Although some thought it was a wasteful extravagance that the rural community would never need, the school district broke ground for Washington Public School on September 28, 1921, with plans to teach all grades there. The school opened the following year with an enrollment of about 400. In 1925, when Lincoln Elementary opened to handle a steadily increasing student population, enrollment stood at 765. By the time the high school was built, in 1931, the student population was close to 3,000.
Current enrollment is 5,407.