Sonoma Academy is a nonprofit,

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

coed Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

college preparatory high school located in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa ( Spanish for " Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, in the North Bay region of the Bay Area in California. Its estimated 2019 population was 178,127. It is the largest city in California's Wine Country and ...

in the United States. It is the only independent high school in

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa. It is to the north of Marin County and the south of Mendocino ...

. Founding Head of School Janet Durgin won a 2015 ''North Bay Business Journal'' Nonprofit Leadership Award.

Academics

In 2016, 85% of teachers had an advanced degree. Sonoma Academy has a very robust STEM program, with 5 math and science related AP courses. Students are required to take one of three foreign languages: Spanish, French or Mandarin. They must also take at least one class in the visual, musical or performing arts.

Extra-Curriculars

Sonoma Academy has 10 varsity athletic teams which compete in the NCS (North Coast Sectionals) League including soccer, baseball, basketball & tennis, as well as 4 junior varsity athletic teams. 57% of the student body participated in an organized sport during the 2015–16 school year. The Sonoma Academy baseball team made national news in the spring of 2016 when the team tossed a national record 6 consecutive no hitters. Students have the opportunity to participate in two main artistic performances each year: typically a musical in the fall and a theatrical performance in the spring. Past fall performances have included

Urinetown ''Urinetown: The Musical'' is a satirical comedy musical that premiered in 2001, with music by Mark Hollmann, lyrics by Hollmann and Greg Kotis, and book by Kotis. It satirizes the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility, populism, bu ...

Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' ( W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. 1387 The play ...

and American Idiot. In addition, many theater and music classes put on showcases at the end of each semester. Students can be involved in parliamentary debate, policy debate, and other speech events. Debaters from SA won the 2014 Jon Schamber Invitational Tournament at the University of the Pacific, and 4 teams have gone to the Tournament of Champions. In 2016, the varsity parliamentary team was ranked third in the nation.

Sexual Harassment Scandal

In June 2020, seven alumni of Sonoma Academy publicly accused the school of neglecting to address student reports that a long-time faculty member, Marco Morrone, had sexually harassed and groomed them. The victims launched a website under the name The Athena Project, and their claims were published in The Press Democrat. In response to their reports, Sonoma Academy hired the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton to investigate the alumni's claims. Lawyers from Debevoise & Plimpton interviewed 133 people and reviewed 61,000 documents for their report. Their report concluded that “Morrone engaged in inappropriate boundary crossing with at least 34 students between the classes of 2005 and 2021 while he was employed by SA.” The report also stated, "Debevoise concludes that SA administrators showed a pattern of dismissing students’ concerns, at least in some circumstances implicitly blaming them for the uncomfortable interactions they reported, and often accepting Morrone’s version of events without any challenge.” After over a year of engagement with Sonoma Academy's representatives through a restorative justice process, the Athena Project announced in December 2022 that they planned to file a lawsuit against the school to avoid the statute of limitations barring their potential claims. They invited other victims/survivors to join their complaint and retained Los Angeles law firm Allred, Maroko, & Goldberg to represent them. On December 30, 2022, twelve women filed suit in Sonoma County Superior Court against Sonoma Academy, two former teachers, and two former administrators. The suit alleges negligence on the part of Sonoma Academy, as well as “cover-up of incidents of sexual assault and sexual harassment of...female students by...faculty and male students.”

Campus Dogs

Sonoma Academy has many "campus dogs". There is Reba, a black Labrador retriever who is an emotional therapy dog; Josie, a yellow Labrador retriever; Bento, a fawn pug; Jojo, a mixed-breed terrier; Freckles, a Pomeranian; Maggie, a

goldendoodle The Goldendoodle, or more simply, the Doodle, is a designer dog created by crossbreeding a Golden Retriever and a Poodle. First widely bred in the 1990s, they are bred in three different sizes—each corresponding to the size of Poodle used as a p ...

; Jasper, a Havanese mix; Panxho, a miniature poodle; Moby, a Boston terrier; Charlotte, a miniature poodle mix; Panda, a black lab; and Champ, the unofficial "Head of School."

References

External links

* {{authority control Educational institutions established in 2001 High schools in Santa Rosa, California Private high schools in California Preparatory schools in California 2001 establishments in California