Kern County High School District

The Kern High School District (KHSD) is located in Kern County, California at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. The KHSD's District Office is located in the city of Bakersfield. The Kern High School District is California's largest grades 9-12 high school district with 18 comprehensive high schools serving more than 40,000 students.

The population of Kern County was about 10,000 when a General Election was held in Bakersfield on November 8, 1892. When the ballots were tabulated, 1,274 residents had voted for, and 286 voted against, establishing the county’s first high school. Kern County High School opened January 12, 1893.

Classes were held in two rooms on the second floor of a building at the corner of Truxtun and L Streets. There were 32 students in attendance. The school was the responsibility of the Kern County Superintendent of Schools, who at that time was Alfred Harrell, later to be the founder and publisher of The Bakersfield Californian newspaper. In its second year of operation, the school held its first graduation ceremony. A total of three students graduated.

The most recent estimate of Kern County’s population provided by the US Census Bureau put the county population in 2015 at more than 880,000. What is now called the Kern High School District (KHSD) has a student enrollment of more than 40,000 students. The District now includes 18 comprehensive campuses, five continuation schools, one Adult School, one Regional Occupational Center and numerous Special Education sites. The KHSD is the largest 9-12 high school district in California. The number of students who have graduated from the KHSD in the past about 123 years totals more than 200,000.
Via KHSD