About the School

West Valley High School is located in Cottonwood, CA and serves approximately 950 students in a semi-rural setting. It is a school within the Anderson Union High School District, headed by Superintendent Tim Azevedo. West Valley is locally known for its academics and is a California Distinguished School. It is well known for its strong athletic programs and touts its continual efforts to maintain a drug-free campus.

Before West Valley's opening in 1981, Anderson High School found itself unable to expand in size due to topographical constraints, and a new high school had to be built within the district. As a result, the Board of Education approved a tax override measure to be placed on the local ballot. The voters approved the measure, but because of the earlier passage of Proposition 13, special legislation in Sacramento had to be introduced and passed to allow for the tax levy to be utilized for a new school. The bill passed, and land was subsequently purchased through the state's power of eminent domain, and construction of a new high school in Cottonwood ensued.

West Valley High School was dedicated on October 1, 1981. At the dedication ceremony, the Honorable Richard B. Eaton, Shasta County Superior Court Judge, remarked:

"A younger generation can go forward only if it begins, not where its fathers began, but where they finished . . . . The public school presents, in effect, a conducted tour to the frontiers of present knowledge, after which the student must break his own trail into the unknown . . . . [It is] my high honor and privilege to dedicate West Valley High School . . . in the name of those goals to whose service a public school should most fittingly be dedicated . . . to truth, to freedom, and to equality.

During West Valley's first year, it had no senior class. The students who would have comprised West Valley's senior class preferred instead to finish their high school education at Anderson High School.

The first varsity football coach was Lewis Ayotte. Local legend has it that he chose the cardinal and gold colors because he was a longtime fan of the University of Southern California. This may have kept with a district Pac-10 theme as West Valley's rival, Anderson High School, dons the colors of the University of California and uses the younger version of its mascot.

West Valley's varsity football team did not win a single game for the first three years of the school's existence, reportedly tying a California state record. In 1984, West Valley finally achieved its first victory, defeating arch-rival Anderson High School. The school's record in football has improved significantly in recent times, and includes a Division 1 section title in 2004.

When it was founded, West Valley became part of the West Side League (WSL). The league at that time included: Corning, Gridley, Orland, West Valley, and Willows High Schools. Later, it became part of the Northern Athletic League (NAL) which includes: Anderson, Central Valley, Corning, Lassen, West Valley, and Yreka High Schools.

In 1987, no one was allowed to wear shorts at school, yet female students were allowed to wear mini-skirts. As a result, a number of the male students one Spring day chose to wear mini-skirts to school in protest. The protest was broadcast on local television that evening and a story was published in Redding's Record Searchlight newspaper the next day.

In 2008, publication of the school's award-winning newspaper, The Eagle Examiner, was discontinued. After a run of almost three decades, interrupted only once in 2005, principal Karl Stemmler cited a lack of interest evidenced by declining enrollment in the school's Journalism class.