Groton-Dunstable Regional High School is located in Groton, Massachusetts and serves the communities of both Groton and Dunstable in the Groton-Dunstable Regional School District. While GDRHS is the only public high school located within those communities students from Groton may also attend the public Nashoba Valley Technical High School while students from Dunstable may attend the public Greater Lowell Technical High School. Approximately 850 students attend GDRHS and they are primarily graduates of Groton-Dunstable Regional Middle School. GDRHS has a primarily college preparatory curriculum with approximately 87% of its students attending four-year colleges and over 90% attending two- or four-year colleges upon graduation in 2010.HistoryThe earliest incarnation of GDRHS was as the grammar school that was held in Groton town center for which there are funding records as far back as 1758. The residency of the grammar school migrated between the district schools and in 1808 was kept for four months in District school number 1, then two months in number 2, two months in number 3, and two months in number five.While Lawrence Academy had long provided private secondary school opportunities in town, a committee was appointed in November 1855 to consider establishing a new high school. On Monday, December 5, 1859 the first public high school opened in the lower hall of the Town House (Town Hall). For some time in the 1860s, the high school was held in the upper part of the Gerrish building at Groton Center, before moving into the new District Number 1 school, built in 1870 at a cost of $32,000. On March 2, 1874, the district schools, were named according to town vote with the high school being named Butler Grammar School after Caleb Butler, former principal of Lawrence Academy, and town historian. A new high school was built in 1927. Now known as the recently closed Prescott Elementary, it continued to be known as the Butler School for some time.
