across the soccer field.

While no plans are official yet, the Bellingham High School warehouse is thought to be torn down to make way for the new school building, and the future parking lot is thought to take the place of the current portables.