Thomas Jefferson High School (colloquially, Jefferson High School or "Jeff") is a
public high school
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
in
Portland, Oregon
Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, United States, founded in 1908.
History
![Jefferson High School Portland Oregon 1920](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Jefferson_High_School_Portland_Oregon_1920.jpg)
Jefferson opened in September 1908,
and was initially named Albina High School, but was renamed Jefferson High School in early 1909.
The school was not ready in 1908, but was opened early due to overcrowding. It was finished on February 6, 1910.
''
The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'' reported in January 1922 that Jefferson was the largest high school in Portland, with 2,063 students. Hopkin Jenkins was principal at Jefferson from its opening until June 1940.
Due to the
baby boom
A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of birth rate. This demographic phenomenon is usually ascribed within certain geographical bounds of defined national and cultural populations. People born during these periods are often ca ...
and passing of a $25 million building levy by the school district in 1947, a new high school was slated.
In September 1991, "at least six fires" were set at the school by an
arsonist
Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wate ...
.
On January 7, 2008,
Mayor Potter relocated
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
to Jefferson for a week. Potter held a City Council meeting and delivered the State of the City address there. The aim was stated to be to "give students, parents and educators a first hand lesson in how government really works - and to showcase the opportunities, successes and challenges facing every school in Portland's six public school districts."
School profile
![Jefferson high school portland oregon graduation 1994](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Jefferson_high_school_portland_oregon_graduation_1994.jpg)
In 2009–10, Jefferson was the only school in Oregon to have a majority of African American students.
As of 2018, the school's ethnic demographics were 41% African American, 28% European American, 17% Hispanic, 10% Two or more races, 2% Asian, 2% Hawaiian, and 1% American Indian.
In 2018, 84% of the school's seniors received a
high school diploma
A high school diploma or high school degree is a North American academic school leaving qualification awarded upon high school graduation. The high school diploma is typically obtained after a course of study lasting four years, from grade 9 to gra ...
, higher than the state average of 80%.
In September 2011, all freshman students were required to participate in the Middle College for Advanced Studies. This program was explained as follows:
Freshmen and sophomores focus on their core subjects at Jefferson. They learn skills such as study habits and organization to prepare them for college coursework and move through classes in groups — or academies - with the same set of teachers.
As students are ready, they move to college prep classes at Jefferson and college courses at
Portland Community College Cascade Campus, mostly in their junior and senior years. College pathways range from preparation for a four-year college to careers such as emergency medical technician, medical assistant, firefighter, and heating, ventilation and cooling technician.
College coursework is offered at no cost to Jefferson students. Students who receive special education services may participate in the Middle College as recommended by their individualized education plan teams.
Students who are learning English may participate in the Middle College by taking credit-bearing ESOL courses and other courses consistent with their English language level.
Counselors and advisers at Portland Community College and Jefferson closely support students as they progress. Self Enhancement, Inc., a youth-development nonprofit, provides core support services as tutoring and mentoring to all Jefferson students.
Students earn high school diplomas from Jefferson as well as 12 to 45 college credits from Portland Community College that are transferable to other colleges and universities.
Dance program
In the mid-1970s, in an attempt to integrate the student body, Jefferson High School introduced the magnet arts program and the dance program to attract students from other Portland high school attendance areas. The dance program was founded by
Mary Vinton Folberg, sister of
Will Vinton
William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his work a ...
(creator of
Claymation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
). Folberg modelled the Jefferson Dance Department after the
Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. While the magnet arts and dance program attracted some white students from other school attendance areas, some argue that this has not led to integrating the student body, and that only a small percentage of black students in this traditionally black school are able to enroll in the dance and arts programs.
The Jefferson dance program teaches different levels of a broad range of dance styles, including
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
, tap, African, modern, hip hop and jazz. Twice each school year the students' achievements are publicly showcased in recitals in the school's auditorium: one in the winter and one in the spring. Considered a foundation of many types of dance, ballet is an essential part of many dance students' educations. However, the Jefferson dance program and school-based company, the Jefferson Dancers, lacked advanced ballet training for about a decade. In the 2009 winter recital, the Jefferson Dancers performed the school's first piece
en pointe
Pointe technique ( ) is the part of classical ballet technique that concerns ''pointe work'', in which a ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet within pointe shoes. A dancer is said to be ''en pointe'' () whe ...
in about ten years.
The Jefferson Dancers
![Donald mckayle with the jefferson dancers portland oregon 1992](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Donald_mckayle_with_the_jefferson_dancers_portland_oregon_1992.jpg)
In the late 1970s, Folberg founded the student dance company
The Jefferson Dancers
The Jefferson Dancers is the performance group of advanced students from the magnet arts dance program at Jefferson High School in Portland, Oregon, United States. The company was founded by Mary Vinton Folberg in the early 1980s. Folberg ser ...
. Since its founding, the company has grown and changed, exposing its members to a diverse range of dance styles, including ballet, modern, African, tap, jazz and hip hop. The company's dance instructors are highly qualified and have led successful dance careers. Some instructors have continued to perform during their involvement with the Jefferson Dancers. Promising company members are awarded scholarships at each spring recital, and company auditions are held for two days each spring.
The company performs twice annually at Jefferson High School's winter and spring dance recitals, as well as throughout Portland, Oregon, and the world. The company toured in Germany in April 2009, Italy in March 2011, and China in 2013.
Athletics
Men's basketball
The men's basketball team has been one of the most successful programs in Oregon. Jefferson has produced 40 plus D1 basketball recruits in program history. Some previous democrat recruits have chosen to play at Washington, Texas, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Oregon, USC, Kansas, Michigan, and other schools. Six former players have been ranked in the top 100 in the country and
Terrence Jones
Terrence Alexander Jones (born January 9, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Kaohsiung Steelers of the Taiwanese P. League+. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.
High school career
Jones was ranked t ...
was named a McDonald's All American in 2010. Jefferson has won state titles in 1951, 1972, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, and 2017. Pat Strickland was head coach from 2009-2021, then stepped down for a year and announced he will be returning for the 2022-2023 season.
State championships
* Boys' basketball: 1951, 1972, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017
* Girls' basketball: 2008, 2010
[http://www.osaa.org/basketball/records/girlschamps.pdf ]
* Football: 1957, 1958
* Boys' swimming: 1951
* Girls' swimming: 1952, 1953
* Baseball: 1946, 1947, 1959
* Girls' tennis: 1951, 1953, 1954
* Boys' track & field: 1944, 1945, 1960, 1963
* Girls' track & field: 1984
Notable alumni
*
Terry Baker
Terry Wayne Baker (born May 5, 1941) is a former American football and basketball player. He played college football and basketball at Oregon State University in Corvallis, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta. Baker played as a quarterba ...
,
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player, 1962 Heisman Trophy winner,
Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Rams compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) West division. The Rams play ...
*
Emery Barnes
Emery Oakland Barnes (December 15, 1929 – June 1, 1998) was a Canadian professional football player and politician.
Background
Born in Louisiana and raised in Oregon, Barnes was a gifted athlete, and was an alternate high jumper for the ...
, former NFL player and politician
*
Larry Beil
Larry Beil (born ) is an American sportscaster.
Biography
From 1996 to 1998, he was an anchor on '' SportsCenter'', the flagship program of ESPN. Beil, who graduated from the University of Hawaiʻi, introduced a new catch phrase after showin ...
, football player
*
Kameron Chatman
Kam Chatman (born June 1, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Scarborough Shooting Stars of the CEBL. He played college basketball for the Detroit Titans after transferring from the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball t ...
, current professional basketball player. Played at Jefferson for his freshmen and sophomore years of HS.
*
Dick Daniels, NFL player and executive
*
Johnny Ray Gill
Johnny Ray Gill (born 1984) is an American stage and screen actor.
Early life
Gill grew up in Portland, Oregon, and graduated from Jefferson High School in 2002. He attended the University of Southern California for one year before transferring ...
, actor
*
Joe Gordon
Joseph Lowell Gordon (February 18, 1915 – April 14, 1978), nicknamed "Flash" in reference to the comic-book character ''Flash Gordon'', was an American second baseman, coach and manager in Major League Baseball who played for the New York Yank ...
, Baseball Hall of Famer, second baseman,
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
*
Woody Green
Woodrow Green, Jr. (born June 20, 1951) is a former American football running back who played for the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League (NFL). Green was drafted by the Chiefs in the first round of the 1974 NFL Draft. He is an al ...
, NFL player
*
Kevin Hagen
Kevin Hagen (April 3, 1928 – July 9, 2005) was an American actor best known for his role as Dr. Hiram Baker on NBC's ''Little House on the Prairie.''
Early life
Hagen was born in Chicago, Illinois, to professional ballroom dancers, Haakon O ...
, actor
*
Mickey Hergert
Mickey Hergert (born December 30, 1941) is a former American football running back and baseball player and coach in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics with Lewis & Clark College.
Early years
Hergert attended Jefferson High Sch ...
,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
coach at
Lewis & Clark College
Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Originally chartered in 1867 as the Albany Collegiate Institute in Albany, Oregon, the college was relocated to Portland in 1938 and in 1942 adopted the name Lewis & Cl ...
*
Terrence Jones
Terrence Alexander Jones (born January 9, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Kaohsiung Steelers of the Taiwanese P. League+. He played college basketball for the Kentucky Wildcats.
High school career
Jones was ranked t ...
, basketball player
*
Silas Melson, basketball player
*
Aaron Miles (basketball)
Aaron Marquez Miles (born April 13, 1983) is an American basketball coach and former player currently working as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Kansas ...
, professional basketball player & assistant coach of the
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
*
Danny Mwanga
Jean-Marie Daniel "Danny" Mwanga (born July 17, 1991) is a Congolese-American soccer player.
Career
Youth
Mwanga's father, who was an adviser to former Congolese dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, was killed during the nation's civil war in 1997, and ...
, Major League Soccer player
*
Virginia Patton
Virginia Ann Marie Patton Moss (June 25, 1925 – August 18, 2022) was an American actress. After appearing in several films in the early 1940s, she was cast in her most well-known role as Ruth Dakin Bailey in Frank Capra's ''It's a Wonderful Li ...
, actress
*
Mel Renfro
Melvin Lacy Renfro (born December 30, 1941) is a former American football player, a cornerback who spent his entire 14-year career in the National Football League (NFL) with the Dallas Cowboys. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Ea ...
,
Pro Football Hall of Fame
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coach ...
,
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...
*
Terrence Ross
Terrence James Elijah Ross (born February 5, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Washington Huskies, where he was a first-te ...
, basketball player,
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...
*
Nancy Ryles
Nancy Ann Ryles (December 18, 1937 – September 12, 1990) was an Oregon politician. She served in the Oregon House of Representatives, the Oregon Senate and as one of three members of the state's Public Utility Commission. She was known as an ...
, state legislator
[Mapes, Jeff; and Dulkin, Diane (September 13, 1990). "Nancy Ryles dies of brain cancer". '']The Oregonian
''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...
'', p. 1.
*
Floyd Simmons
Floyd Macon Simmons (April 10, 1923 – April 1, 2008) was an American athlete and actor who competed mainly in the decathlon. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Biography
Raised in Charlotte, Simmons was the son of a builder a ...
, football player
*
Ural Thomas
Ural Thomas (born 21 December 1939) is an American soul music singer. While Thomas has made music for over fifty years, his public performances span two eras: the 1950s through 1960s, and as Ural Thomas and the Pain from 2013 through the present ...
, musician
*
Ime Udoka
Ime Sunday Udoka ( ; born August 9, 1977) is a Nigerian-American professional basketball coach and former player who is the head coach for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), currently suspended by the team for the 2 ...
, professional basketball player for the
New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...
,
Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Con ...
,
San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division ( ...
. Current head coach of the
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...
.
*
Pete Ward
Peter Thomas Ward (July 26, 1937 – March 16, 2022) was a Canadian-born professional baseball player who appeared in 973 games over nine seasons in Major League Baseball as a third baseman, outfielder and first baseman for the Baltimore Oriol ...
, baseball player and coach
*
Renée Watson, an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of young adult novel ''Piecing Me Together''
*
Arnie Weinmeister
Arnold George Weinmeister (March 23, 1923 – June 28, 2000) was a Canadian professional football player who was a defensive tackle. He went to four Pro Bowls, but with only a six-year tenure in the All-America Football Conference and Natio ...
, professional football player
*
K'Zell Wesson
K'Zell Ray Wesson (born June 24, 1977, pronounced Kay-Zell) is an American former professional basketball player. He is 6' 7.5" (2.02 m) in height and he weighs 242 lbs. (110 kg). He plays the position of power forward-center.
College car ...
, professional basketball player (played in Turkey, France, Germany)
See also
*
''Thomas Jefferson'' (Bitter), a statue installed on the campus in 1915
References
External links
*
{{authority control
High schools in Portland, Oregon
Educational institutions established in 1908
Public high schools in Oregon
Magnet schools in Oregon
1908 establishments in Oregon
Portland Public Schools (Oregon)
African-American history of Oregon