The ballot measure had two parts, expanding the district governing board from five to seven members and requiring trustees to live in the areas they represent.

Former Fresno Unified trustee Nancy Richardson won the Sunnyside seat in a June 1990 election and began serving her four-year term.

Overcrowding at existing Fresno schools was a very large concern, and a new campus had a chance to alleviate that issue.

[7] Marinovich served as school principal until 2004, when he moved to an administration role inside Fresno Unified.

[7] A focus of the academy is to increase the number of minority and disadvantaged students who graduate from high school and college, and pursue careers in health and medicine.

Their work is shown on the schools daily broadcast and sometimes on a local network affiliate or public television.

In 2019, the head of the Video Production Academy, Katie McQuone, won the Milken Educator Award for her leadership.

[13] In 2014, the varsity boys' soccer team, coached by Mike Sosa, won the school's first section championship, beating El Diamonte.

The school is named for the neighborhood of Fresno that it serves, anchored by the Sunnyside Country Club, established in 1906.

Architectural firm Wolf, Lang and Christopher led the design effort with Fresno-based Temple-Anderson-Moore on board as associate architects.