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Beaverton Schools

History - Raleigh Hills School

History of Raleigh Hills School

Raleigh Hills School Exterior 1930 and today

Raleigh School, as it was first named, began serving the families of this area in 1892 in a white frame building that was located where the two-story brick building is today.  Mr. Hall, the first classroom teacher, earned $35.00 a month in 1892.  Raleigh Hills School was its own school district, District #95, 13th public school district in what is now the Beaverton School District.  We were a kindergarten through eighth grade school until 1960 when the Beaverton School district was formed merging the small school districts.

The brick building was built in 1927 and consisted of three classrooms, boiler room, kindergarten and lavatories in the basement 
with the classrooms on the second level.  Children played in a barn behind the school during recess.  During the 1940s, a closet 
was converted into a small library serving seventh and eighth grade students.  It is currently the Speech room on the second floor.  Dairies surrounded the school at that time and some students were allowed to walk to Zwahlen's dairy and milk the cows.

In 1954, the Raleigh School board voted to expand and Mr. Tom Miles drew the expansion sketches for the new building.  These 
plans were taken to the Educational Research Department at Stanford University for review and approval. They were approved and a parent, Mr. Max Williams, was the architect who designed the 1950s wing of our school.  The expansion was done in two stages.

Raleigh School District #95, purchased property and a school building from a private school, Gabel School, opening a second 
elementary school.  Raleigh Park School opened in 1958-59 in the original Gabel School building.  The Superintendent of Raleigh School District moved forward with a bond issue and the current Raleigh Park School was built close to Raleigh School. Both Raleigh Hills School and Raleigh Park School were then part of the Raleigh School District #95.

The Washington County Committee for the Reorganization of School Districts presented a plan to reorganize and unify the small  
districts of Beaverton into a unified K-12 unified school district in September 1959.  This plan was presented to voters in June of 1959 and rejected.  A second election was held in December of that year and the plan was approved.  Raleigh Hills School became a part of the new Beaverton School District.

The original school colors were blue and gold, changing to black and red in 1994.  Our mascot, the panther, has remained constant 
through our history.  The K-5 panther logo came from an animation cell drawn by a parent of a former student over twenty years ago.  The middle school panther comes from a 1950s gym bag used by seventh and eighth graders.  With the return of the middle level students in 2006, it only seemed fitting to bring back this panther.
 
In 2022, voters approved a bond to replace Raleigh Hills School. The newly designed school will open in the fall of 2026.

Throughout its long history, the Raleigh Hills School community has valued the achievements of each child and the partnership 
between families and educators to support all of our students.