In 1868–69 the average attendance in the public schools had dropped to eighty-four,[1] caused, in all probability, by the exclusion of the advanced classes and their transfer to the Grace Church Parish School.
Mr. Finlayson and wife and Professor Robb were the teachers between 1865 and 1869. From 1869 to 1873 very little change in the condition of the school is noted, except that there was a slight increase in attendance due to the return to the policy of providing instruction for all who had finished the grammar grades. In 1872 the state school fund became available and District No. 1 received $110.80 in coin and $111.95 in currency.[2]
In 1873 Prof. W. L. Worthington, a very able instructor, was elected principal, and remained several years. More than one hundred children were in attendance in 1873,[3] and the citizens of Astoria were justly proud of their school. The Astorian in its initial number[3] says: "We notice that the school is well supplied with maps, charts, dictionaries, gazetteers, atlases, etc. We doubt that any common school in Oregon is better supplied with such articles. * * The public school affords every opportunity for getting a good English education." The teachers were Professor Worthington, principal; Miss Watt and Miss Lawrence, assistants.[3]
The history from 1873 is concerned chiefly with the rapid increase in the school population, the division of the district into six separate districts, the subsequent consolidation of all these districts, the final readjustment of the boundaries, so as to include only the schools within the corporate limits of Astoria, and the establishment of the high school, as the completion of the city's educational system.
