# Crane Union High School

Crane Union High School is a public high school in Crane, Oregon, United States. It is a boarding school that serves students from a large geographic area.
Its district is known as the Harney County Union High School District 1J, and covers much of Harney County.
In 1976 it was the only American public boarding high school operated by a local school district.

## History

It opened in 1918. It moved to Crane circa 1920 after initially being in Lawen. The dormitory began operations in 1931.
On January 25, 1967, a fire ruined multiple buildings of the school facility. The school resumed operations circa 1969.
Taylor Perse of Eugene Weekly stated that the community of Crane reoriented itself around the school after the community declined in population. The Associated Press wrote that the school became "Crane's sole reason for being".
Eric Nichols became the principal circa 2018.

## Service area

The official school district attendance area includes, in addition to Crane: Diamond, Double-O Ranch, Drewsey, Fields, Frenchglen, Riley, and Suntex. In 2002 the size of its attendance boundary was 7,700 square miles (20,000 km$^2$), an area that was about the same size as that of Massachusetts.
The school also historically served sections of Malheur County, and portions of Humboldt County, Nevada. Some communities in Nevada had inter-state agreements. Sending school districts pay the costs of tuition. In 1959, the Crane UHSD territory extended into Malheur County; that year there was a proposal to reorganize the school districts in both counties with part of Crane Union's territory to be given to Malheur County. As of 2009 some students in the Juntura area, who are within Juntura School District 12, a K-8 school district, move on to Crane Union for high school.
Crane Union historically served the Denio area, including when the townsite was in Oregon. The area on the Oregon state line across from Denio is, as of 2020, in the official Crane Union boundary. As of 2004 Denio, Nevada parents with high school aged children may send their children to Crane Union instead of sending them to Albert M. Lowry High School in Winnemucca, Nevada.

## Background

Crane Union High School is the only school in Crane Union High School District, which covered the most area in Oregon as of 2006, serving 7,500 square miles (19,000 km$^2$). Students from the surrounding ranches attend Crane Union High School from as far away as 150 miles (240 km). Crane is one of the oldest public boarding schools in the country.
Nichols described the culture as "very neighborhood-ish" despite the students coming from a vast rural area.
Jeff LaLande, in an Oregon Historical Society publication made in 2005 and updated in 2014, stated that the school was "comparatively expensive" to operate.

## Admissions

The district automatically enrolls from the Harney County Union High School District 1J boundary in Harney County. The district also takes tuition-paying students from outside the boundary and students which are sent there by cooperative agreement from other school districts paying tuition.

## Campus

It has 80-acre (32 ha) of area. Crane Elementary School is on the same property.
The dormitory, funded by money otherwise used for transportation, is for students over 20 miles (32 km) away. Male students have the first floor and female students have the second. The school started boarding in 1928, and established a brick dormitory, which had two floors, in 1931. In the 1940s a dormitory for female students opened. Its current facility, made of cement and steel, opened due to a 1967 fire that ruined the previous building. As of 2023 each room houses two students; Perse characterized the room sizes as larger or the same as such rooms at the University of Oregon. When the school had a larger student population, students were housed four to each room.
The district also provides housing to employees.

## Student body and staff

In 1950 it had 63 students, with some of them Basque Oregoners from Denio, Oregon. In 1976 it had 99 students. In February 1998 it had 77 students, and in November of the same year it was up to 88, with 65 of them boarding. In 2002 the school had 97 students. In 2020 its student count was 96, with boarders making up 60 of them.
Eric Cain of Oregon Public Broadcasting stated that the student body is "some of the most rural kids in the state – maybe the country". Many of the students are alumni of one room schoolhouses and had regularly helped their families with ranch work prior to leaving for high school.
As of 1983 it was common for unmarried teachers to teach for one or two years at Crane Union before moving elsewhere in response to the area being isolated.

## Academics

In 2008, 100 percent of the school's seniors received a high school diploma. Of 24 students, 24 graduated and none dropped out.
In 1983 the teachers offered extra classes partly because the area had few other activities available, and focusing on teaching was a pastime available.

## Transportation

As of 2002 the district has no school bus for students. Students may drive themselves to/from school on weekends. This is because, as of 1972, the school officials use the funding from the state, used by other districts for transportation purposes, to fund the dormitory. In 1983 the vice principal, Bill Thew, stated that the cost would be higher if the district had used school buses.
In 1950 the district had a bus to take students to Burns, Oregon so they could access entertainment.

## Athletics

In 1998 about 90% of the students participated in athletics.
As of 2023 several students partake in rodeos outside of school functions. The school previously had rodeo as an official sport. Fears of legal problems meant that rodeo was withdrawn as an official sport. In 1983, the school had a mechanical bull in its possession.

## Feeder patterns

The high school, in its official attendance zone, takes students from the following K-8 school districts:
* Diamond School District 7
* Double O School District 28
* Drewsey School District 13
* Frenchglen School District 16
* Harney County School District 4 (Crane Elementary School)
* Pine Creek School District 5
* South Harney County School District 33 (Fields School)
* Suntex School District 10
As of 2004 Denio School of the Humboldt County School District would also be a feeder school as Denio, Nevada students had Crane Union as one option for high school.