Assumption Catholic School is Whatcom County's Catholic school, a PreK-8 program of about 225 to 260 students at 2116 Cornwall Avenue in Bellingham, operated as a ministry of the Church of the Assumption. The parish dates to 1889; Father Leo W. Ferland bought a half block for a school in 1906, and the three-story building opened on September 2, 1913 with 132 students in grades 1 through 12, staffed by Dominican sisters. The high school closed in 1931, ninth grade was dropped in 1967, kindergarten and preschool arrived in 1983, and the Dominicans departed in 1972, after which a lay faculty took over.
Assumption is the northernmost parish school in the Archdiocese of Seattle and the only Catholic school in Whatcom County; the nearest Catholic peer is Immaculate Conception Regional School in Mount Vernon, and the nearest Catholic high school is Archbishop Murphy in Everett. Within Bellingham it competes mainly with Bellingham Christian School, a Protestant K-8. The tradeoff for Assumption families is a 17:1 student-teacher ratio and classes averaging about 25, larger than most Catholic schools in the archdiocese, in exchange for comparatively low tuition and a century-old parish community. Enrollment has swung widely over time, from 396 in the 1950s to 138 in 1973-74.
The school holds Western Catholic Educational Association accreditation. A 2000 renovation added permanent preschool and pre-K space, a library, and technology labs; later additions include a music program with orchestra and choir, all-school Spanish, a makerspace classroom, Math Olympiad, and Missoula Children's Theatre, along with support for students with mild learning differences.
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