Sarah Birks

Woodside High School

Woodside High School is a fully accredited four-year comprehensive secondary school that has been serving the communities of the mid-peninsula since its opening in 1958. The 34-acre campus lies just east of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is one of four comprehensive campuses in the Sequoia Union High School District. The District's total student population is approximately 8,000. Woodside has approximately 1,850 students (406 seniors) who come from the surrounding communities of Redwood City, Woodside, Portola Valley, and East Palo Alto. Our school community reflects the cultural and socioeconomic makeup of California. The mid-peninsula is an area of great economic diversity containing some of the most affluent and the most economically deprived communities in the state. Just north of Silicon Valley and Stanford University, Woodside High School is influenced greatly by the rapidly evolving business and cultural interests of the region. Students follow a rotating block schedule with classes meeting 39 weeks a year and are 95 minutes in length. Most students are enrolled in six classes. The student to teacher ratio is 26:1. Of the certificated staff of 114, forty-five percent have Master's degrees. Woodside teachers mentor student teachers from Stanford University. The Woodside High School challenge is to provide opportunity that matches privilege. Over the past half-century, Woodside High School has emerged as one of the most dynamic and diverse comprehensive high schools on the San Francisco peninsula. We have been listed in Newsweek Magazine's list of top high schools, and offer one of the most rigorous advanced placement college preparatory programs in the region.