YHS: Full circle in 25 years

Twenty-five years ago this year, on September 9, 1976, Yosemite High School opened its doors to serve the students from the mountain communities of Ahwahnee, Bass Lake, Coarsegold, Oakhurst and Raymond.

Between 300 and 400 students entered the school that first year. Twenty-five years later, there are more than 1,100 students enrolled.

As Eastern Madera County grew, so grew Yosemite High School.

This special edition to the Sierra Star takes a look back over the past 25 years through interviews with people who have been closely associated with the school, some since its very beginning.

Yosemite High School became a reality because of the desires of the area residents to keep their children from riding the equivalent of once around the world each year they attended high school in eastern Fresno County.

The communities rallied together and won court battles and legislative battles to earn the right to vote to form the local high school district. The residents voted overwhelmingly to form a district separate from Sierra Joint Union High School District and they voted again later to pass a bond to build the new school.

Several thousand students have graduated from YHS over the past 25 years, many of whom remain in the mountain area as businessmen, professional people and parents of YHS students.

More than a dozen of the graduates have returned to YHS as employees, teaching side by side with their former teachers or working in other capacities in the school.

The residents rallied to make YHS a reality and they have continued to support the high school in numerous ways. Without the continual support of the local businesses and service organizations, YHS students would not have many of the opportunities they now enjoy.

The voters within the Yosemite Joint Union High School District voted in 1998 to pass another bond to expand and modernize the YHS campus. That project is currently on going. Residents are invited to view the new and remodeled facilities at 10 a.m. Saturday, November 17, as the school formally observes its anniversary.

On this special occasion, local residents and employees of Yosemite High School will pause to reflect over the past quarter century and the changes that have been made, both in the mountain communities and at YHS.

More importantly, however, they will use this occasion to also look ahead to the next quarter century and beyond. They will think of the challenges that lay ahead, they will think of the opportunities that will present themselves to the students and they will look with anticipation to the continued growth and continued excellence of the school.

Staff members and those who helped form the high school will be guests of honor at a special luncheon Saturday afternoon, November 17, that has been made possible through donations from local businesses. People will have an opportunity to renew old friendships and visit with their friends and co-workers. They will enjoy a time of looking back over the years at Yosemite High School.

Valinda Clevenger, one of the original staff members at YHS and now the school’s head counselor, recently summed up the past 25 years: “We have come full circle, from a new, non-accredited high school to a California Distinguished School.” Then she echoed what many people say, “Above all else, our students have always been wonderful.”