[7] The school was named for a local civic leader whose family has engaged in cattle ranching in the Santa Maria area for several generations.

Righetti High School is located on a 37 acres (15 ha) campus on a north-facing slope overlooking the Santa Maria Valley in the Los Padres foothills.

Through the south-central side of the campus, the three classroom blocks are arranged in a line from west to east and consist of rooms that surround grassy courtyards.

The Warrior Gym, the amphitheater-style Greek Theater, the quad, the career center, and the cafeteria all lie in a north–south arrangement roughly perpendicular to the three main classroom blocks.

Every permanent classroom on campus has been remodeled with new heat/circulation, flooring, ceilings, roofing, asbestos abatement, upgraded data ports, and ‘teaching walls’.

With the approval of local voters, bond C2004 has provided RHS with realigned parking lots and electrical upgrades, a new synthetic track and turf field in Warrior Stadium, renovation of the Industrial Arts Building, two new classrooms, one of which is the wrestling room.