The school opened in school year of 1958-1959. The originally proposed mascot name was the Sandia Satans, which prompted negative reactions from the surrounding community. Thereafter, the mascot name was changed to Matadors. A matador sculpture was placed in the student commons area in 1961. In the late 1970s, the school reached a record student population for the state of New Mexico.This led to the approval and construction of a newer facility, La Cueva High School, in the early 1980s.