Vaca Valley & Clear Lake Railroad officials gave the name Esperanza ("hope" in Spanish) to their new town site in 1888, but when the post office was established in 1890 the name had to be changed because there was already an Esperanza in Tulare County. In 1893, Yolo County's second high school was established in the town of Esparto, Esparto High School, but a building for it was not built until 1918. The Vaca Valley Railroad began in 1937 to remove track from Rumsey to Esparto, stopping train service northwest of Esparto in 1941. The passenger service from Esparto to Elmira was officially discontinued in 1957. Voters approved the formation of the Esparto Unified School District in 1959-60. Several of the one-room school houses that were consolidated can still be seen locally; the bell out front of Esparto High School is from the Cañon School which can still be seen on State Highway 16 just past the town of Brooks. 

In the 2020 United States Census, Esparto had a population of 3,572 which represents a 14% increase from the 2010 Census of 3,108. 47.3% of people in Esparto identified themselves as Hispanic/Latino, compared to 99% in Madison and 00% in Guinda. 

Esparto High School is the only comprehensive high school in the Esparto Unified School District (EUSD). In addition to the high school, the district comprises of an elementary school, a middle school and a continuation high school. The Esparto Unified School District is a small, rural, agricultural district in Yolo County. 

The EUSD serves the towns of Madison, Esparto, Capay, Brooks, Guinda and Rumsey and has a geographical area of 550 square miles. Agriculture is the largest industry in the area. The largest public employer is UC Davis, with the Cache Creek Casino being the largest private employer in the county. Esparto High School’s campus is the focal point of many of the community’s social and cultural activities. The Capay Almond Festival is an example of the cooperation between the school district and community. The festival begins in the EHS gymnasium where community members enjoy breakfast which is cooked and sponsored by our school’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter. Many of our Career Technical Education Programs work with local agricultural businesses such as farms and  wineries. 

The community may participate in many activities within the town of Esparto and progress up the valley to the activities which end with a craft show and BBQ in Rumsey. During the expanse of the entire event over 20,000 visitors from around the state populate the festival. The school also hosts the local Esparto Jr. Spartans football games which serve more than 100 children ages 8-14. The school's gymnasium is used for community events like open gym basketball, soccer, and volleyball. The school’s auditorium is used for community events such as Friday movie nights and our summer school musical performances. 

The core buildings on the Esparto High School campus were built in the 1940’s with classrooms, shop, and “permanent portable classrooms” added later. These buildings are adequately maintained and clean. In 2001, a new principal’s office and conference room was included in a remodel when the high school’s former library became a computer lab. The high school now uses the Esparto Library, part of the Yolo County Library System, as its school library. In 2004-05, the auditorium was completely refurbished through funding from the local Tribal Mitigation funds. The restoration includes state of the art lighting and sound equipment, and has allowed our theater program to again become an integral part of our curriculum. The auditorium now plays host to the majority of our awards and recognition assemblies and programs. 

In the Fall of 2020 EUSD received a 3.7 million dollar facilities match grant that would be used to build a state of the art classrooms for Culinary and Digital Media classrooms and allow for an extension of our Ag Mechanics project space. We are currently in the process of securing the funds that would allow us to move forward with building the facilities. There have been many technology updates since the last Focus on Learning visitation. Utilizing Local Control Funds and grants, the school has completely moved to 1-to-1 Chromebook student ratio in which the students take their devices home. The district network speed has been steadily increased along with the number of wireless access points has been increased to ensure that teachers can access and utilize the network and technology in their instruction. 

Like most schools in the country COVID impacted the school culture and academic program of Esparto High School. Even with those challenges we have worked hard to expand our academic program in the areas of Career Technical Education and expand our Dual Enrollment opportunities for our students. In the area of CTE classes are part of a series of pathways in Technology, Agriculture Mechanics, Agriculture Science, Digital Arts, Early Childhood Education and Culinary Arts in which we are partnering with local community colleges and industry partners. We currently offer 9 courses that are Dual Enrolled with Woodland Community College. For the last two years staff at EHS had been working to create a PBIS program and in 2022 we were able to roll out the Spartan Way to our students and school community.