Grand Rapids High School is a four-year public

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

located in

Grand Rapids, Minnesota Grand Rapids is a city in Itasca County, Minnesota, United States, and it is the county seat. The population is 11,126 according to the 2020 census. The city is named for the long rapids in the Mississippi River which was the uppermost limit ...

, United States, on 800 Conifer Drive. GRHS offers a wide range of extracurricular activities, and has one of the few competitive field show

marching band A marching band is a group of musical instrument, instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass instrument, brass, woodwind instrument, woodwind, and percus ...

programs north of

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

/ St. Paul, Minnesota. GRHS' Student Council and the school facility served as the host of the 2010 Minnesota Student Council State Convention in April. The Theme was "Survivor Northwoods: Leadership By Nature"

Overview

Grand Rapids High School, "GRHS", is one of the two high schools in Independent School District 318. The school was founded in 1895. The school was the first in Northern Minnesota to offer courses in the

International Baccalaureate The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly known as the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is a nonprofit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and founded in 1968. It offers four educational programmes: the IB D ...

program, and offered the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

College in the Schools A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a University system, constituent part of one. A college may be a academic degree, degree-awarding Tertiary education, tertiary educational institution, a part of a coll ...

Program, and Project Lead the Way, a project in conjunction with the

Itasca Community College Itasca is a word coined by Henry Schoolcraft and may refer to: * Lake Itasca, the source of the Mississippi River __NOTOC__ Places in the United States * Itasca County, Minnesota * Itasca Township, Clearwater County, Minnesota * Itasca Township, ...

. GRHS's school song is the "Rapids Rouser". Similar to other northern Minnesota high schools, GRHS has two

homecoming Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...

s: the traditional Fall Homecoming for

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wi ...

and a winter homecoming for

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

. The school also has a "Spring Fling", similar to a homecoming week. All three events are usually a week long, with a different dress-up theme each day, with Friday being Orange & Black (the school colors) Day. Friday also commonly has a shortened class schedule with a pep fest in the morning. On October 5, 1966, 15-year-old David Black, killed school administrator Forrest Willey and seriously wounded fellow student, 14-year-old Kevin Roth. Black was tried as a juvenile and released after serving 5 years in prison.

Technical education

GRHS has a technical education center with much equipment, from a

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve co ...

computer lab to a

CNC Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a p ...

plasma cutter Plasma cutting is a process that cuts through electrically conductive materials by means of an accelerated jet of hot plasma. Typical materials cut with a plasma torch include steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass and copper, although other c ...

, CNC Router, CNC Lathe, and

3D Printer 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

for making computer-designed parts.

Athletics

all of the schools athletics were under the direction of activities director Anne Campbell. Wayne Pender retired from the post of athletics director in 2008.

Notable alumni

* Spencer Igo, member of the

Minnesota House of Representatives The Minnesota House of Representatives is the lower house of the Legislature of the U.S. state of Minnesota. There are 134 members, twice as many as the Minnesota Senate. Floor sessions are held in the north wing of the State Capitol in Saint ...

* Hunter Shepard, professional ice hockey goalie

References

External links

Grand Rapids High School Homepage
{{authority control Public high schools in Minnesota International Baccalaureate schools in Minnesota Educational institutions established in 1895 Schools in Itasca County, Minnesota 1895 establishments in Minnesota Grand Rapids, Minnesota