Prior to the construction of Mariner High School, the Mukilteo School District only offered education from kindergarten through ninth grade. As a result, students within the district from tenth grade onward had to attend Everett High School in the nearby Everett School District; Cascade High School provided a closer option when it opened in 1961. At the time, the school district was considered too small to operate a high school, having only operated two incarnations of Rosehill School on the Mukilteo waterfront from the first one's opening in 1893 until the opening of Olympic View Junior High School in 1956, but it was reconsidered as south Everett began to expand in the 1960s.