Sequoia High School 

Sequoia High School in downtown Redwood City, California, United States (established in 1895) is a high school. Today, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme within the San Francisco Bay Area is one of the few schools to offer it.

 

Sequoia High School is part of the Sequoia Union High School District. Most students attend middle school at Clifford School, Kennedy Middle School, McKinley Institute of Technology, or North Star Academy in Redwood City, or Central Middle School in San Carlos. The school maintains a vast array of clubs, extracurricular activities, and sports teams, in addition to a student newspaper, Yearbook team, and student government program.

 

Located on 35 acres, the school grounds include a Japanese Tea Garden designed by students in 1929, the Carrington Hall performing arts site, and a variety of historical trees, including the Giant Sequoia, Monkey-puzzle tree, Australian Tea tree, Ginkgo biloba trees, Cork Oak tree, and many others. Classrooms, including the newest "M" (music) wing, completed in 2018, are spread across five main wings.

 

History

Established in 1895, Sequoia is the oldest high school in San Mateo County, and was founded as a preparatory school for Stanford University. When the school was founded, it was the only high school on the Peninsula between San Francisco and Santa Clara. The school initially occupied the third floor of the Redwood City Grammar School when it opened, with the two lower floors for elementary and middle school students in the building.

 

On the grounds of the former estate of Horace Hawes, author of the legislative bill that created San Mateo County, the current campus is located. In the 1920s, the present-day campus, purchased for $80,000, was designed and opened in 1924 in the style of the Spanish Colonial Revival. The architects Coffey and Werner designed the original campus buildings. The Campanile Argo Bell Tower was built in 1923 and named after Clarence Argo, the former principal (from 1921 to 1948). The school auditorium, Carrington Hall, was named after Otis M. Carrington, a former music and art teacher at the school.

 

Remnants of the previous owners of the property, from over 115 years ago, are still visible on campus today, including an initial collection of concrete benches and walls constructed prior to 1905 on the eastern expanse of the school. The gazebo in the Japanese Tea Garden was recently renovated, but remains in the same position as a similar structure placed in 1905 in the "rock garden" (today, the Tea Garden).

 

In 1995, under its former name of Sequoia Union High School, the school was added as a historic district to the National Register of Historic Places.

 

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Sequoia High School on September 13, 2007 to sign SB 35, which forbids individuals under the age of 18 from using a wireless telephone or other electronic device while driving a motor vehicle.