The school's official mascot is the "Farmer", which dates back to Hayward's period as an agricultural center.

It served students from Hayward, Castro Valley, San Lorenzo, Redwood, Palomares, and Stonybrook.

As late as the 1960s, students still rode their horses to school and tied them to hitching posts.

As the number of students exceeded the campus' limit, the site was expanded from 10 to 30 acres (120,000 m2).

The architecture for the new buildings included ionic columns, low-pitched roofs, and friezes of goods.