| Garden Street Academy | |
| Native Name: | San Roque High School |
| Established: | 2002 |
| Location: | 2300 Garden Street |
| Grades: | K-12 |
| Type: | Private, Coeducational, Day School, Nonsectarian, Grades K-12, Elementary school, Middle school, Junior High school, High school |
| City: | Santa Barbara |
| Country: | United States |
| Zipcode: | 93105 |
| Athletics: | Private School Athletic League |
| Colors: | Purple and Gold |
| Mascot: | Comets |
Garden Street Academy was a K-12 independent school located in Santa Barbara, California, United States. Garden Street was founded as a K-6 school in 2002 and was created under the paradigm that a focus on social emotional learning is critical to academic achievement. Within two years, the Middle School program was added, followed by the Upper School in 2005. The campus offers classes on a historic site on the Upper Eastside of Santa Barbara, encompassing eleven acres (4.5 hectares). Classes range from 10-20 students with an approximate student-teacher ratio of 8:1.
Garden Street Academy suspended their educational programs for the 2020-2021 school year and later closed due to the impact of COVID-19. The former building the school was located at was later auctioned for $16.7 Million[1] [2]
Garden Street Academy began in 2002 under the name San Roque School, located at 3214 Calle Cedro in the San Roque neighborhood of Santa Barbara. It began on a site where a Catholic school of that same name had existed since 1936. The original San Roque School was for families who were parishioners at the Santa Barbara Mission. When that Catholic school (known at the time as St. Anthony's Seminary) was faced with closing its doors in 2002, the founder of Garden Street Academy made an offer to continue the use of the site as a K-6 educational institution that would offer an optional Catholic education class in honor of the history of the site. An arrangement was made and Garden Street Academy operated a non-denominational, independent elementary and then middle school there for nearly a decade, until the present location on Garden Street became available for purchase. The historic site on Garden Street was the original home of San Roque Catholic School, which began there in early 1900s before its move to the site at 3214 Calle Cedro in the San Roque neighborhood. In 2011, Garden Street Academy moved its entire K-12 program to 2300 Garden Street, where it has its own campus on Mission Creek, adjacent to the Santa Barbara Mission and Natural History Museum.
Part of the curriculum includes an internship program with local agencies, businesses and non-profits, including the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum, the Unity Shoppe, law offices and architectural firms, among many other organizations. Upper School students are required to participate in these activities each Wednesday, for 5–6 hours during the school day. As a result, students receive dynamic, real world experiences during school hours. In conjunction with this internship program is a requirement for Upper School students to complete 200 hours of community service work during the fours years prior to graduation.
The Upper School has a collaborative relationship with another small school in the city for CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) sports including Boys' Basketball, Girls' Volleyball and Boys' Soccer. Lower and Middle School sports teams have an inclusion policy encouraging all students to play.
Garden Street has performed a number of plays/musicals since it opened. Every year, there is one major production for each of the groups from Lower School through Upper School. Every element in the play is often collaboratively chosen among the students under the direction of the Dramatic Arts Director.
The tuition is $15,000 a year for the Lower School, $16,000 a year for the Middle School and $17,000 for the Upper School, which is approximately mid-range for private schools in Santa Barbara. To encourage a diverse group of families to join the Garden Street community, financial aid is available. All of the high school graduates have attended or are currently attending college.