Yarbrough Public School

Home of the Fighting Lobos!

Our Proud History

Yarbrough School started in the fall of 1950 with the consolidation of three complete grade school districts and parts of other grade school and high school districts. The three grade school districts were: Whitehall, Sandy Hook, and Cosmos. At this time there was a deadline on consolidation of schools and county superintendent, Theo Yarbrough, who was born and raised in the present Yarbrough school district, was instrumental in helping get the paperwork submitted in time to meet the deadline. There was much discussion about the school's location. Finally, Mr. Emery Addington agreed to sell the land, where the present school, to the district.

Architects, Hudgens, Thompson, and Ball in Oklahoma City were contracted to draw up plans for the school. Part of the building was built by a contractor and part was finished by local community labor. When school started in the fall of 1950 the gym floor wasn't finished and the concrete hallways of the school building were not poured. This was finished by local volunteer labor in time to play basketball.

Paul (Prof) Smith was hired as the first superintendent and all grade school classes were doubled up: first-second, third-fourth, fifth-sixth. There were four seniors in the graduating class of 1951. The lunchroom from Whitehall was used to house some of the teachers and four families lived in the Cosmos School that was moved to the property. The first Board of Education consisted of Melvin Steinkuehler, Harold Predmore, and Charlie Ferguson.

Yarbrough has been a very progressive school. It was one of the first Panhandle Schools to offer an aviation class for the high school students, which took the student through a written test and solo flight in an airplane. The school district was also moving force behind the present day fiber optic network that covers three Panhandle counties. It was the first school in the state of Oklahoma to have two fiber optic classrooms.

In 1963, the cafeteria was built and a shop building was added south of the original building. Five new classrooms and a restroom facility were added in 1966 to the north end of the then elementary addition. The high school moved to the north end of the building and the grade school to the south end. At this time, six brand new, three bedroom, two bath, brick teacherages were built and a second well was drilled. A sewer lagoon was added in 1968 to the west end of the present property. In 1972, a kindergarten building was added south of the cafeteria. A second gym, a library, two classrooms, and a music complex, along with some remodeling were approved by the people and built in 1973.

In the middle 1980's satellite courses were added to the curriculum. In 1994, fiber optic classes were made available to the students. The tax payers of the community approved a bond issue in 1992 that allowed the school to purchase and furnish software and a computer lab where each student was enabled to perform at least twenty minutes per day of controlled drill and practice to enhance their educational ability. 

Yarbrough was one of the first schools in the Panhandle to have the Internet available to students. In January of 2000, the school purchased the Netschool solution.  This allows every student in grades Early Childhood through a 12th grade to have a laptop computer (Studypro) to use for educational purposes at home as well as in school.  The classrooms were wired with IR (infrared) which allows the students to connect to email and the Internet in every classroom.  Each teacher also was issued a laptop computer. 

Since 1950 there have only been nine superintendents in the Yarbrough School which equals an average of 5.6 years per superintendent. This is over three times the state average.

Our rural location, small class size, and good personnel offer our students an excellent opportunity for a superb educational experience. Yarbrough is poised and ready to offer its students a good learning environment well into the 21st century. We have the patrons of our school district to thank for their local financial and moral support over these past 50 years.