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History

McKay Elementary 

We recognize and honor the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the Beaverton School District now stands. These include the Atfalati, Cowlitz, Confederated Tribes of Grande Rhonde (Takelma, Upper Takelma, Latgawa, Shasta, Applegate, Galice, Cow Creek Band of Umpqua, Quilsieton Band of the Chasta, Nahelta Band of the Chasta, Cownantico Band of the Scotons, Sacheriton Band of the Scotons, Naalye Band of the Scotons, Upper Umpqua, Yoncalla, Tualatin Kalapuya, Yamhill, Luckiamute, Mary’s River, Muddy River, Long Tom, Calapooia, Winnefelly, Mohawk, Tekopa, Chafan, Santiam, Pudding River, Northern Molalla, Clackamas, Cascades, Clowwewalla, Multnomah, Cathlamet, Skilloot, Southern Molalla), Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (namely, the Tualatin, Kiksht, Klickitat, and Chinook), and many other Native communities who made their homes in the Tualatin and Willamette Valleys. We also want to recognize that Beaverton today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence. 

In 1851, James McKay and his father left Indiana and made the overland trip to Oregon. Very soon after, McKay obtained a donation land claim of 160 acres, located on a wooded area near Progress. Other prominent settlers working claims nearby were Thomas Denney and Augustus Fanno.

During the 1880s, as the population grew, a school and a community hall were constructed on the McKay property facing Scholls Ferry Road. The school was called the Progress School. It was a large, one room, one teacher grammar school encompassing grades one through eight.

In 1929, the school and the community hall were replaced with a brick structure consisting of two classrooms, one with a stage (present music room) over a full basement. The new school was known as McKay School, School District #18. A series of additions in 1946, 1950, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1967 plus remodeling in 1971, 1990, and 1999, resulted in a building structure as we see it today. In the late fifties, McKay School had grown to the point where it had its own non-teaching superintendent/principal.

The District also found it necessary in 1960 to build a primary school, locating it nearby on Denney Road. The students named the new school Vose. In 1962, Beaverton School District #48 reorganized into a much larger district. McKay and Vose (School District #18) became a part of the new organization. Shortly after, Whitford Intermediate School was completed and housed grades seven and eight. In 1994 sixth grade was moved to the middle schools making McKay a K-5 school.