The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is Mountain View, south of Palo Alto and north of Sunnyvale and Los Altos. Most of the Peninsula is occupied by San Mateo County, between San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, and including the cities and towns of Atherton, Belmont, Brisbane, Burlingame, Colma, Daly City, East Palo Alto, El Granada, Foster City, Hillsborough, Half Moon Bay, La Honda, Loma Mar, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Millbrae, Pacifica, Palo Alto, Pescadero, Portola Valley, Redwood City, San Bruno, San Carlos, San Mateo, South San Francisco, and Woodside.
San Mateo County, officially the County of San Mateo, is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City is the county seat, and the third most populated city following Daly City and San Mateo. San Mateo County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA MSA, Silicon Valley, and is part of the San Francisco Bay Area, the nine counties bordering San Francisco Bay. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula. San Francisco International Airport is located in the northeastern area of the county and is approximately 7 miles (11 km) south of the city and county limits of San Francisco, even though the airport itself is assigned a San Francisco postal address. The county's built-up areas are mostly suburban, and are home to several corporate campuses.
Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; and Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west. It had 33,780 residents at the 2020 United States census. It is home to the corporate headquarters of Meta, and is where Google, Roblox Corporation and Round Table Pizza were founded. The train station holds the record as the oldest continually operating train station in California. It is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over 25 have earned a bachelor's degree or higher.
East Palo Alto is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of East Palo Alto was 30,034. It is situated on the San Francisco Peninsula, roughly halfway between the cities of San Francisco and San Jose. To the north and east is the San Francisco Bay, to the west is the city of Menlo Park, and to the south the city of Palo Alto. Despite being called "East" Palo Alto, the city is directly north of Palo Alto. While often incorrectly assumed to be part of the city of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto has always been a separate entity since its founding as an unincorporated community and its incorporation in July 1983. It is also in San Mateo County, while Palo Alto is in Santa Clara County. The two cities are separated only by San Francisquito Creek and, largely, the Bayshore Freeway. The revitalization projects in 2000, and high income high-tech professionals moving into new developments, including employees from Google and Facebook, have begun to slowly eliminate the historically wide cultural and economic differences between the two cities. East Palo Alto and Palo Alto share both telephone area codes and postal ZIP codes.
North Fair Oaks is a census-designated place and an unincorporated area located in San Mateo County, California adjacent to Redwood City, Atherton, and Menlo Park. As of the 2020 census the area had a total population of 14,027. Because of the large number of residents from one Mexican state the area is also known as Little Michoacán. The larger area including North Fair Oaks and adjacent parts of Redwood City has a large Latino population and is known locally as Little Mexico. The neighborhood is distinctive, as it is one out of only three communities in San Mateo County that have a majority Hispanic population.
Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately 27 miles (43 km) south of San Francisco, and 24 miles (39 km) northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a port for lumber and other goods. The county seat of San Mateo County in the heart of Silicon Valley, Redwood City is home to several global technology companies including Oracle, Electronic Arts, Evernote, Box, and Informatica. The city's population was 84,292 according to the 2020 census. The Port of Redwood City is the only deepwater port on San Francisco Bay south of San Francisco.
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It has a council–manager system of government. The population of the town was 5,309 at the 2020 census.
Area code 650 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It was split from area code 415 on August 2, 1997, and includes most of San Mateo County, part of San Francisco, and the northwestern portion of Santa Clara County including Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos.
Menlo-Atherton High School is a four-year public high school secondary school located in Atherton, California. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.
Carlmont High School is a public high school in Belmont, California, United States serving grades 9–12 as part of the Sequoia Union High School District. Carlmont is a California Distinguished School.
Bay Area Quiz Kids is an academic quiz public-access television show for San Francisco Bay Area high schools. From the start in 1999 it has been hosted by Brad Friedman, the Drama Director at San Mateo High School.
The Ravenswood City School District is a public school district headquartered in East Palo Alto, California, US. The district, in the San Francisco Bay Area, serves the communities of East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park. Students from this school district who continue on with public schooling matriculate to the Sequoia Union High School District. In 2008-09 it served over 4,500 students. In 2019-20 student enrollment declined to approximately 3,200 with further enrollment declines projected. In the 2021-22 school year, student enrollment is reported as approximately 2,800.
One of the six Boy Scouts of America councils that serves the San Francisco Bay area, the Pacific Skyline Council was founded in 1940 as the Stanford Area Council (#031). In 1994, the Stanford Area Council merged with the San Mateo County Council (#020) to form the current council which serves youth in San Mateo County and northern Santa Clara county.
Ravenswood High School was a public high school located in East Palo Alto, California, United States. Opened in 1958, it served the East Palo Alto area of San Mateo County until its closure in 1976. In 1958 its enrollment was 629 students. During the existence of Ravenswood, East Palo Alto was the low-income area in the shadow of its more affluent neighbors Menlo Park, Atherton and Palo Alto. The city of Palo Alto, while adjacent and sharing the same zip code, is a completely different city in Santa Clara County. Ravenswood was part of the Sequoia Union High School District, which also serves the southern San Mateo County cities of Belmont, Redwood City, San Carlos, and Woodside.
San Carlos High School was a high school operated by the Sequoia Union High School District in San Carlos, California, United States, from 1960 until 1982. Originally founded due to increasing enrollment across Belmont, San Carlos, and Redwood City, by 1982, the high school suffered from low enrollment due to racial protests between local students and students bused in from East Palo Alto, which led the district to close the site. The campus was demolished in 1988, and is today the site of Highlands Park and a subdivision of luxury homes in the San Carlos hills.
The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California, United States, which serves the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as "The Peninsula". The system has dozens of branches in local communities and at various area community colleges, a bookmobile, and automated book kiosks called Library-a-Go-Go.
The Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program is a 1985 settlement of a lawsuit in which school districts surrounding the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto, California agreed to accept up to 135 minority students entering grades Kindergarten through second grade from within the boundaries of the Ravenswood City School District. The surrounding school districts accepting transfer students under this settlement include:
Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) is a high school athletic conference in California, part of the CIF Central Coast Section of the California Interscholastic Federation. It comprises 17 high schools generally around San Mateo County, California. There are also nine smaller schools, designated supplemental members, of which four are located in Santa Clara County. The seventeen sports offered are divided into different divisions depending on the strength of the school's program.
TIDE Academy, commonly shortened to TIDE, is a small public high school located in eastern Menlo Park, California, United States and the newest school within the Sequoia Union High School District. Founded in 2019 with a freshmen class of 102 students, the school features specialized curriculum intended to prepare students for STEM careers. Despite drawing students from across the district's borders for its unique curricular emphasis, the school is officially neither a magnet school, nor a charter school. TIDE is a comprehensive ("traditional") high school with the full range of curriculum, clubs, sports, and administrative support as the larger high schools.
