History

GRANTS PASS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST SCHOOL CELEBRATED 100 YEARS IN 2016!

Walk with us down memory lane…

In the early 1900s, the Grants Pass area recognized a need for private education that provided smaller classrooms, more attentive teachers, and a thorough, character-building, Christian curriculum. The mission was to aptly educate and prepare students to thrive in their communities and be a blessing to others they encountered.

A photo of Grants Pass Seventh-Day Adventist School from 1916-1940

When the Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist School opened in 1916, 17 students occupied one room in the back half of the Adventist church. The Church was built in the fall of 1893, with the schoolroom being added in 1908. At that time, the church was located on “E” Street, where Roe Motors can be found today. (You will now find the Adventist Church on Ninth Street.)

A drawing of Grant Pass Seventh-Day Adventist school from 1940-1960

By 1939, there was need for a larger building with property for a playground. Construction began that year at 1121 NE Seventh Street, and completed in 1942. Historical records also note this location as “Seventh and Manzanita Street.” This building was replaced in 1966. The school remained at the Seventh Street location until 1989, when the property sold to Brighton Academy.

A drawing of Grant Pass Seventh-Day Adventist school from 1955-1989

A photo of Grants Pass Seventh-Day Adventist School from 1989-1916

From 1989 until 1991, the school was temporarily located on the bottom floor of the Grants Pass Seventh-day Adventist Church at 1360 NE Ninth Street.

In 1991, The school then relocated to an 8-acre campus at 2250 NW Heidi Lane, where it proudly flourishes today. The school warmly welcomes students from different backgrounds who desire a Christian education.

A photo of Grants Pass Seventh-Day Adventist school in 1916

An image of a news article from September 3, 1999 about a reunion honoring a former Adventist teacher.

A 1999 article in the Grants Pass Daily Courier describes the impact teachers can have on the lives of their students. Betty Jo Meehan, who taught at the school for 32 years, said she possibly served as many as 700 students during that time. She took delight in the many who continued to send her Christmas cards or call with updates.

She fondly recalled “canning bees” to help store fruits and vegetables for the hot lunch program. The school supports a small garden to this day, providing healthy produce for hot lunches.

Meehan also talked about the importance of outreach programs, whether it’s bringing small gifts to local nursing homes or taking a van full of students to Mexico for spring break to build schools. She called this the school’s vision. In keeping with this vision, the current ninth grade class is traveling to San Francisco to do mission work in May 2016.

GRANTS PASS SCHOOL TODAY

This Seventh-day Adventist School currently has approximately 60 students in grades K-10. The school is supported by five constituent Adventist churches, where many of the attending students are also members. Many enrolled students also come from a blend of several communities and backgrounds.

Together as a school, our prayer continues to be about blessing the community with wholesome, thorough education for its children, and to be a presence of Christlike ministry to our surroundings.

“Our ideas of education take too narrow and too low a range. There is need of a broader scope, a higher aim. True education means more than the pursual of a certain course of study. It means more than a preparation for the life that now is. It has to do with the whole being, and with the whole period of existence possible to man. It is the harmonious development of the physical, the mental and the spiritual powers. It prepares the student for the joy of service in this world and for the higher joy of wider service in the world to come.” (E. G. White, Education, p. 13).