President Ulysses S. Grant High School (colloquially Grant High School) is a public high school in the Grant Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States. It is the largest high school in the Portland Public Schools district. Three motion pictures have been filmed at the school â€" Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), Nearing Grace (2005), and the made-for-TV movie, Reunion (1980).
History
Grant opened in September, 1924, with 1191 students. Many of the schools in the Portland Public School district that were built between 1908 and 1932 were designed by architects Floyd Naramore and George Jones. However, so many schools were being built in the early 20s that the district had to hire another architectural company for Grant High School, which was designed in the Classical Revival style by the architect firm Knighton and Howell. In November 1923, the bricklayers working on building Grant went on strike after the district tried to cut costs by using a maintenance worker to lay bricks.
After the Vanport flood in 1948, it was home to the Vanport Extension Center (now Portland State University) through the summer of 1948.
A two-year modernization project, funded by a $482 million bond measure in 2012, began in June 2017. The project includes a new three-story common area, a new gym, seismic retrofitting, and additional classroom space.
Student profile
The student population is 62% white, 22% African American, 7% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 5% Latino. About 25% of Grant's students live out of boundaries and transfer in.
In 2008, 92% of the school's seniors received a high school diploma. Of 443 students, 388 graduated, 39 dropped out, six received a modified diploma, and ten were still in high school in 2009. In 2009, 27% of the students were transfers into the school.
Curriculum
Special programs
Grant High School houses the last installment of the Japanese Immersion Program, a 13-year immersion program, begun at Richmond Elementary and continued at Mt. Tabor Middle School.
Extracurricular activities
The school boasts a strong Constitution Team which has been the state champion in Oregon eight times (2002, 2004-2009, 2011 and 2013) and placed second in 2005, third in 2004, 2007 and 2008, and first in 2013 and 2015 in the national We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution competition.
Grant's Wind Ensemble was also awarded first place at the Northwest Invitational Band Competition in 2007 and 2011, and received a silver medal at the Heritage festival in Anaheim, California in 2007. The Wind Ensemble performed at Disneyland in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. The Wind Ensemble has won first place in the Portland Interscholastic League Competition repeatedly in recent years. In 2007, the Jazz Ensemble received gold at the Willamette Jazz Festival, finished fifth at the Northwest Jazz Festival, won second at the Clackamas Community College Jazz Festival and repeated as Champions at the University of Portland Jazz Festival.
In 2011, Grant's student newspaper The Grantonian was replaced by the 36-page full-color monthly Grant Magazine. In its first year, the magazine won Best In Show at the Oregon Fall Press day. It has also won the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association's Gold Crown award three years in a row, from 2014 through 2016.
Athletics
GHS's mascot is the Grant General, in honor of its namesake General Ulysses S. Grant.
State championships
- Men's football: 1943, 1945, 1946, 1949, 1950, 1963 (tie with North Salem)
- Men's gymnastics: 1982
- Men's baseball: 1958
- Men's basketball: 1969, 1986, 1988, 2008
- Men's soccer team: 2008
- Men's tennis: 2005
- Men's swimming: 2010
- Men's cross country: 1957, 1958, 1963, 1964
- Men's track and field: 1930, 1931, 1939, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1988
- Women's cross country: 1974, 2012
Notable alumni
Kenneth Acker, current NFL DB Kansas City Chiefs Mike James, current NBA guard Phoenix Suns
References
External links
- Official website