Thorne Bay School

Set in Thorne Bay, Alaska, Thorne Bay School is a tiny all-grades campus, part of Southeast Island School District. It works with 66 students across grades pre-K through 12. Enrollment runs roughly 66% leaner than the state mean of about 192.

Within Southeast Island School District, which oversees 8 schools and 164 students, Thorne Bay School is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Thorne Bay School shows that 77% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder is composed of 11% Native American, 9% multiracial. By comparison, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area as a whole is about 44% White, so the school skews visibly more White than its surroundings.

On the resource side, On paper, Thorne Bay School has 5 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 13.0:1. That figure is tighter than the state norm's 27.0:1 average. Roughly 55% of students at Thorne Bay School qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal. That share is south of Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area's rate of about 92%.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Thorne Bay School sits in the middle band of the BeatsExpectations distribution. Schools with this campus's student mix typically land near 34.5%; this one delivers 36.6%.

In the broader community, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area reports that median household earnings sit near $61,156, roughly 15% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and the poverty rate sits near 9%. Across Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area's 20 public schools (combined enrollment of about 1,441 students), Thorne Bay School is one campus in the mix.

AK-TRAILS Correspondence is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.0 miles from this campus.

The school occupies a low-density site.

Trend over the last 7 years. Over the past 7-year window, the student count edged down 17%: 80 students in 2018 compared to 66 in 2025.

On the community side, posts here usually surface around school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Members of the school community can share what they know.