Ridgewood High School is a four-year public high school serving residential suburbs in New Port Richey, Florida on the Gulf of Mexico. It is part of the Pasco County Public School System in Pasco County, Florida. The school was founded in 1978 as a junior high school with the intent of it becoming the third high school in western Pasco County.As of the 2014-15 school year, the school had an enrollment of 1,133 students and 73.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 15.5:1. There were 787 students (69.5% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 98 (8.6% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.HistoryThe Pasco County School Board approved creation of a new junior high school north of the City of New Port Richey in response to population growth in the area during the 1970s, with the expectation that the school would ultimately become west Pasco's third high school. Superintendent Thomas Weightman had Ridgewood built to senior high specifications and purchased extra land near the school for the future expansion and conversion. The school was built for $3.2 million and opened in 1978. Wendell L. Krinn became the first principal of the school and would serve in that position for 20 years. The St. Petersburg Times proclaimed Ridgewood, "The new home of education" in Pasco County because of its state of the art facilities and unique architecture. Rowe Holmes Associates designed the main building of Ridgewood High School after the Tampa Bay Center in Tampa, Florida, with its courtyard, high ceilings, and second floor overlooking the building.
