When it opened in 1955, Hillsdale High School was awarded the School Design Award from the
American Institute of Architects. It served as the prototype for Bay Area high schools, with indoor/outdoor passages, landscaped courtyards, and skylights in classrooms. The design is credited to
John Lyon Reid. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, teachers Greg Jouriles and Sue Bedford developed and implemented an integrated humanities curriculum, scheduling social studies and English classes back-to-back. The extended periods were first rolled out to first-year honors students in 1989, followed by a parallel program implemented by Christine Del Gaudio and Marty Kongsle for the remaining first-year students in 1992. 1994 marked the start of the annual Battle at Dawn, a re-enactment of the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle for first-year students at HHS as part of their studies about
World War I. In 1996, HHS proposed implementing a senior exhibition as a graduation requirement to pass fourth-year English classes. Students would have to defend a fifteen-page thesis before a three-member panel for their senior exhibition, which drew attention from parents concerned their children would not pass. an approach championed by
Linda Darling-Hammond, who had introduced HHS faculty to the concept during a professional development day in January 2002. Between their second and third years, students are reorganized into three upper-division houses (Cusco, Jakarta, and Timbuktu), where they remain for their final two years. Students take elective and advanced placement courses outside their houses. On August 24, 2009, two
pipe bombs were detonated in a hallway of Hillsdale High School during the beginning of the day's classes. No one was injured. Nobody was injured from the explosions. Alex Youshock, then a 17-year-old former student of the school, was held by staff members. Youshock was convicted for the attack and sentenced to nearly 25 years of prison. ==Campus==