Arvada West High School was contracted in 1961 and opened in 1963.

[4] By the late 1990s, Arvada West was serving so many students it was on a split schedule.

Ralston Valley High School, which opened in 2000, relieved the overcrowding.

[5] The school's athletic teams, known as the Arvada West Wildcats, compete in CHSAA class 5A in the Jefferson County League.

Teams are fielded in interscholastic competition in baseball, basketball, cheerleading and poms, cross country, football, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, and volleyball.