Thorp School District No. 400 is a public school system based in Thorp, Kittitas County, Washington. It provides fully accredited academic, athletic and award-winning extracurricular programs for all grades K-12, as well as a pre-school program.
Thorp High School was formally established as a fully accredited institution in 1895, although the Thorp School District itself dates to 1873 and is the oldest continuously operating school system in Kittitas County.
Academics
Thorp School District has Nationally Board Certified and CWU Fellows teachers on staff. Thorp students enjoy excellent academic rigor while at the same time exploring pathways during project-based learning.
The district's high school places in the top 18% out of 322 high schools in Washington's state high school rankings. The rankings are calculated by taking the standardized tests for Math, Reading, Science and Writing used by Washington to determine the proficiency level across varying grades and subjects for high schools in the state. This places Thorp as the highest rated high school in Kittitas County, well ahead of all neighboring districts in the area none of which are even ranked in the top 100.
The district started a Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathway in 2020 for grades 7-12, with courses that include Construction Technology, Ag Mechanics, Ag Power and Technology, Accounting, Web Design, Career Choices, and Digital Communications.
The district began to implement a “Farm to School” initiative in 2020, with a working farm on the school grounds. Taxpayers passed a Capital Projects Levy that will help fund the “Farm to School” infrastructure by remodeling the shop and computer lab, building a greenhouse, and remodeling kitchen facilities.
Thorp students can extend their learning with a variety of instruction such as woodworking, electronics (robotics), welding and other vocational skills.
History
When District No. 9 of Yakima County (Kittitas County was not separated from Yakima County until 1884) was formed, those who petitioned for its creation would have had no way of knowing that they were part of creating the foundation of the Thorp School District, the first public school system in what is now Kittitas County. In July 1873 a letter was sent by W. H. Crockett on behalf of the local populace around the site of present-day Thorp to the Yakima County Superintendent of Schools requesting the formation of a school district. From the letters that would follow, it appears that the new district was approved, but almost immediately a group of residents were petitioning to split-off the southern portion of the district.
A petition to divide Thorp School District No. 9 was received by the Yakima County school superintendent's office on January 11, 1875. Twelve members of Pleasant Grove community, southwest of the current town site of Thorp, asked that the superintendent grant them permission to separate from the Thorp School District.
The boundaries that would separate the southern section of District No. 9 from its northern neighbor were a point of contention for the next five years. The confusion was settled in January 1880, when Yakima County School Superintendent George W. Parrish, granted the formation of District No. 10 which encompassed the area around Splawn School on Taneum Creek. The formerly southern section of the district around the town site of Thorp reverted to the original District No. 9. It is not entirely clear where classes were conducted during the subsequent decade, however in 1885, then 7-year-old Glen Mason arrived in the Thorp area and recalled that school for District No. 9 was held in a one-room log school on the ranch of Jim McCollough in the upper valley.
On November 7, 1887, District No. 9 purchased a one-acre parcel of land from William Andrew Forgey near the present-day intersection of Sisters Road (then an extension of Goodwin Road before Interstate 90 cut it off from the town) and Thorp Cemetery Road, and by 1891 a schoolhouse had been built there which became known as the Mills School. Constructed of finely fitted and painted shiplap siding, the building was 24-feet wide and 36-feet long with 14-foot-high ceilings, making it stand apart from the log schoolhouses that were common in the area.