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El Cerrito High School

El Cerrito High School is a four-year public high school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. It is located on Ashbury Avenue in El Cerrito, California, United States and serves students from El Cerrito, a portion of eastern Richmond (east of Interstate 80 and south of San Pablo Dam Road) and the unincorporated communities of East Richmond Heights and Kensington.

As of the 2023–24 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,476 students and 66.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 22.36:1. There were 480 students (32.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 104 (7% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.

Overview

The original main school building was built in the late 1930s as a WPA project. The school opened to students on January 6, 1941.

Student population quickly outgrew the facilities, and the campus became a collection of small, outlying buildings. As concerns grew over the building's safety and structural stability, plans were made for more integrated buildings. In the summer of 2005, demolition of the old campus began. By 2007, the campus had been demolished, and the terrain was leveled in preparation for reconstruction. During the reconstruction, all classes were held in temporary buildings located south of the campus on the former baseball field. The new campus opened on January 5, 2009.

El Cerrito's student body is 35.6% African-American, 23.7% Hispanic, 17.2% Asian, 16.7% Caucasian, and 2.5% Filipino. Many of these students are actually mixed race, making El Cerrito a very diverse high school. Half of students come from families with a low enough income to qualify for free or reduced price lunches under the National School Lunch Act. Many students come from the neighboring city of Richmond, which is also served by the West Contra Costa Unified School District.

Art programs

Bands

The Gaucho Band may have become the first high-school band to be nationally televised when they stood in for Ohio State University Marching Band at their game against Berkeley at Memorial Stadium on October 3, 1953. The Gauchos then adapted and adopted Ohio's fight song, "Across the Field," as "Down the Field."

Notable alumni

Athletics

Entertainment

Business

Academia

References

External links