The school was the 43rd Jesuit High School to be established in the United States. Though it was not finally established until 1956, the process of founding a Jesuit High School in Portland began in 1907, when property was purchased by the parish of St. Ignatius and set aside for a future High School. A lay appeal to the Jesuit Provincial for a High School in 1929 came to nothing. In 1954 the Holy Cross Fathers of Portland announced the closing of Columbia Prep and a plan for the Jesuits to take over the premises was discussed, but again dropped. Finally in 1955 the Jesuit Provincial Superior was asked by the Archbishop to set up a school. Hillsdale Dairy Farm, a 55-acre (220,000 m2) plot to the west, some 15 minutes drive from downtown Portland, was purchased for $165,000. Jesuit and Holy Cross priests raised pledges of $117,000 by Wednesday of the first week of a fund-raising campaign in churches, and hundreds of thousands more by door-to-door canvassing. Jesuit High School opened for freshmen boys on September 10, 1956 and girls have been admitted since 1993.[6]
Demographics
The demographic breakdown of the 1,275 students enrolled in 2021-2022 was:[7]
Native American/Alaskan - 0.3%
Black - 3.1%
Hispanic - 7.7%
Multiracial - 11.0%
Asian/Pacific islanders - 16.5%
White - 61.4%
For the 2021-2022 school year, 99% of the graduating senior class enrolled in college, 25% of the overall student body was receiving financial aid, and 68% of students identified as Catholic. [8]
Academics
Since 1961, Jesuit High School has been accredited through Northwest Accreditation Commission and has also been ranked 3rd best overall school and 1st best Christian School. [9]
In 1989 and 1998, Jesuit High School was honored in the Blue Ribbon Schools Program, the highest honor a school can receive in the United States.[10]
Sports
Jesuit won its first two athletic state championships in football in 1967 (tied) and 1968. Since then, Jesuit has amassed a total of 165 state titles across 25 different sports through the 2021-2022 school year. Its greatest successes have been in tennis, with a combined 37 titles between men (22) and women (15), and soccer with 29 combined titles (men - 15; women - 14).[11]
On June 20, 2007, Sports Illustrated rated Jesuit the number one high school athletic program in the nation, citing success both on and off the field.[12]
In 2016 and again in 2019, Jesuit was named a top high school athletic program in the nation by MaxPreps.[13][14]
Through the 2022-2023 school year, Jesuit was a 28 time winner of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association (OACA) All-Sports award in the division they competed in. In addition, Jesuit was awarded the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) Cup 17 times between the 1999-2000 and 2021-22 academic years, including an 8 year streak between the 2004-2005 and 2012-2013 seasons and an ongoing 9 year streak since 2015.[15][16]
Jesuit is currently an OSAA 6A classification school and competes in the 6A-2 Metro League.
Playoffs were not played in Oregon high school sports and therefore no state champions were declared during the 2020-21 school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.