The school sits in El Paso's Lower Valley only a few hundred yards from the Rio Grande and Mexico.

Riverside is one of few high schools in El Paso to achieve the recognized rating from the Texas Education Agency.

Also, the school has never failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress outlined by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

In 1993, Chicano activist César Chávez visited the school to talk about his then boycott on grapes to protest the use of pesticides in the fields where poor, Hispanic farm workers labored.

Riverside is currently undergoing heavy renovations that include the construction of a field house for athletic teams and a new fine arts wing for music and theater instruction.