Pendleton High School

Pendleton High School is one of the middle-of-the-pack 9-12 campuss in Pendleton, Oregon, run under Pendleton SD 16, with 763 students on its rolls from grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 630 students per school, that is 21% bigger than typical.

Within Pendleton SD 16, which oversees 8 schools and 2,901 students, Pendleton High School is one campus in the system.

Looking at the student body, Pendleton High School logs that White students make up the majority at 70%. Other groups include 12% Hispanic, 9% multiracial, 6% Native American. That composition is broadly in line with Umatilla County as a whole.

Looking at the economic backdrop, On paper, Pendleton High School has 39 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 19.7:1. The state averages about 19.8:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. Around 96% of the student body qualifies for free or reduced-price meals, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Pendleton High School performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 25.2%, the actual is 28.0%, a residual of +2.8 points.

In the surrounding community, census data for Umatilla County shows median household income runs about $67,728, 18% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 10%. In all, Umatilla County runs 35 public schools (combined enrollment of about 13,143 students), of which Pendleton High School is one.

The closest other public school is Hawthorne Alternative High School, roughly 0.1 miles away. 7 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 5 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Pendleton High School ranks 3rd on composite proficiency, below the local average of 29.9%.

The school occupies a town-center site.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at Pendleton High School has shrank 5%, going from 805 students in 2018 to 763 in 2025. The student-to-teacher ratio fell from 21.3:1 in 2018 to 19.7:1 today.

On this page, members of the Pendleton High School community share and discuss sports schedules, lunch menu changes, and school spirit week. Anyone with firsthand experience at this school can post or comment.