Marymount of Santa Barbara

Updated on Oct 18, 2023

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Marymount of Santa Barbara is an independent, coeducational day school, serving approximately 210 students from junior kindergarten through eighth grade. Located above the historic Santa Barbara Mission, on the Santa Barbara Riviera on a 10-acre campus, the school has a well-established reputation.

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History

Founded in 1938 as a secondary school for girls by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, today Marymount is one of Santa Barbara’s foremost independent schools welcoming families with diverse backgrounds and beliefs. Marymount seeks to instill knowledge, cultivate values, and foster community. In 1942, Marymount of Santa Barbara moved from Montecito to a new campus in the city’s historic Riviera district overlooking the Santa Barbara Mission. Formerly an estate known as “El Cerrito,” the new campus offered considerable space and amenities, including extensive garden areas, graceful buildings in the Old Spanish style and a swimming pool that continue to be enjoyed by Marymount students today. In the late sixties, the Religious of the Sacred Heart announced that changes in their mission would force them to close Marymount of Santa Barbara’s doors in 1971. That same year, a group of dedicated parents, eager to keep the school’s tradition of excellence alive, decided to form an independent non-profit corporation. Marymount of Santa Barbara became an elementary and middle day school, run by trustees to this day. The campus when the school became entirely coeducational in 1976. The faculty also transitioned, bringing with them nonreligious backgrounds. Founded as a Catholic school, Marymount's students are now drawn from every faith tradition. Today, Marymount students have the option of the Kaleidoscope Program, which explores ten major world religions, or the Catholic studies tract.