Portland, Oregon Grant High School

Grant High School (commonly Grant High School) is a public high school in the Grant Park neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, United States.

Ulysses S. Grant High School
Address
2245 Northeast 36th Avenue Portland , (Multnomah County) , Oregon 97212 United States
Coordinates	45°32′21″N 122°37′35″W / 45.539034°N 122.626514°W / 45.539034; -122.626514
Information
Type	Public
Opened	1924
School district	Portland Public Schools
Principal	James McGee
Grades	9–12
Number of students	2,003 (2020–2021 enrollment)
Color(s)	Blue and grey
Athletics conference	OSAA Portland Interscholastic League 6A-1
Mascot	Generals
Newspaper	Grant Magazine
Website	http://pps.net/grant

Ulysses S. Grant High School opened in September 1924, with 1,191 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. During the early 1920s, so many schools were being built simultaneously in Portland, the district had to hire another architectural firm to design Grant High School, which is in the Classical Revival style by architects Knighton and Howell. In November 1923, the bricklayers working on Grant went on strike after the district tried to cut costs by using a maintenance worker to lay bricks.

After the Vanport flood in May 1948, Grant was home to the Vanport Extension Center (now Portland State University) through the summer of that year. Three motion pictures have been filmed at Grant High School: The made-for-TV movie Reunion (1980), Mr. Holland's Opus (1995), and Nearing Grace (2005).

Funded by a $482 million bond measure approved in 2012, A two-year modernization and expansion project of Grant High School began in June 2017 and was completed in the summer of 2019. The entire interior of the building was gutted and has been completely rebuilt. The project includes a new two-story common area, a new gymnasium, seismic retrofitting, and additional classroom space.

 

 

In the 2016–2017 school year, Grant's student population was 67.8% white, 8.2% African American, 6.8% Hispanic, 4.7% Asian, 0.6% Native American, 0.2% Pacific Islander, and 11.7% mixed race. 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.

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.

Grant's Constitution Team has been the state champion thirteen times (2002, 2004–2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022), and has won the national competition four times (2013, 2015, 2018, 2024).

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.

 

GHS's mascot is the Grant General, in honor of its namesake General and 18th US President, 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, 2018
• Men's soccer team: 2008
• Men's tennis: 2005
• Men's swimming: 2010
• Men's cross country: 1957, 1958, 1963, 1964
• Women’s soccer: 2021, 2023
• Men's track and field: 1930, 1931, 1939, 1961, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1988
• Women's cross country: 1974, 2012
• Jazz band: 2022