Pescadero Middle & High School is a small public high school on a stretch of San Mateo County called the “South Coast.” While there are no incorporated towns on the South Coast and you won’t find the South Coast on any map, there is a distinct personality, attitude and way of life adopted by the people who live here. Most students live in the small towns of La Honda, Pescadero, Loma Mar and San Gregorio.
Pescadero has always been and continues to be the hub of activity and commerce on the South Coast with a rich, local history. Located on the Rancho Pescadero Mexican land grant, the former pasture was given to Juan José Gonzalez in 1833. Alexander Moore (1823–1902), an American pioneer, built his home in Pescadero Valley in 1853. The home still stands in the center of town. The rich, fertile soil of the valley attracted other settlers, and by 1869, Pescadero was an established fishing and farming village with a store, post office, hotel and schoolhouse.
The small town of La Honda is 15 miles of winding, mountainous roads away from Pescadero. Robert Stone wrote in the June 14, 2004 issue of the New Yorker magazine that “La Honda was a strange place, a spot on the road that descended from the western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains toward the artichoke fields on the coast. Situated mostly within the redwood forest, it had the quality of a raw Northwestern logging town, transported to suburban San Francisco. In spirit, it was a world away from the woodsy gentility of the other Peninsula towns nearby.” Folksy, neighborly and small. A history of ranching, farming and logging which is now evolving into a mix of artists, writers, children, retirees and Silicon Valley commuters bound together by their love of nature.
Pescadero High School first opened in 1922 in a tall white structure in the center of town. In 1925, a new high school was built on the main residential road in town — North Street. This small campus, nestled within a mix of residential and farming neighbors operated until a new, more modern facility was built on a tract of farmland donated by a local family in 1960, the location of the present day high school.
Pescadero High School draws from an area of over 160 square miles from coastal frontage to the ridge tops of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The high school is intricately woven into the fabric of the community and plays an important role. Serving as the center of education, athletic and cultural events, emergency services, entertainment and community “play space,” PHS is an indicator of the health and future of the towns it serves. As community leader Catherine Peery recently commented in a news article about the small size of the school, “It is absolutely critical. If we don’t have a high school we are going to dry up and blow away.”