Granger High School 60th Anniversary

GRANGER High School has gone through many changes throughout the years. These include small changes such as new teachers and students graduating, as well as big changes like a new building or new houses being built around the school.

Granger has withstood generations of students and teachers as well as different principles and administrators. Granger High School was established in the late 1950’s, 1958 to be exact. This time was a lot different for Utah, the cities and counties we know now weren’t exactly the same back then.

West Valley City was once a farm town, and being the last city for miles and miles meant that we were popular even back then. Granger High was the only Senior High School in West Valley, because Hunter wasn’t built until 1990. Kearns was Granger’s rival until Hunter was built.

Granger being the only high school in West Valley caused a lot of changes for this little farm town. It was a new place for kids to get education, cliques to be created, and a new environment to get used to.

Granger has only had one other building in the past, built in ‘55 and taking in students beginning in ‘58, and the class of ‘60 was coming quickly. This building was able to accommodate all the students attending back then but as time moved on, the building felt smaller.

Granger High didn’t always accommodate 9th graders. Granger Senior High was at one point only 10-12. The new school was proposed and then built bringing 9th graders in with them from the junior high schools. “The old building was like this big, dark, and dank dungeon,” Mr. Ballew said. Times were changing and the school needed an update. Cliques like greasers and cowboys were very prominent in the old school. The majority of students attending were white and the minority was colored students.

Granger High had lots of pride in the past, as the only thing they had to be excited about was friends and sports. Basketball and Football were the heart of Granger High in the past, and this seems to have carried over into the new school.

Lots of students drove cars in the older years and this meant lots of spots for lunch. Students went to normal burger joints and drive in’s for lunch as well as places like Francesco’s and Dee’s.

The old school was demolished in 2013 and the new school built the same year to start the 2013-2014 school year. Bricks were placed around the perimeter of the demolished school for alumnis and current students to take as mementos.

Students starting at the new school were parking cars and playing tennis in their old schools back yard. Students of the old school may have missed it, but the new school brought new and improved schooling for everybody.

The new Granger High School, being a whopping 150,000 square feet, holds over 3,000 students. Our multi-million dollar high school cost $80 Million to build. It was a huge addition to the city as well as the state as a whole, as Granger is the biggest high school in the state.

The new school houses two gyms, a 15,000 seat auditorium, an interior courtyard, metal and wood shops, science labs, music and art rooms, and much more. The school has softball and baseball fields as well as tennis courts and an entire soccer field.

Alumni from past years have put together reunions at parks and certain events. Old students and friends meet up to catch up and see how their former classmates may have changed over the years. This brings some intense emotions sometimes, but can be very exciting at times as well.

Not only are alumni catching up with old friends and teachers, but they’re also visiting this new school. Old students get to hang out in places they used to hang out as well as see new places they never would have imagined would be in the school.

Granger High School has many new programs and opportunities nobody had the chance to experience in the past. These include new sports such as golf and table tennis. There are also new clubs such as a video game club and a fear club- a new addition in the 2017-2018 year.

Students not only experience a new building, but a new overall experience with new rules and regulations, different lunch schedule, and new programs to fit all students wants and needs.

Granger High is a time capsule in and of itself and is still going strong 60 years later. Lancers keep their pride and retain the soul they’ve always had. Our students are diverse and the school gets better by the day.