Summary:
ZIP code 84534, including Montezuma Creek, has one high school serving grades 7–12: Whitehorse High, a 303-student school in the San Juan District. The school serves a community with very high economic need, with 97.03% of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch. Its reported student-teacher ratio is 16.9 to 1, which may support smaller learning groups, although ratios do not show actual class sizes or available courses.
For parents, the school’s strongest reported outcomes are graduation, dropout, and attendance. Whitehorse reported a 93.2% graduation rate and a 6.8% dropout rate for 2023–24. Those figures are better than the district’s reported 90.3% graduation rate and 8.0% dropout rate, as well as Utah’s 89.8% graduation rate and 8.5% dropout rate, although the district and state figures are from 2024–25. In 2024–25, chronic absenteeism at Whitehorse was 21.8%, lower than both the district’s 32.3% and Utah’s 23.8%. Still, about one in five students was chronically absent, so attendance remains important.
The biggest concern is academic achievement. Whitehorse’s results are consistently below district and state averages in English language arts, mathematics, and science. Recent proficiency rates were generally in the single digits or low teens, including 6.5% in grade 8 mathematics, under 9.4% in grade 9 mathematics, under 8.7% in grade 10 mathematics, and 6.5% in grade 8 science. English and science results were also well below comparison schools. The school ranked last or nearly last statewide in each reported ranking year. Overall, Whitehorse appears to retain and graduate students relatively well, but families should expect the school’s main improvement needs to involve core academic preparation, especially mathematics, literacy, and science.
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