Original Research by School Decision on Decatur Elementary
Decatur Elementary is a regular public school serving kindergarten through eighth grade on Decatur Island, a remote island in San Juan County, Washington. It is part of the Lopez School District, which covers Lopez Island and the smaller surrounding islands. The school’s mailing address is Anacortes, but the campus sits on Decatur Island itself, accessible only by ferry or private boat, a distinctly isolated setting compared to the mainland or even the more populous Lopez Island.
The school is exceptionally small, with a total enrollment of about that size for a K–8 building. The student body consists almost entirely of children who identify as White or two or more races. Because the enrollment is so small, state assessment data for math, English language arts, and science were suppressed for the most recent testing year, meaning the Washington State Board of Education withheld the results to protect student privacy. No proficiency rates, participation rates, or scale scores are publicly available. The school does not serve high school grades, so there is no graduation rate to report, and no chronic absenteeism data were provided.
Given the suppression of all state test results, it is not possible to place Decatur Elementary’s academic performance relative to other schools in San Juan County or Washington. The parent district, Lopez School District, has no publicly reported strategic changes, referendums, or curriculum shifts noted in recent years. No program offerings, staffing ratios, or discipline data were available for this school.
Housing in the area, based on the Decatur Island zip code, suggests a high-cost market. Home values and rents are well above national medians, and the price-to-income ratio indicates affordability challenges. The local economy of the broader Anacortes region includes oil refining, yacht construction, tourism, and ferry operations, but Decatur Island itself is a rural, residential island community with limited commercial development. The school’s small enrollment reflects the tiny year-round population of the island.
For a family considering Decatur Elementary, the defining feature is scale. A three-student K–8 school means multi-grade instruction, very close relationships between staff and families, and essentially no peer diversity or large-group activities. The school’s website and directory information are sparse, and without any academic performance data, a parent would need to rely on direct conversations with the Lopez School District to understand instruction quality, curriculum, and support services. The setting suits families who value a micro-school environment, island living, and a tight-knit community, but it offers limited data for comparison with larger mainland schools. A parent may want to ask the district about teacher qualifications, class structure, and how the school addresses middle school subjects and transitions to high school, since Decatur Elementary ends at eighth grade.
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