History

The first one-room schoolhouse was built in Paso Robles in 1877.  The school district itself was not founded until 1887 with a tax election that funded Paso Robles' first main schoolhouse on 17th Street, built in 1888.  The first school was too small, and so a second school soon followed, also built on 17th Street. 

Because of the growing population of children in the Paso Robles area, these school sites quickly became outgrown, so a new "Paso Robles School" was built.  This three-story masonry building was the first high school in San Luis Obispo County and served Paso Robles students until damaged in the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.

Plans were then made to build two new schools.  The grammar school (which burned in 1953 and was replaced by the "Primary School" now called Marie Bauer Elementary) and a new Paso Robles High School (pictured), which was built in 1924 on the corner of 24th and Spring.  A middle school (now Glen Speck Elementary) and two other elementary schools (Georgia Brown and Winifred Pifer) were built in the 1940s.

The community continued to grow and soon outgrew these older facilities.  Thus, in 1981, a new high school campus was built at the current site, 801 Niblick Road, and the old high school became a middle school (George Flamson Middle School).  As the district continued to grow, Bauer and Speck were combined into a single elementary site, and Winifred Pifer was moved into a more modern campus in 1995.  Other new schools were built: Virginia Peterson Elementary, Pat Butler Elementary, and in 2000, Kermit King Elementary.  Flamson Middle School was joined by Daniel Lewis Middle School in 1996, which was built on the old Winifred Pifer Elementary site.  On December 22, 2003, the San Simeon Earthquake damaged Flamson Middle School to the point that it was unusable and was replaced by the current new main building.

The middle school students, upon promotion, are joined by students from the San Miguel and Pleasant Valley School Districts in attending Paso Robles High School.  

The high school has produced numerous higher academic scholars, military academy appointees, college graduates, business owners, politicians, and teachers.  Paso Robles High School has a proud tradition and is strongly supported by the community, many of them Paso grads.  The school's mascot is, and always will be, the Bearcat.