Thurston Elementary School is an elementary school in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. It is located at 2300 Prairie St, Ann Arbor MI 48105. Natasha York is the school principal. The Thurston Nature Center is located just north of the school on Prairie Street and on the south side of Bluett Road, across from Clague Middle School. Thurston students have a special connection to the center, but other students have also used the nature center as part of Ann Arbor Public Schools' Environmental Education Program for decades, and the area is also open to the community.
Thurston students continue on to Clague Middle School.
The school mascot is the Herons.
Contact Information:
Principal: Natasha York
School website: http://www.a2schools.org/thurston
PTO website: http://www.thurstonpto.org/
Phone: 734-994-1970
Fax: 734-994-1742
2300 Prairie St
Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Timeline:
- May 2011: Natasha York hired as principal
- On August 16, 1972, the Ann Arbor Board of Education named Lawton Elementary School principal Burton Lamkin the new principal of Thurston. Former principal David Aberdeen was appointed deputy superintendent for planning. (From Ann Arbor News archives.)
- 1964: School is first opened and is named after Lee M. Thurston. Mr. Thurston served both as a treasurer with the Ann Arbor School Board and as an Assistant Superintendent of Schools. He later served as Superintendent of Public Instruction for Michigan, and capped his career as United States Commissioner of Education.
- 1963: Thurston School is completed, but not opened because of a shortage of operating funds in the Ann Arbor School District.
In the news
Ann Arbor's Thurston Elementary School will receive more than $160,000 in federal funds for the Safe Routes to School project, which will help students more safely walk or ride their bikes to school.
