Ephrata School District Calendar 2026-2027

Ephrata’s school system gathers a Columbia Basin community into a sequence that becomes more unified as students grow older. Columbia Ridge and Grant elementary schools serve separate K–4 communities. Every fifth-grader then enters Parkway Intermediate. The cohort continues to Ephrata Middle for seventh and eighth grade, then to Ephrata High for grades nine through twelve. Parkway gives the district a two-year bridge between neighborhood elementary life and the more departmental middle-school day, bringing the full cohort together before adolescence.

The secondary program is unusually broad for a district of this scale. Students can explore agriculture, aviation, health sciences, architecture and construction, business, culinary work, information technology, multimedia, fashion and design, and welding or manufacturing. College in the High School courses are taught through agreements with Big Bend Community College, Eastern Washington University and Central Washington University, allowing students to begin college work without leaving Ephrata High. Hands-on learning appears well before high school: Columbia Ridge’s LEGO robotics team reached a national competition in 2026, while music, athletics, clubs and agricultural activities remain visible across the district. Ephrata gives families both continuity and widening opportunity—two elementary communities become one intermediate cohort, then students enter a secondary system capable of connecting local agricultural and technical life with universities, aviation, health care and other fields beyond the basin.