Murray High School was originally located on the east side of State Street at the current Hillcrest Junior High location, another Murray City School District School, at 126 East 5300 South Murray, UT. From 1916-54 Murray Junior High was named Murray High and Junior High. It was rebuilt and moved across to the west side of State Street in 1954.
Academics
Salt Lake Community College Concurrent Enrollment offers over 120 classes which students can take and earn SLCC credit and also in-state college credit. Murray High ranks #1 in the state for the number of SLCC associate degrees earned by high school seniors.
Murray High School has historically been the venue for the Salt Lake Region Solo and Ensemble. It has also been the venue for the State Jazz Ensemble. Both programs allow students from all over the state to compete and attend clinics to improve their playing. This status as host for the Region Instrumental Solo and Ensemble has been postponed due to the battle with cancer, and later passing, of Murray High's beloved director of instrumental music, Rob Wilson.
In 2008 the Murray High School Advanced Culinary Arts students were awarded the title of "Best New School" in the ProStart State Culinary Competition.
Murray High School will be one of the few schools in Utah piloting the Utah State Office of Education U-PASS & criterion-referenced tests online. The school has received $100,000 to purchase new laptops and upgrade current computers. The administration of Spring 2008 criterion-referenced tests through computer-based testing was performed through Pearson’s assessment systems. In recent years, SAGE testing has taken over the role that CRT testing once held in the school.
Graduation rate is 95%.
Murray has historically done well in a variety of academic competitions. In 2015 they came in second place at the Utah Academic Olympiad's trivia bowl. They have also had strong performance in the Utah Sterling Scholar competitions, with several students from the school generally making it to the state-level competition. The only statewide winner in recent memory is Max Adams, who won the State Sterling Scholar competition in Business and Marketing.
Historically, Murray has achieved high scores in standardized testing, especially the PSAT and the ACT. Several students each year generally do well enough on the PSAT to get State National Merit Scholar Status. Murray has also had two students achieve perfect scores on the ACT in the last decade, Max Adams in 2014 and Peter Rosen in 2013.
Going green
At the beginning of the 2007-2008 year, administrators, along with MHS's Environmental Club, started a program to save energy and money. Adjustments at the school, and other schools and offices in the district, included changes to the thermostats, and turning off running water in the restrooms and unplugging machines during weekends and long breaks. This has caused difficulties for the instrumental music programs at Murray High, since instruments can sustain harm when temperatures are allowed to drop drastically over long school breaks. Recycling bins have been placed throughout the school. Students are sent to detention if they are found to have wasted excessive amounts of water. Since its beginnings, the district has saved $405,000, all of which went into teachers' budgets. It is projected that in four years the district will have saved one million dollars, or a twenty percent savings per month.
Controversy
In 2004, Murray High School prohibited same-sex students from participating in the promenade of their prom. Press coverage noted the similarity to Aaron Fricke vs. Richard B. Lynch, a landmark case in high school student LGBT rights. Using Fricke as a precedent, the ACLU threatened to sue the high school on behalf of its gay and lesbian students. The high school reversed its policy and allowed 17-year-old lesbian Heather Johnston to dance with her girlfriend, Whitney Nelson at the prom.
Films and other productions shot at Murray
A few of the scenes from the wrestling movie Take Down were filmed prior to the rebuilding.
Read It and Weep
The auditorium scene of High School Musical
Minutemen
The school was the host venue for American Idol season 7 runner-up David Archuleta's homecoming television episode
Disney has donated generous funds to help and thank Murray High for having them film inside and outside the building, and is expected to film more films at the school. So far, however, this expectation has gone largely unfulfilled.
