Adrienne C. Nelson High School
Adrienne C. Nelson High School is a 4-year public high school in Happy Valley, Oregon. The school is the fourth and newest public high school in the North Clackamas School District.
History
Adrienne Nelson High School was proposed to relieve ongoing crowding issues at Clackamas High School in a $523 million bond in 2016. The building itself was built in 2011 as a middle school with the intentions of eventually turning it into a high school.In 2019, renovations to the school began for it to better fit a high school environment. The renovations included 16 classrooms, a performing arts center, athletics center, track and field, tennis courts, and a health center. ANHS opened for students in September of 2021 after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
Rock Creek Middle School, the middle school that previously occupied the building, relocated to the previous site of Sunrise Middle School, which had been closed to create extra classroom space at the high school.
Nelson High School was named after Adrienne Nelson, the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon.
The name was initially rejected and met with backlash in a 4-3 vote in May of 2016, along with the rejection of the second choice, James DePreist High School, who is also African American. Discussions were paused after this.
In 2018, discussions resumed following the proposal to name a new elementary school after Beatrice Morrow Cannady was also met with backlash. Many did not want either school to be named after a black person, even starting petitions to instead name the high school Happy Valley High School. Other school board members stood firm on the idea. The board eventually came to a conclusion to name the schools the initial proposed names.