Boarding School in California - Middle & Upper Schools

Dunn School:
Dunn School is located twenty eight miles northeast of Santa Barbara, in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley, California and is a college preparatory school with a focus on developing each student's academic and personal potential. We believe that the depth and quality of the relationship between students and teachers is central to the process of education. Hence, Dunn offers small classes and a unique advisor program. Our students meet with their faculty advisors daily to address academic or personal issues. Our academic curriculum is complimented by our visual and performing arts programs, co-curricular athletics, and outdoor education. Dunn School is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and is one of only seven private independent schools accredited by the Association for Experiential Education.

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Middle school and upper school, average 12 students per class, student to faculty ratio is 5:1

Since his accession to the Headmaster's role in 1996, Jim Munger has been very busy wearing several hats, one of which has been the wizard's cone of forecasting the future of Dunn. Mr. Munger and the current Board of Trustees have a vision of "The Dunn Village" of the future. This village consists of sub-clusters of buildings, including North, South, East and West Faculty Villages, surrounding the "Student Village" of dormitories around a grassy common — Tony Dunn's first soccer field. Of highest priority, Mr. Munger lists a Student Center, new modern gymnasium, and a renovation of the present gym into an auditorium/theater which can accommodate the entire Dunn community. There will also be living quarters for families of the campus maintenance crew. The sacred red barn would be brought up to county building code, while the current office/classroom block would be demolished and new classrooms built elsewhere. The bomb shelter would be dug up and perhaps a wing added to the adjacent Santa Rita schoolhouse. This plan visualizes enrollment of the Middle and Upper School at around 365, a far cry from the original 9 graduates of 1961.