Original Research by School Decision on Port Washington High
Port Washington High is a regular public high school serving grades nine through twelve in the city of the same name, which sits on Lake Michigan’s western shore about twenty-five miles north of Milwaukee. The school is part of the Port Washington-Saukville School District, a district that has not passed a recent capital or operational referendum and shows stable budget and facility finances.
The school enrolls well over seven hundred students, making it a moderate-sized high school for its grade band. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of Hispanic students, students who identify with two or more races, Black students, and Asian students. About a quarter of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, a share that places the school in a middle economic range for the area. Data on students with disabilities and English learners were not available in the records we looked at.
The most significant gap in this profile is academic performance. State testing results for Port Washington High were not available in the data we received. Without those results, we cannot characterize proficiency in math, English language arts, or science, nor can we compare the school to others in Ozaukee County on those measures. Similarly, a four-year graduation rate was not present in the data. A parent considering this school would want to ask the school directly for its most recent state test scores and graduation rate to get a clear picture of academic outcomes. No information on advanced coursework, dual-credit programs, career pathways, or specialized academies was provided, so this narrative cannot speak to program depth.
The community context is clearer. Port Washington is a small city that serves as the county seat of Ozaukee County. Its historic downtown sits in the Sauk Creek valley adjacent to a harbor that now supports recreational boating, tourism, and a lighthouse museum. The city retains a distinct town core and a lakefront identity, with beaches, trails, and civic anchors like the library, parks department, and marina. Housing values in the area are above the national median, and the local economy combines county government, tourism, and the natural-gas power plant that replaced an earlier coal-fired facility. The city has seen modest population growth since the 2020 census.
Because academic data is absent, the school cannot be placed relative to other districts in Ozaukee County on proficiency, graduation, or chronic absenteeism, which are the metrics the comparison set uses. That means this narrative is necessarily thinner than it would be if test results or program offerings were available. A family looking at Port Washington High will want to gather additional information directly from the school’s website or administration.
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