Why Windsor?

Windsor High School welcomes every student into a small learning community where high expectations are upheld through differentiated instruction using systems like Restorative Practices, AVID, Mastery-based Grading, California Partnership Academies, and Career Technical Education. Within these small learning communities, rigorous coursework is enriched by opportunities including collaborative exploration, career-based partnerships, hands-on learning experiences, and theme-based cores. With an unparalleled variety of student choice, WHS graduates are uniquely prepared for life, college and career. 

A Brief History of Windsor High School

For decades, high school students from Windsor were bussed to Healdsburg to attend high school. But in the early 1990s, community leaders from the newly formed Town of Windsor envisioned a progressive new high school which would become the pride of the community. The vision for Windsor High School is now a reality as a result of the efforts of these dynamic leaders and the many parents, teachers and support staff who helped to create the school.

On May 8, 1991, the Windsor Union School District (grades K-8) received a petition from Windsor residents requesting unification of the District to serve its students from kindergarten through 12th grade. In April 1992, Windsor voters overwhelmingly passed the ballot measure to unify the District at which time Windsor began the formal process of separating the high school students from Healdsburg Unified School District. In August 1995, Windsor High School opened with 160 - 9th grade students in 7 portable classrooms and a construction trailer serving as the administration building. Windsor High School students shared their original campus with 5th -8th grade students from Windsor Middle School on the current Windsor Creek Elementary School site.

During the 1996-1997 school year, the elementary school facilities could no longer house the growing number of high school students so students were temporarily bussed between three locations including Luther Burbank Center and Windsor Business Park while construction efforts were underway to complete more appropriate housing for high school students. In 1997, a new middle school was opened on Brooks Road and housed 350 students (Class of 1999 and 2000) while the District battled opponents to the selected site for the permanent high school campus who claimed that the campus was too close to the Sonoma County Airport.

After several years of delay, the permanent campus for Windsor High School was ready for occupancy in the fall of 2000. Amidst local television cameras, the first Windsor High School graduating class, 99 graduates of the Class of 1999, walked across the stage at Luther Burbank Center to receive their diplomas. Under the leadership of the District's Superintendent, Ian Kirkpatrick, and its first principal, Jeff Harding, the Windsor High School students were true pioneers in the tradition of the early Gold Rush community that originally formed the Windsor Township of the 1850's.