Their Own Survey Favored Burlington — So Why Bellingham?

We finally dug into the Archdiocese of Seattle's own market research — the June 2024 Northern Deanery survey data report, a survey of 645 people conducted to gauge support for a new Catholic high school. The results raise real questions about how the Archdiocese landed on Sacred Heart Parish and 14th Street as the site.

The sample skews heavily toward church insiders. Respondents were overwhelmingly Catholic (84–98%) and regular churchgoers, and 84% of those without school-age children identified as white. Perhaps most notably, 64% of respondents had lived in their community for less than a year — not exactly a picture of the long-established neighborhood the school would move into.

Geographically, Bellingham and Mount Vernon respondents dominated the pool (nearly 30% and 22% respectively), while Burlington itself supplied just 5% of respondents.

Yet when asked where the school should actually go, the data favored Burlington. A majority — 57% — of respondents preferred the Burlington site over Bellingham. Projected 9th-grade enrollment even ran slightly higher for Burlington (31 students) than Bellingham (28). The survey's own summary calls it “almost even split between Bellingham and Burlington.”

Despite that, the Archdiocese's recommendation is to keep planning a school “located in the Bellingham area” — a decision justified not by what respondents said they wanted, but by county growth projections and the fact that Bellingham-area households have higher median incomes relative to likely tuition costs.

In other words: when the community said Burlington, the Archdiocese's own report pivoted to an economic argument for Bellingham instead.

See the numbers for yourself — the full survey data report is here (PDF). The location-preference and enrollment-projection findings are on the pages titled “Survey Results” and “Enrollment Potential.”

Join our mailing list and share this with your neighbors — the more people who understand how this decision was actually made, the stronger our voice at the next public hearing.

Scott

www.14thstreetvoices.org